FIREARM Licensing Authority (FLA) employees who went on strike on Tuesday and Wednesday are expected back at work today, even as senior management at the authority struggle to find favour with the Ministry of Finance and Public Service (MOFPS) to have their issues with the Government’s public sector compensation scheme addressed.

Chief executive officer (CEO) of the FLA, Shane Dalling told the Jamaica Observer that he sat through an unpleasant meeting with technocrats from the MOFPS on Wednesday and accused those representatives of shutting the door to proper negotiations.

“We will meet with the staff to discuss the issues that we have and we will also be meeting with the unions to discuss the way forward. The meeting we had with the Ministry of Finance was the most disrespectful meeting I have had with anyone. It was not the way to negotiate with persons. Some of these ministries have dinosaurs in them and Government will have to look at how we treat with this going forward,” Dalling said.

“Sometimes we keep people in these ministries forever and they believe that they are now the ministry itself, the minister and the Government, so they treat people with contempt. When you see what has been taking place as it relates to negotiations and the discontent among workers, it is because of the contemptuous behaviour with which the civil servants in the ministry treats the workers. There needs to be a policy where we shift people around because they become their own demigods.”

“One of the greatest ills and why they can’t understand what the workers are going through is because they ensure that they settle their salaries before other people were settled. If they had outstanding salaries, they wouldn’t be treating the workers with contempt the way they are doing. In the meeting, they were basically shutting the door to any form of proper negotiation and directing us how they wanted to do it which would not solve the staff issues, but would rather kick the can down the road for another year or two,” Dalling said, explaining that the FLA was not there to be lectured.

Tuesday and Wednesday, several firearm holders were unable to renew expired licences due to the strike, which raised concerns in the public over whether they would be penalised if they ran into the police.

On Tuesday, the Jamaica Civil Service Association (JCSA) President Techa Clarke-Griffiths appealed to the Government to address contract employment issues that have led to division among public sector workers which includes employees of the FLA. Clarke-Griffiths cited that contract workers were being denied equal treatment from the same employer, even though they perform equal work of equal value.

The JCSA president described the situation as, “becoming critical” and invited FLA staff to meet with them and discuss the issues at its Jacisera Park headquarters on Molynes Road in St Andrew.

Among other things, she said the contract workers had been receiving lower pay since April 1, 2022.

“Prior to the implementation of the compensation restructuring in the public sector, contract workers would have benefited from salary increases and all other benefits negotiated by the trade unions. However, since the implementation of Circular No 20, contract workers were left out, leading us to call for an end to discrimination against contract workers in the public sector,” Clarke-Griffiths said.