Dear Editor,
The story is told that a few years ago a Jamaican employer dismissed an employee after finding said employee fast asleep at his station. I can’t recall if it was mentioned, but it is possible that the machinery that said employee was supposed to have been tending was critical to the operations of the company. Subsequent to the dismissal the employee’s trade union took up the case and, after much legal wrangling, the dismissed employee was reinstated. It is said that the reinstated employee also received compensation for the time spent away from work while the union tussled with the employer.
Fast-forward to 2013 and we now see where the Pan-Caribbean Sugar Company recently let go some security personnel. The security guards appear to have “fallen asleep” on the job and inadvertently allowed some of their employer’s property to disappear. The unions have once again been called upon to champion the cause of the employees irrespective, it appears, of whether they were culpable or not.
It seems the time has come for the country to once and for all make up its mind. We need to decide if we want investment and investors of the Chinese ilk, or a continuation of the union’s stance where they simply ensure its cadre of members remain inflated to ensure that the dues keep coming in, irrespective of the cost to the investors, employers or Jamaica.
Robert Mitchell
Manchester
mitcib@yahoo.ca
The story is told that a few years ago a Jamaican employer dismissed an employee after finding said employee fast asleep at his station. I can’t recall if it was mentioned, but it is possible that the machinery that said employee was supposed to have been tending was critical to the operations of the company. Subsequent to the dismissal the employee’s trade union took up the case and, after much legal wrangling, the dismissed employee was reinstated. It is said that the reinstated employee also received compensation for the time spent away from work while the union tussled with the employer.
Fast-forward to 2013 and we now see where the Pan-Caribbean Sugar Company recently let go some security personnel. The security guards appear to have “fallen asleep” on the job and inadvertently allowed some of their employer’s property to disappear. The unions have once again been called upon to champion the cause of the employees irrespective, it appears, of whether they were culpable or not.
It seems the time has come for the country to once and for all make up its mind. We need to decide if we want investment and investors of the Chinese ilk, or a continuation of the union’s stance where they simply ensure its cadre of members remain inflated to ensure that the dues keep coming in, irrespective of the cost to the investors, employers or Jamaica.
Robert Mitchell
Manchester
mitcib@yahoo.ca