MONTEGO BAY, St James – Global Services Association of Jamaica (GSAJ) is refuting claims that
companies in the sector refused to allow workers time off to cast their ballots in last week’s local government elections.

Under the law, every employer is required to permit employees who intend to vote three hours to do so. This is in addition to the usual lunch hour.

A day after the February 26 polls, during an interview on All Angles, a current affairs discussion programme on
Television Jamaica (TVJ), general secretary of the People’s National Party Dr Dayton Campbell said among three reasons for a low voter turnout was that business process outsourcing (BPO) workers were not given time off to vote by their employers.

“We had, especially people in the BPO sector, that were not given the time just to go out and vote. They wanted to vote but their employers were not giving them the time, which is unlawful,” Dr Campbell said.

But speaking at the GSAJ President’s Breakfast Forum at Grand A View Event Place in Montego Bay, St James, on Thursday, immediate past president of GSAJ Gloria Henry dismissed the claim.

“We just came out of an election and there were some folks saying we didn’t send out our members to vote and I want to dispel that notion because our president conducted a survey and everybody within that group confirmed that they did send out their members [to vote],” Henry, now a GSAJ director, said.

She noted that while the GSAJ facilitates workers of the sector to exercise their right to vote, they cannot compel them to.

“Now we can’t force people to exercise their franchise. We provide facility for them to go out and exercise their franchise,” Henry stated.

“As a country we have to ensure that we do not support people who break the law. We are law-abiding citizens, we are supporting a global centre and we have to ensure that we do not support people to break the law, whether they are on a public forum, campaign trail, or whether they are in the privacy of their homes. We have to condemn people who support any kind of activities that are breaking the laws of Jamaica,” she added.

At the same time, Anand Biradar, president of GSAJ, expressed his satisfaction that plans were put in place by members of the association to allow employees time off to vote.

“I am glad that all the member companies of the sector planned ahead of time and not just supported but also encouraged their employees to go out and vote. I am glad about the commitment from the industry,” Biradar said.

Meanwhile, speaking with the Jamaica Observer, general secretary of the Jamaica Labour Party, Dr Horace Chang, who is also Member of Parliament for St James North Western, said he did not get any complaints from his constituents, which he claimed formed a large block of the over 60,000 BPO workforce, that they were denied time off to vote by their employers.

“There might be odd cases, but there were no complaints from my constituency, and a number of them I know personally between the constituency and urban Montego Bay, which has maybe the largest block of BPO workers in Jamaica in any one place,” said Dr Chang.