Tweet
'UAWU embracing JUTC corruption'
Bus company chairman says union resisting efforts to cut graft BY AL EDWARDS
Sunday, December 16, 2007
A litany of corrupt actions that have resulted in some employees at the Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC) collecting millions of dollars annually - some as much as three times their gross salary - has been uncovered by the state bus agency's new board. And the JUTC chairman, Douglas Chambers, says the University and Allied Workers Union (UAWU) is embracing and encouraging this dishonesty.
"I recently discovered a special arrangement whereby three UAWU delegates who were contracted as bus conductors and drivers never worked in that capacity for at least two years, yet were receiving over three times their salaries," Douglas told the Sunday Observer in an exclusive interview last week.
Commuters boarding a JUTC bus in Kingston in this Observer file photo.
"I immediately took measures to cut this off but was emphatically told by the UAWU that I could not do so because the men in question were conducting Special Working Arrangements assigned by former presidents of the JUTC Patrick McIntosh and Ryan White, and former chairman of the JUTC Norton Hinds," said Douglas.
Documents obtained by the Sunday Observer reveal that one of the union delegates, a bus conductor on a gross salary of $458,000 a year, took home $1.574 million between January and November this year.
His salary was bolstered by ex-gratia payments and overtime earnings which showed him claiming for 16.78 hours per day over a fortnight.
The second employee, an articulated bus driver, whose annual gross salary is $562,000, picked up $1.724 million between January and November this year by claiming overtime for 23.5 hours in a working day which, in effect, meant that he slept, rested and conducted the affairs of his life in the remaining half-hour of a 24-hour day.
CHAMBERS. how can this union hold the country to ransom?
In the third case, a bus driver, whose gross salary is $516,000 annually, has so far received $1.983 million, claiming overtime of 22.85 hours.
In a letter dated December 12, 2007 the JUTC's vice-president, operations, Easton Allen reminded one of the drivers of a decision taken to terminate the special working arrangements and that he was advised to revert to his substantive post, "that is being a driver at the Twickenham Depot with effect from Monday, December 10, 2007".
The letter pointed out that the driver failed to comply with the written instruction and cautioned that failure to continue to do so would result in disciplinary action taken against him.
Allen's letter was in response to one sent to the chairman and the acting president and signed by the three employees referred to by Douglas. In their letter, the men said they had received calls from several traffic managers at the JUTC's Rockfort and Spanish Town depots telling them that they are to report to their depots to pick up regular duties "and not the special assignment we were assigned by former presidents Patrick McIntosh and Ryan White, and former chairman Norton Hinds".
Said the employees: "We were informed in writing by the former presidents and chairman that the work we are doing should continue indefinitely until further notice. Can you please clarify formally, the telephone calls we have been receiving because it is confusing."
The handwritten letter was copied to UAWU first vice-president Clifton Grant.
Douglas said he received a phone call from Grant who asked why he had terminated the special working arrangements. Grant, he said, "insisted that I re-implement it because this was an agreement reached with the previous presidents".
Douglas could not give a definition of the special working arrangements, saying only that his understanding of it was that it required the three men to motivate staff and reduce accidents. However, he said that all he could remember them doing was union work.
"I took the decision not to pay these exorbitant wages because they could not be justified and were in fact illegal," he said. "The union then threatened to strike and lock down the place because they had an agreement with the previous bosses."
The union, he said, took their grievance to the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, which in turn instructed him to pay all the overtime owed.
"As far as I am concerned, these three union delegates were padding the bill," said Douglas. "Now, the evidence I have presented to you clearly proves that this union has embraced and is endorsing corruption in the JUTC."
Douglas said his understanding was that the special working arrangements began in 2004 with the agreement of the union. He said he had asked the former presidents and chairman about the arrangements and they informed him that they had made several attempts to end the agreement, but each effort was met with threats by the union to lock down the company.
When the Sunday Observer contacted UAWU president Lambert Brown, he accused Chambers of refusing to follow due process, saying that the chairman has gone against government policy and was in fact in breach of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed between the previous Government and public sector workers.
The MOU basically guarantees a freeze on salaries in return for a stay on job cuts.
"He (Douglas) consistently flouts established industrial relationship practices," said Brown. "His ego does not allow him to co-operate with the UAWU and he has reneged on prior agreements and that is the real problem. He says that we are unwilling to co-operate, but that is not true.
