KINGSTON, Jamaica — Contract drivers for the Jamaica Fire Brigade (JFB) staged a peaceful protest Thursday morning at the organisation’s Hagley Park Road headquarters in Kingston over poor treatment, wages and discrepancies with their contracts.

The drivers said they demand urgent attention from the JFB and the Ministry of Local Government and Community Development to have their issues resolved.

Speaking with OBSERVER ONLINE, one of the drivers, Michael Tomlinson, shared that over the 13 years he has been employed with the JFB, he has received less than $5,000 increase in his salary.

“We haven’t had any contract, we haven’t had any salary increase, all we are getting is promise, promise, promise. Everybody is saying they feel our pain and nobody is trying to settle our situation with us so we are tired and we are fed up,” Tomlinson said.

“Back in the day if you would pay like $150 for lunch, now if you don’t have $700 you can’t get a good lunch and is the same salary from 2012. Same salary, everything gone up, everything gone up. Our children are in high school and every time we have to be borrowing loan, borrowing loan, borrowing loan just to keep our kids in school. It is very hard and we are fed up,” he added.