KINGSTON, Jamaica — Minister without Portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, Daryl Vaz, is expected to meet with the trade unions representing scores of labourers employed by China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC) on its Mandela Highway Project in St Catherine.

The workers have been protesting all week their working conditions, including lack of safety gears and the company’s refusal to pay the end-of-project bonus paid by local contractors at the completion of projects.

It is also understood that newly appointed junior minister in the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, Zavia Mayne, met with a team including the two MPs from the affected areas — Denise Daley (Eastern St Catherine) and Anthony Hylton (Eastern St Andrew) at the ministry on Wednesday.

However, trade union leaders involved with the dispute — Vice-President of the Bustamante Industrial Trade Union (BITU), Alden Brown, and President of the Union of Clerical and Supervisor Employees (UCASE) Vincent Morrison — were not invited to those discussions.

Brown claimed that the MPs and their “area leaders” were the only ones allowed into the discussions with the minister.

Morrison told the OBSERVER ONLINE yesterday that he expected “frank and open” discussions with Vaz at Jamaica House today.

However, normality is likely to resume on the Mandela Highway project this week-end following these discussions, which come after the two sets of meetings.

Balford Henry