MONTEGO BAY, St James – Workers and management of Montego Bay Metro company are set to meet on Wednesday to iron out issues that led to a two-week strike.

“Yes, they are back at work. We are meeting with the company tomorrow (today) to iron out whatever the problems are, the errors that they said they found,” deputy island supervisor for the National Workers’ Union Alexander Nicholson told the Jamaica Observer on Tuesday.

He explained that the Ministry of Labour on Monday urged both sides to have discussions at the local level, where the errors in salaries paid had initially been identified.

“We are expecting to see where the errors were, what were the changes that Montego Bay Metro said that they made and for us to go forward to send the final document to the [finance ministry’s] Transformation Implementation Unit,” the union man stated.

Fortnightly workers employed to the bus company had stayed off the job to express displeasure after “anomalies” in their April salaries.

Management at the State-run bus company sought to explain that during the Government’s compensation review some workers had erroneously been placed in higher bands than those for which they were qualified. Efforts to correct the error led to an adjustment in salaries, which earned employees’ ire.

On Tuesday, Nicholson told the Observer that workers will be approaching the upcoming meeting with an open mind.

“We don’t want to speculate, we want to have that discussion and see what was presented incorrectly as is being suggested. We don’t want to pre-empt anything until we have seen what they have said was the error,” he explained.

On Tuesday MoBay Metro buses were once again ferrying passengers in the western end of the island. One woman, who said she mainly uses the bus on the Falmouth route, told the Observer she was pleased with the resumption of service. MoBay Metro fares, she said, are cheaper and the service offers a more comfortable commute than private passenger buses.