UCASE president expresses confidence in upcoming court ruling on security guard contract dispute
KINGSTON, Jamaica — President of the Union of Clerical, Administrative, and Supervisory Employees (UCASE), Vincent Morrison is confident that justice will prevail in the ongoing legal battle between the newly formed Security Guard Taskforce, and security firm Marksman Limited and its parent group Guardsman Limited.
“We are presently in the court with the security guard issue in which they were given a contract to sign which states explicitly that upon signing the contract, all the benefits, the years of service — some workers having worked for 40 odd years — all of that would be extinguished. And we believe that contract is unreasonable and they took that matter to the court,” Morrison told Observer Online.
With the next court hearing scheduled for December 8, the union leader has expressed strong faith in Jamaica’s judicial system in resolving the matter.
“I have an abundance of faith in our jurisprudence, in our judicial system that justice will be done for the workers in the security guard industry,” he said.
The controversy surrounding the contracts intensified after a landmark Supreme Court ruling in 2022, which declared that security guards at Marksman Limited were employees, not independent contractors.
Following that judgement, several security guards refused to sign the new employment contracts, citing concerns over the absence of specific transitional arrangements relating to their previous years of service and vacation leave.
The contracts, a version of which was seen by the Jamaica Observer, read: “The officer was engaged as an independent contractor on a fixed-term contract that would have come to an end pursuant to the Supreme Court judgment in which the court determined, “with prospective effect that the security engaged under the contract and who provided services to third parties are in fact employees”.
“And because of that decision, the parties to the contract have agreed that the contract will terminate by mutual agreement without blame or fault as of March 31, 2023 on the terms and conditions set out…”
READ: Security Guard Taskforce, Marksman continue legal battle
