KINGSTON, Jamaica — A public forum to examine alternative approaches to the current public sector wage negotiations will be held on Monday, January 22, at the Hugh Lawson Shearer Trade Union Education Institute(HLSTUEI) on the campus of the University of the West Indies, Mona.

The forum will involve: Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service, Rudyard Spencer; Senior Lecturer in Behavioural Science and General Management at the Mona School of Business and Management (MSBM), Dr Noel Cowell; President of the Jamaica Confederation of Trade Unions (JCTU), Helene Whyte; and General Manager of the Leadership Conservatory, Michael McAnuff Jones.

According to the Head of the HLSTUEI, Danny Roberts, the forum will seek to come up with some practical steps to take, in ensuring that the country avoids the pitfalls of a conjunctive bargaining approach, which could derail the current economic programme.

He noted that studies done in the Caribbean and the United States point to the need for a deeper and more inclusive approach to public sector collective bargaining, which goes beyond wage negotiations to the administration of workplace practices and policies that engage workers and provide a sense of equity and fairness.

The approach to this forum will be to try and provide a framework to address the current wage negotiations, but more importantly, to ensure that such a framework can result in creating value and mitigating harm in the future, Roberts said.