GENERAL secretary of the Union of Clerical, Administrative and Supervisory Employees (UCASE) John Levy has warned that there is a possibility of strike by unionised workers at bauxite company company UC Rusal over pay increases.

Levy said that the more than 600 workers employed by the company are “extremely disappointed with the continued intransigent approach taken by the management” and the lack of support from the Industrial Disputes Tribunal (IDT).

“The workers have become frustrated and are at their wits’ end in terms of how to have the management deal positively with their concerns,” the union leader told the
Jamaica Observer.

According to the trade unionist, since UCASE first gained bargaining rights for the workers on November 3, 2015, it has been having problems with the IDT hearing its case on three occasions.

He said that the experience of the workers has been devastating since 2015, when they became unionised .

Levy said that it has been a “long, inefficient, frustrating and economically destructive situation” to have the IDT hear the matter, and there has been a long delay for “every single” contract period since the 2015-2017 contract was signed.

He said that while the first contract period ended in 2017, the second award took the IDT some 19 months to hand down another award on August 24, 2018, some 16 months later after the next award was handed down and 11 more months after the expiration of the last award.

Levy said that “it was clear” that the referral to the IDT was not the best solution for the workers, “in these difficult and economically challenging times”.

“The delay and referral process will continue to cause further pain for the workers,” he added, noting that apart from the low wages relative to the industry, the critical issues of overtime, establishment of contributory pension scheme, along with the deliberate and calculated construct of the employment contract force the workers to involuntarily waive their entitlements under Employment Termination and Redundancy Payment Act is at the heart of the workers’ frustration,” Levy explained.

He said that the behaviour of the IDT has demonstrated, in its last three awards, that it is not prepared to make any award on the critical issues outside of basic salaries.

“Indeed it is relying on a display of good faith forming the management, and it is clear that, after seven years and three [tribunal] awards, that this wait might be in vain,” he explained.

An 18-point salary claim from UCASE has been stalled for several months now, by the company, which has been insisting on a 12 per cent compounded two-year pay increase retroactive to November 20, 2021 and was scheduled to expire on November 2, 2023.

UCASE responded that the company’s offer of a six per cent increase for 2021/2022 and another for-2022/2023 had been rejected by the union and has left the workers waiting on an increase for the past three years.

In a letter to the managing director of the mining company, Leonid Stavitskiy, dated March 16, 2023, UCASE insisted that, “common sense should and must prevail”.

Stavitsky and his team sought an amicable settlement, without success, after the workers voted to strike. They decided to withdraw the threat, however, after the Ministry of Labour and Social Security (MLSS) failed, over three days, to improve the situation, another three-day ultimatum was issued by the union.

The MLSS arranged an emergency meeting of the IDT to arbitrate after being warned of another 72-hour strike threat, but failed to facilitate the emergency meeting and the workers went back on strike.

The Jamaican Government sold its seven per cent share in West Indies Alumina Company Limited (Windalco) to Russian aluminium giant United Company Rusal Alumina Jamaica Limited (UC Rusal).

Then Minister of Science, Technology, Energy and Mining Phillip Paulwell said then that the parties acknowledged that the amount of debt owed by the Government to UC Rusal at the end of April 2014 stood at approximately US$21.15 million. The Government’s interest in the company was sold for US$11 million, which allowed Jamaica to save approximately US$3 million annually from the sale.