Court rules in favour of police in overtime pay dispute
KINGSTON, Jamaica – The Constitutional Court on Friday ruled that Government is in breach of several heads of agreements for five contract periods with the Police Federation – which represents rank-and-file members of the Jamaica Constabulary – relating to overtime pay.
The ruling was made in a judgement handed down by the full court.
The court in its ruling declared that the Heads of Agreement entered between the Federation and the Ministry of Finance for the contract periods April 2008 to March 2010, April 2015 to March 2017 and April 2018 to March 2019 are binding on the government.
It said those Heads of Agreement “constitute binding contracts between the parties and created a legitimate expectation among the members of the Force”.
The court ordered that the defendants should before March 31, 2023 put in place a system which is in according with the terms agreed in the Heads of Agreements and which will capture the actual hours worked by JCF members in excess of 40 hours per week and that the members should “thereafter be remunerated accordingly for such excess hours”.
The court further ruled that costs to the claimants against the defendants are to be taxed or agreed.
However, on the issue of whether the claimants were entitled to damages, the court said the agreed 10-hour overtime payment accepted until the system was put in place represents agreed liquidated damages.
In the claim, the Police Federation now headed by Corporal Rohan James sued the state because of “frustrations caused by the state’s failure to keep promises made”.
According to the court, unchallenged evidence revealed that the existing manual recording system for the police force remained unreliable due to “integrity issues”. The claimants further contended that a new system has not yet been established and further argued that they are contractually entitled to have the system established.
The claimants sued the government for compensation retroactively computed from April 2008 to present for overtime actually worked in the period and sought declarations and orders as well as damages.
