NHT STANDOFF

An “emergency” meeting has been scheduled with the Ministry of Labour for Monday after industrial action, which began on Thursday, continued for a second day at the National Housing Trust (NHT).

Scores of employees from levels one to four (ancillary, clerical and administrative) again called in sick on Friday following a reported failure by NHT’s management to supply salary data requested by their union to wrap negotiations.

NHT has proposed a three-year contract period at 10 per cent, offering staff two per cent in year one, four per cent in year two and another four per cent in year three.

However, the proposal has not found favour with the National Housing Trust Staff Association (NHTSA), the affiliate union of the University and Allied Workers Union (UAWU) representing approximately 700 employees at the trust.

NHTSA has argued that if staff are to accept a three-year contract period, they want a 20 per cent increase. The union said NHT may decide on the breakdown.

“We have not agreed to these proposals just yet, if at all, but we have requested information about what they have proposed. That is, information relative to the salaries and what the changes to salaries would look like if we accept the proposal,” said Garfield Harvey, third vice president of the UAWU.

“As I speak here and now, we still have not received the information. We were told last evening, I was told by the IR (industrial relations) manager by WhatsApp that we would get the information today, but we have still not received the information. So, the workers have been calling in sick since yesterday, and it appears as if the illness has not been cured,” Harvey told The Gleaner.

He said while NHTSA is the bargaining union, UAWU negotiate on its behalf for a fee.

He contended that as a state entity, the NHT’s financial accounts and salary data are matters of public record and fall under the purview of the Access to Information (ATI) Act. Harvey insisted that employees need full understanding of salary breakdowns and company financials to make informed decisions during negotiations.

“We are simply asking for information relative to the wages of the persons we represent. They have made some offers for increases. I have said to them, people don’t spend percentages, they spend money.

“So, if I am one of those members of that bargaining unit, and you tell me you’re offering me two per cent, I want to know what that two per cent represents to my salary. I don’t think I should have to go and do the math myself. You are making the offer; you need to tell me how much money you’re going to be paying,” he said.

“That’s all we’re asking for. They have already made increases to all of the categories above ours, meaning that from the general manager right down to the last category above us, everybody else above us, they’ve increased already. Now, that means that the gap between our categories and their categories have widened. We want to know what that gap looks like [and] we want to know what it looked like before.”

He said the request is standard during union negotiations, criticising the NHT’s “sudden adversarial” stance and failure to comply with statutory information-sharing requirements under the Labour Relations Code.

“I don’t know why all of a sudden information has become so difficult to get. But it appears as if this negotiation is not going to end anytime soon, until they start negotiating in good faith,” he said, later confirming that the Ministry of Labour and Security has stepped in.

In a message to staff late Thursday, NHTSA accused the NHT management of engaging in union-busting tactics, wage marginalisation, and bad-faith negotiations even as it marked its 50th anniversary.

The union said management bypassed a scheduled September 18 joint meeting to present claim items to a Board Sub-Committee early on Tuesday without the union’s input or knowledge.

It said management selectively tabled its own agenda while excluding crucial staff requests, including reduced interest rates for staff mortgage, soft loans and car loans; adjustments to the existing Home Equity programme; a one-off payment commemorating the trust’s 50th anniversary and full disclosure and breakdown of salary and fund data required for bargaining.

“The injustices are evident as the senior managers quietly approved and paid full salary increases and retroactive monies to themselves and to the upper-level supervisor/management group in August and have left the lowest-paid and largest cohort at the trust to strain as it marks its 50th year.

“The category has been offered a token $28 increase and a humiliating, all-or-nothing funeral grant. We need to remember we are valuable to the process as they require our labour to carry the trust’s mandate. We are simply asking for the worth of our labour; not a handout just because. This is about transparency, dignity and equity,” the message said.

Citing point-to-point inflation at 7.9 per cent, the union is calling for reasonable wage adjustments, statutory transparency, and a return to good-faith bargaining that adequately values the contribution of lower-level staff.

kimone.francis@gleanerjm.com