His leadership is demotivating the workers and in fact October saw a deficit of around $180 million, the single highest in the JUTC's history."
Douglas, in response, pointed out that the new board was appointed in mid-October and since then they have been able to cut losses at the company. He declined to give a figure, saying that the transport minister, Mike Henry, would give that information in Parliament.
Douglas also refuted Brown's accusation of non-co-operation, saying, "I have no problem working with the union, but equally I would have no problem working without them. Mr Brown must recognise that the corruption stops now."
Douglas also highlighted absenteeism and fare box theft as other areas of abuse and corruption at the bus company and provided the Sunday Observer with a table showing that 155 employees racked up a total 4,919 absent days between January 1 and October 31 this year.
Of that figure, 2,272 were 'no show days' (absent without a reason), and 2,647 days were claimed for sick leave.
None of the employees on the list were absent for less than 20 days over the period, while four stood out with 59, 75, 89 and 97 absent days.
"With this kind of record we have to terminate these people under the existing disciplinary procedures, yet the union does not see it that way and insists that business should continue as usual," said Douglas. "I fully intend to stand up to the union and make the JUTC an efficient and effectively run government company."
According to the JUTC's Personnel Policies and Procedures Manual (April 2006) relating to disciplinary codes, a first offence by an employee of being absent from work without leave will result in a written warning. The second offence attracts a suspension, while the third offence will result in dismissal.
The manual makes it clear that fraudulent use of sick leave provision or tampering with a sick leave certificate will result in instant dismissal.
Douglas also disclosed that the JUTC is losing around $30 million a month from the fare boxes (that is $3,000 a day from each of 300 buses) through various methods employed by Customer Service Assistants. That, he said, cannot be allowed to continue.
Last year, the JUTC recorded a loss of around $1.2 billion and Chambers has vowed to return it to profitability within his first year as chairman.
"The president of the UAWU has called for my resignation and has even said that if certain conditions are not met the very important MOU 3 will not be signed," said Douglas. "My question is, how can this union hold the country to ransom? Do we not want a properly run transport system, which is free from corruption and inefficiency?"
"That is the job I was given, and it is the job I will do," he said.
Bus company chairman says union resisting efforts to cut graft BY AL EDWARDS
Sunday, December 16, 2007
A litany of corrupt actions that have resulted in some employees at the Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC) collecting millions of dollars annually - some as much as three times their gross salary - has been uncovered by the state bus agency's new board. And the JUTC chairman, Douglas Chambers, says the University and Allied Workers Union (UAWU) is embracing and encouraging this dishonesty.
"I recently discovered a special arrangement whereby three UAWU delegates who were contracted as bus conductors and drivers never worked in that capacity for at least two years, yet were receiving over three times their salaries," Douglas told the Sunday Observer in an exclusive interview last week.
Commuters boarding a JUTC bus in Kingston in this Observer file photo.
"I immediately took measures to cut this off but was emphatically told by the UAWU that I could not do so because the men in question were conducting Special Working Arrangements assigned by former presidents of the JUTC Patrick McIntosh and Ryan White, and former chairman of the JUTC Norton Hinds," said Douglas.
Documents obtained by the Sunday Observer reveal that one of the union delegates, a bus conductor on a gross salary of $458,000 a year, took home $1.574 million between January and November this year.
His salary was bolstered by ex-gratia payments and overtime earnings which showed him claiming for 16.78 hours per day over a fortnight.
The second employee, an articulated bus driver, whose annual gross salary is $562,000, picked up $1.724 million between January and November this year by claiming overtime for 23.5 hours in a working day which, in effect, meant that he slept, rested and conducted the affairs of his life in the remaining half-hour of a 24-hour day.
CHAMBERS. how can this union hold the country to ransom?
In the third case, a bus driver, whose gross salary is $516,000 annually, has so far received $1.983 million, claiming overtime of 22.85 hours.
In a letter dated December 12, 2007 the JUTC's vice-president, operations, Easton Allen reminded one of the drivers of a decision taken to terminate the special working arrangements and that he was advised to revert to his substantive post, "that is being a driver at the Twickenham Depot with effect from Monday, December 10, 2007".
The letter pointed out that the driver failed to comply with the written instruction and cautioned that failure to continue to do so would result in disciplinary action taken against him.
