THE Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC) started issuing separation letters to nearly 500 workers yesterday, as the Ministry of Transport and Works effects an agreement reached with trade unions last Friday.

JUTC industrial relations manager Albert Carty confirmed last night that 487 workers are being separated in the current process. Yesterday, 115 from the Spanish Town head office received their letters. Today, the rest of workers, from the Portmore and Rockfort depots, will receive their letters.

The letters, which are being issued by the Ministry of Labour and Social Security at its North Street office in Kingston, include information on the terms of the separation and the date of redundancy payments, which is July 30.

Permanent secretary in the Ministry of Labour and Social Security Alvin McIntosh said that his ministry's interest is in ensuring that the process meets all the requirements of the Employment (Termination and Redundancy Payments) Act and its regulations.

McIntosh said that yesterday's activities went well as there were no incidents.

The workers include more than 440 bus and maintenance crew represented by the University and Allied Workers Union (UAWU), and about 44 supervisors and clerks represented by the Union of

Clerical, Administrative and Supervisory Employees (UCASE) - an affiliate of the National Workers Union (NWU).

An additional 65 drivers, who have declined to be trained for the single-operator buses the company is importing, have until midday today to decide whether they will be trained, or be added to the redundancy list. This followed a request from the UAWU for time for them to reconsider.

Minister of transport and works Mike Henry, in a statement to the House of Representatives yesterday, said that it is planned for the entire system to become cashless, which will require commuters to purchase cards to access the buses.
Henry also paid tribute to the company's late chairman, Douglas Chambers, who was murdered by gunmen, allegedly linked to the notorious Spanish Town-based Klansman Gang, outside the company's head office last Friday.

Henry said that Chambers' board took over the JUTC with a staff of 2,743 persons covering 288 operational buses, or nearly 10 persons per operational bus. This is more than twice the international benchmark ratio of 4.5 persons per bus.

He said that over its nine-month administration, the Government had reduced the staff to 1,600 with the ratio now at approximately five workers per bus.

"This was part of the requirements and policy of the Government, which was that the bus company should establish its true operating costs before exposing 
the commuters to any fare increase," Henry said.

He also explained that, in addition to the internal pressures, Chambers and his board also experienced much resistance in trying to regularise the widescale allocation of taxi routes and private bus operations within the Kingston Metropolitan Region, involving both small operators and the National Transport Co-operative Society.

He said that they also experienced pressures from people wanting to supply fuel from undetermined sources to the company at "special rates" under "special arrangements", as well as "unofficial security providers".