Jerome Reynolds, Staff Reporter

KINGSTON, Jamaica:
Unions representing correctional officers have asked their members to discontinue their industrial action and resume normal duties.

Since yesterday, the officers have been protesting to press the government to settle outstanding salary issues.

No money, no work
The protest has affected the annual family visit at the Fort Augusta Correctional Facility.

"No money, no work," one correctional officer said this morning as people gathered to visit their incarcerated relatives.

The island’s more than 2,000 correctional officers are represented by the Jamaica Federation of Corrections and the University and Allied Workers Union (UAWU).

UAWU negotiating officer, Aston Johnson, says unions have now received a proposal from the Finance Ministry on the realignment of the salary and benefits for correctional officers.

Johnson says the unions will proceed to put together a response and ask for an urgent meeting so that negotiations can begin as soon as possible.

It is against that background that correctional officers are being urged to go back to work.

For months, correctional officers, their unions and the government have been at odds over the implementation of a 2011 relativity study to align the salaries of their members with those of firefighters.

The alignments were to take effect on April 1 last year with implementation set for January 2014.

But only firefighters received the pay increase.

Correctional officers and their unions have accused the government is being unfair.

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