MINISTER of Finance and the Public Service Dr Nigel Clarke has intervened in a dispute between the Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) and Bustamante Industrial Trade Union (BITU), which has been threatening the bank’s operations for several months.

This follows a letter to the minister from BITU president, Senator Kavan Gayle, last month, urging his intervention to avert possible industrial action by the unionised staff.

According to Senator Gayle, there is urgent need for a resolution of the dispute surrounding the delay in completing discussions, submissions and the implementation of salary changes, arising from a KPMG compensation survey report which was commissioned by the bank.

He stated that due to the attrition rate at the bank, some workers have been taking on additional responsibilities without additional compensation.

“The bank is not able to attract or retain the level of staffing it needs to do it work properly, and this is due to the salary level,” Gayle said.

He stated that the union has been informed by the bank’s management that a response being awaited from the ministry is contributing to the delay in reaching a settlement, and has caused the workers to become “agitated and poised to demonstrate their dissatisfaction with the path the bank’s management has chosen to pursue the issues”.

These issues arise from the fact that BOJ has been having challenges over the years in attracting and retaining the skills it requires to carry out important functions.

The union attributes the situation to an “uncompetitive salary structure”, which, it says has led to the loss of experienced skills to competitors in the market.

The union said that, in 2017, BOJ conducted a compensation survey using the services of FocalPoint Consulting Limited. However, those findings were reportedly rejected due to concerns raised by KPMG, who had been acquired to review them.

KPMG was subsequently allowed to conduct the same exercise and their work was completed in late 2017.

But, since then, the BITU says that it has been trying to get the bank to determine and implement the new recommendations without success.

Gayle said that the bank’s most recent position is that it is still awaiting instructions from the ministry of finance, in order to proceed. But this has caused the cancellation of several meetings between the parties, leading to an atmosphere of “frustration, agitation and restiveness” at the bank.

He asked the finance minister to use his office to lend some assistance in expediting the matter, to prevent any industrial action by the workers.

The Jamaica Observer has also learnt that, in addition to the comparative pay issue, the parties have also been unable to settle on a new labour agreement for the workers.

The Observer also understands that Dr Clarke met with some representatives of the workers last weekend to clarify the issue.