Some Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS) employees have taken industrial action, following the Industrial Disputes Tribunal’s (IDT’s) ruling on the long outstanding issue of retroactive overtime payments and recalculation of redundancy payments associated with the 2001 Job Evaluation and Compensation Review Exercise.

The industrial action is currently affecting the operations of the Company’s Hunts Bay power station, and has resulted in extensive load shedding in sections of the island.

JPS has referred the matter to the Ministry of Labour and, in the meantime, management personnel are taking steps to return normalcy to the Company’s operations.

The unions’ claim for additional overtime payments was referred to the IDT by the Ministry of Labour last year, following the J$2.3 Billion payout made by the Company in 2008 to settle the Job Evaluation and Compensation Review Exercise.

On Friday IDT ruled that the pay out to the workers in 2008 represented a full settlement of all outstanding claims by the unions arising from the job reclassification exercise conducted between 2001 to 2007.

Meanwhile, President Emeritus of the National Workers Union (NWU) Clive Dobson, who led the charge for the workers, told RJR News that he was not yet in receipt of the ruling.

However, he made it clear that the union will be seeking judicial review of the IDT's ruling, signalling that the matter could be heading to the High Court.

The Unions which represented JPS workers had taken their fight to the IDT after accusing the JPS management of failing to pay over the money due to the workers following a job evaluation and reclassification exercise.