Urgent response Super Cement Company (SCC) has been operating in Jamaica for over 50 years. It was a fairly successful c

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Urgent response
Super Cement Company (SCC) has been operating in Jamaica for over 50 years. It was a fairly successful company with yearly after tax profit of 2B annually. Things were good for SCC, until two (2) years ago when the Pandemic hit and sales took a 70% decrease, which all but crippled the production of cement.


The union which won representational rights for the line workers of SCC is the Labour Workers Union (LWU) and they recently submitted their claim for improvements in benefits for their members for the 2022-2024 period. They have always negotiated two (2) year contracts.


Four months after the first positive case was reported in Jamaica in March 2020, SCC invited LWU to a meeting, at which time, the management shared the worrying financial position of the company. Both parties were hopeful and a Memorandum of Understanding was signed which stated that there would be no improvements in salaries for 2020 up to 2022, as the company continued to reel from the negative effects of COVID-19, and management would not make redundant any position of workers belonging to LWU.


The recently received claim is now asking for salary increases of 20% for both years of the contract. The management has countered that it is impossible to meet the demands of the union and will have to in fact make redundant half of its workers, half of those who remain will have to be placed on shifts and the other half will be on lay-offs.


The union is contending that:

1. There can be no redundancies

2. None of its members should be laid off or placed on shift without first an agreement

3. The company should have been saving during the years when things were good

4. The company should lay-off the managers whose salaries are more than ten (10) times that of workers as a means of saving

5. The workers have already suffered and should not be further punished because of bad management decisions



Read the scenario carefully and answer the following questions

1(a). Is there a dispute between SCC and LWU? If so what type of dispute is it. (2)

1(b). What is the role of the Ministry of Labour in such scenarios. (3)

1(c). How would the above dispute be settled by the Ministry of Labour (5)

1(d). Explain the function(s) of the Industrial Dispute Tribunal (IDT) in the case of SCC and LWU (10)