FORMER Member of Parliament for South Eastern Clarendon Rudyard Spencer has joined the Industrial Disputes Tribunal (IDT) as a deputy chairman.

In that capacity, Spencer, a former president of the Bustamante Industrial Trade Union (BITU), will chair one of several panels of arbitrators employed by the IDT, which falls under the Ministry of Labour and Social Security.

However, the former government minister explained that the appointment to the IDT is a temporary one, while the Government continues to sort out staff issues at its embassy in Berlin, Germany.

“I will be going to the IDT for a short while, after which I should be assigned to Germany. The fact is that both offers came up at the very same time, while I was considering my resignation,” Spencer told the Jamaica Observer last night.

The Berlin embassy is understood to cover diplomatic relations with several other European countries, including the Czech Republic, Republic of Hungary, Republic of Poland, Russian Federation, Slovak Republic, Republic of Serbia and the Republic of Ukraine.

The House of Representatives paid tribute to Spencer February 4 when he announced his resignation, weeks before a by-election was held to replace him. It was stated then that he would be moving to the Jamaican Embassy in Berlin. There is currently no Jamaican ambassador in Berlin.

— Balford Henry