Government of Jamaica v Jamaica Civil Service Association

• Jurisdiction: Jamaica
• Judge: Lynch, C.
• Judgment Date: 30 June 1977
• Court: Industrial Dispute Tribunal (Jamaica)
• Date: 30 June 1977
• Docket Number: No. 11 of 1976

Industrial Disputes Tribunal

Lynch, C.

No. 11 of 1976

Government of Jamaica

and

Jamaica Civil Service Association

Labour law - Industrial disputes — Classification of posts.

1 Reference:

2 The Honourable Minister of Labour and Employment, by letter dated 23 ^rd February 1976, in accordance with Section 9 of the Labour Relations and Industrial Disputes Act, 1975, referred to tile Industrial Disputes Tribunal for settlement, an industrial dispute between the EMPLOYER and the TRADE UNION.

3 The Terms of Reference of the Tribunal were:

“To determine and settle the dispute between the Crown in respect of the Government of Jamaica, on the one hand, and certain categories of workers employed in the Island Medical Laboratory Service of the Ministry of Health and Environmental Control and represented by the Jamaica Civil Service Association, on the other hand, over the classification and grading of the posts of the said workers.”

4 The division of the Tribunal selected in accordance with Section 8(2) of the Act was –

Mr. Basil Lynch	—	Chairman
Mr. Owen Plant	—	Employers' Representative
Mr. Edward Dixon	—	Workers Representative

5 The Employer was represented by –

Mr. Dennis Edmunds	—	Crown Counsel
Mr. A. G. Irons	—	Ministry of the Public Service
Mrs. M. Brown	—	Ministry of the Public Service
Mr. E. A. Oxford	—	Ministry of Health & Environmental Control
Dr. D. C. Walter	—	- do –
Mr. J.J. Williams	—	- do –
Mrs. Beverley Young	—	- do —

6 The Trade Union was represented by –

Dr. L. G. Barnett	— Attorney-at-Law
Mr. W. Clarke	— President, Jamaica Civil Service Asso.

Several Worker/Delegates

Submissions and Sittings

7 Written briefs were submitted by the parties and oral submissions made sittings between the 22nd of March 1976 and the 25th of May 1977.

8 For purposes of j0b evaluation and classification, the Medical Technologists employed to the Ministry of Health and Environmental Control fall under the para-Medical. Group; 39 are presently stationed at tire North Street Laboratory in the following grades;

Grade (v)	— 2
Grade (iv)	— 3
Grade (iii)	— 13
Grade (ii)	— 21
Grade (i)	- 50
Total	— 89

9 Medical Technologists are also employed in the three (3) regional hospitals — namely, Cornwell, Spanish Town and Mandeville and in all the other hospitals.

10 The Claim of the Jamaica Civil Service Association is that the classification exercise recently undertaken by the Ministry of the Public Service did not fully take into account the responsibilities being discharged by some officers now placed in the Grade (iii) category and in fact that in addition to the three existing Grade (iv) posts at the North Street Laboratory, six of the thirteen posts now in Grade (iii) should be up-graded to (iv) and that two additional grade (iv) posts should be provided for the Spanish Town and Mandeville Regional Hospitals — a total of 11 Grade (iv) posts.

11 Since reference of the dispute to the Tribunal–

• (a) a review of the classification accorded to the posts of Medical Technologists was undertaken by the classification review Board;

• (b) in addition and arising from this review, an audit of the job duties and responsibities assigned to the various levels of Medical Technologists was carried out by the Classification and Pay Branch of the Ministry of the Public Service and;

• (c) the Ministry's Management Services Division carried out a study of the organisation and structure of the North Street Laboratory and submitted specific recommendations ‘inter...