Approximately 2,000 employees of the National Water Commission (NWC) went on strike this morning, demanding a response from the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service on their request for a reclassification of their services.

The reclassification issue, which dates back to 2008, has been left hanging since then and there are fears among the workers that they are being left out of the ministry’s compensation review which is currently being introduced.

The workers are understood to have become impatient with the failure of successive governments to deliver on the 2008 reclassification exercise. In the meantime, a restructuring exercise was also completed in 2019 and sent to the Ministry with a request that the Ministry hire a consultant to do the reclassification.

According to the President of the Jamaica Association of Local Government Officers (JALGO), Helen Davis Whyte, one of several trade unions which represent the workers, while the reclassification has been stalled, the workers have now learnt that they will not benefit from the current Compensation Review.

“It is really a question that enough is enough for them, and they need to have this resolved once and for all. So they have decided to take action as of this morning,” she told OBSERVER ONLINE.

The Ministry of Labour and Social Security is expected to call an emergency meeting to conciliate the issue sometime today.

Disruptions to the national water supply may be experienced by customers.