KINGSTON, Jamaica – UC RUSAL Alumina Jamaica Limited’s workers were expected to start returning to work as of midnight Wednesday, after three days of absence from their jobs.

The resumption was prompted by the Union of Clerical, Administrative and Supervisory Employees (UCASE) Tuesday night, and was confirmed by the union’s General Secretary, John Levy.

“We will write the Industrial Disputes Tribunal (IDT) in the morning, and we expect them to set a date for the resumption of the negotiations following the work resumption,” Levy said last night.

The UCASE spokesman said that the workers would have preferred to have a private conciliator intervene into the dispute than the IDT, in light of the workers’ experiences over the past two years with the Ministry of Labour and Social Security (MLSS) and the IDT.

A release from the union yesterday stated that it was extremely disappointed with the continued intransigence being shown by the management of the Russian-owned company.

“The workers have become frustrated and are at their wits end in how to have the management treat positively with their concerns. Since UCASE gained bargaining rights for the workers on November 3, 2015, they have had to go before the Industrial Disputes Tribunal (IDT) to have their case heard on three occasions,” the release said.

“The experience of the workers has been a devastating one since 2015. It has been a long, inefficient, frustrating and economically destructive experience. There has been a long delay for every single contract period since November 3, 2015,” it noted.

“These long delays, as outlined above, is as a result of the failure of the management to come to the table to negotiate in good faith. It is interesting to note that the Jamaican dollar, since 2010, has been devalued by approximately 74 per cent,” it added.

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

UCASE President, Vincent Morrison, said 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, Morrison insisted that, “Common sense should and must prevail”: However, he noted that Stavitsky’s response also suggested that the company also stood ready to continue the process of meeting with the union and to arrive at an amicable agreement.

This caused the union to meet with Stavitsky and his team, to seek an amicable settlement, without success, after the workers voted to take strike action. They decided to withdraw the threat, however, after the ministry intervened but failed over three days to improve the situation and decided on another three-day ultimatum, which is required for bauxite/alumina companies’ workers and emergency workers.

The MLSS arrange an emergency meeting of the IDT to arbitrate after being warned of another 72-hour strike threat, and sought the support of the Labour Relations and Industrial Disputes Act (LRIDA) to prevent a strike this time. The parties failed to facilitate the emergency meeting, and the workers went back on strike last Monday morning.

United Company RUSAL, is an international public joint-stock company with Russian roots and is the world’s second largest aluminium company, in terms of primary production output as of 2016.It was the largest until overtaken by China Hongqiao Group in 2015.

UC RUSAL accounts for almost nine per cent of the world’s primary aluminium output and nine per cent of the world’s alumina production. The company is incorporated in Jersey, where it has its financial centre, but its headquarters are in Moscow, Russian Federation.

UC RUSAL is a public limited company and its shares are traded on the Moscow Stock Exchange, Hong Kong Stock Exchange and European Stock Exchange. Since September 25, 2020, the company changed its place of registration from Jersey to Kaliningrad, Russia.