JCF makes more than 1,100 civilian posts permanent – Chang
Some 1,105 civilian contract workers within the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) are to be made permanent employees, the Minister of National Security, Dr Horace Chang has announced.
Chang, who is also the deputy prime minister, made the announcement on Tuesday during a ministerial statement in the House of Representatives. He said the move was aimed at reducing the number of contract workers within the public service.
“This marks a major and significant milestone in the practice of employing civilian workers to support non-policing functions in the JCF. These workers, for several decades, were employed on fixed-term contracts which limited their access to critical health and pension benefits,” Chang stated.
He disclosed that the Office of the Services Commission undertook an audit and produced a report for the period August 1, 2018 to April 30, 2021. The report showed that the JCF had a civilian staff complement of approximately 1,900 persons with close to 50 per cent employed on a contractual basis as either casual daily paid or part-time workers.
“As a consequence, and in fulfilment of the mandate to improve compensation and benefits afforded to public sector workers, the Ministry of National Security undertook the necessary consultations with the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service, to increase the civilian establishment of the JCF to address this anomaly and to execute the new policy direction of the government,” Chang said.
He declared that the Jamaica Labour Party administration “remains steadfast in its drive to create a public sector characterised by efficiency, productivity, and competitive salaries for the hard-working people of Jamaica”.
The security minister pointed out that the duties performed by the civilian staff include administrative roles in areas such as accounting, human resource management, medical services, information technology, sanitation and janitorial services.
He said: “Their work is critical to the proper functioning of the organisation and allows the trained service men and women to focus more fully on core policing functions that directly combat crime. These workers will now be able to access the benefits offered to permanent government employees, such as the health and pension schemes, which provide basic health insurance to offset medical expenses and pension benefits upon retirement”.
With their positions now made permanent, Change observed that “the practice of sending these workers home after more than 30 years of service with just a ‘handshake’, will now end”.
He shared further that the move to regularise the workers will affect secretaries, records clerks, office attendants, cell attendants, mail attendants, grounds men, messengers, motor vehicle washers and handymen.