Allen's letter was in response to one sent to the chairman and the acting president and signed by the three employees referred to by Douglas. In their letter, the men said they had received calls from several traffic managers at the JUTC's Rockfort and Spanish Town depots telling them that they are to report to their depots to pick up regular duties "and not the special assignment we were assigned by former presidents Patrick McIntosh and Ryan White, and former chairman Norton Hinds".
Said the employees: "We were informed in writing by the former presidents and chairman that the work we are doing should continue indefinitely until further notice. Can you please clarify formally, the telephone calls we have been receiving because it is confusing."
The handwritten letter was copied to UAWU first vice-president Clifton Grant.
Douglas said he received a phone call from Grant who asked why he had terminated the special working arrangements. Grant, he said, "insisted that I re-implement it because this was an agreement reached with the previous presidents".
Douglas could not give a definition of the special working arrangements, saying only that his understanding of it was that it required the three men to motivate staff and reduce accidents. However, he said that all he could remember them doing was union work.
"I took the decision not to pay these exorbitant wages because they could not be justified and were in fact illegal," he said. "The union then threatened to strike and lock down the place because they had an agreement with the previous bosses."
The union, he said, took their grievance to the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, which in turn instructed him to pay all the overtime owed.
"As far as I am concerned, these three union delegates were padding the bill," said Douglas. "Now, the evidence I have presented to you clearly proves that this union has embraced and is endorsing corruption in the JUTC."
Douglas said his understanding was that the special working arrangements began in 2004 with the agreement of the union. He said he had asked the former presidents and chairman about the arrangements and they informed him that they had made several attempts to end the agreement, but each effort was met with threats by the union to lock down the company.
When the Sunday Observer contacted UAWU president Lambert Brown, he accused Chambers of refusing to follow due process, saying that the chairman has gone against government policy and was in fact in breach of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed between the previous Government and public sector workers.
The MOU basically guarantees a freeze on salaries in return for a stay on job cuts.
"He (Douglas) consistently flouts established industrial relationship practices," said Brown. "His ego does not allow him to co-operate with the UAWU and he has reneged on prior agreements and that is the real problem. He says that we are unwilling to co-operate, but that is not true.
His leadership is demotivating the workers and in fact October saw a deficit of around $180 million, the single highest in the JUTC's history."
Douglas, in response, pointed out that the new board was appointed in mid-October and since then they have been able to cut losses at the company. He declined to give a figure, saying that the transport minister, Mike Henry, would give that information in Parliament.
Douglas also refuted Brown's accusation of non-co-operation, saying, "I have no problem working with the union, but equally I would have no problem working without them. Mr Brown must recognise that the corruption stops now."
Douglas also highlighted absenteeism and fare box theft as other areas of abuse and corruption at the bus company and provided the Sunday Observer with a table showing that 155 employees racked up a total 4,919 absent days between January 1 and October 31 this year.
Of that figure, 2,272 were 'no show days' (absent without a reason), and 2,647 days were claimed for sick leave.
None of the employees on the list were absent for less than 20 days over the period, while four stood out with 59, 75, 89 and 97 absent days.
"With this kind of record we have to terminate these people under the existing disciplinary procedures, yet the union does not see it that way and insists that business should continue as usual," said Douglas. "I fully intend to stand up to the union and make the JUTC an efficient and effectively run government company."
According to the JUTC's Personnel Policies and Procedures Manual (April 2006) relating to disciplinary codes, a first offence by an employee of being absent from work without leave will result in a written warning. The second offence attracts a suspension, while the third offence will result in dismissal.
The manual makes it clear that fraudulent use of sick leave provision or tampering with a sick leave certificate will result in instant dismissal.
Douglas also disclosed that the JUTC is losing around $30 million a month from the fare boxes (that is $3,000 a day from each of 300 buses) through various methods employed by Customer Service Assistants. That, he said, cannot be allowed to continue.
Last year, the JUTC recorded a loss of around $1.2 billion and Chambers has vowed to return it to profitability within his first year as chairman.
"The president of the UAWU has called for my resignation and has even said that if certain conditions are not met the very important MOU 3 will not be signed," said Douglas. "My question is, how can this union hold the country to ransom? Do we not want a properly run transport system, which is free from corruption and inefficiency?"
"That is the job I was given, and it is the job I will do," he said.
Comment