VETERAN trade unionist Vincent Morrison has expressed disappointment at the veiled threat against National Water Commission (NWC) workers, and urged the Government to settle the long-standing dispute.

Morrison’s comment followed remarks by Prime Minister Andrew Holness on Wednesday, signalling that Government was seeking legal advice on whether NWC workers who, since Tuesday, took industrial action, did so lawfully,

Prime Minister Andrew Holness, speaking during a leadership retreat in Trelawny urged the workers to return to their posts, pointing out that since negotiations, which was the point of the standoff, were underway, continuing to hold the public at ransom was pointless. The NWC’s 500,000-plus customers were caught off guard by the workers’ protests, which saw a number of them picketing at the company’s Marescaux Road offices in the Corporate Area on Tuesday morning. The action threw operations at schools, hospitals, businesses, and households islandwide into disarray.

An agreement was reached late Wednesday for the NWC employees to return to work.

The prime minister, in his address earlier, noted that the Government did not want to disturb the industrial peace and harmony now existing in the country, adding that the Administration considered water to be an essential service and an essential commodity and is moving to establish that this is so legally before moving further.

“I’ve asked the attorney general to advise the Government on the position as to whether or not the NWC is an essential service and how those workers would be classified; I just need to know and understand that. It is the belief that we have, but we want to just confirm it from a legal point of view because Jamaica is still a country of law and order. So once we have established that, then we will know how to proceed in this regard,” Holness stated.

“We do understand and believe that there are valid concerns by the workers and staff of the NWC. We do understand that there may be issues of trust and confidence involved in the relationship between the workers and the Government. But we acknowledge that, at some point, the workers would have to get the attention of the Government and I believe the attention has been gotten, we are in negotiations, we have been in negotiations since yesterday (Tuesday),” Holness told the gathering, which included public servants, civil servants, and technocrats.

“Having that now being established that we are negotiating, we are discussing and coming to conclusions and hopefully solutions, that it would be in the interest of all that the water supply is returned. In other words, now that we are at the table, we are discussing, there is no need for the public to continue to suffer. Right now, as we speak, I’m getting several calls from businesses, from schools, from hospitals, that they are at serious risk,” the prime minister said, adding that a number of hotels have been forced to relocate guests as their back-up water supplies were running low.

“I start at this point by making an appeal to the workers. Jamaica is one boat, and if there is a hole in the boat, we are all at risk of sinking. And I think that has to be a consideration for every Jamaican. Yes, your particular situation might be different, probably worse than others, but it makes no sense to jeopardise everything else,” Holness said further.

Morrison, speaking with the Jamaica Observer in the aftermath of that statement, said, while the union he heads does not have bargaining rights in this matter, he was nonetheless concerned about the prime minister’s take on the mater.

“We are extremely sympathetic to the workers and the union leadership who have been trying to settle that matter for years. In fact, that matter has been before the water commission for over seven years. What I would say to the prime minister and the Government is that the approach is not to threaten the workers. At this time, Jamaican workers are experiencing tremendous pressure, due to the virus, the rapid rise in the cost of living, among other things, and threatening the workers, trying to find out if the workers are essential services is not the approach to take,” Morrison stated.

– Alicia Dunkley-Willis