Temporary status being used to employers’ advantage

THE EDITOR, Madam:

Too many Jamaican employers, schools being chief among them, keep workers in ‘temporary’ or ‘acting’ positions for years after those posts were declared vacancies. Teachers under the Ministry of Education have gone three years without a permanent designation. Administrative staff wait 19 months, sometimes two years, for the same.

Appraisals for administrative employees are routinely delayed by bursars, who are often themselves pulled into technical matters outside of their competence, while their own offices grow tardy in releasing financial resources and settling vendor requests.

Supervision from the ministry appears largely absent, and in that gap some administrators act as they please, at times unprofessionally, while staff comply out of fear, often without the board’s knowledge.

I was told directly by a teacher that she was threatened by a bursar over her temporary status when she questioned why she could not stand in an office that handles student matters.

When job insecurity becomes a tool to enforce silence, bias and malice cease to be aberrations and become instruments of control.

If a position is a declared vacancy, prolonging temporary status for years denies a worker the security and benefits the law intends, while allowing the employer to avoid the obligations of permanent employment. That is an unjust advantage that I believe is taken unlawfully.

A prospective candidate might well have made a different decision about applying had the handling of temporary status been made clear from the outset. Some employers simply write their own version of the law.

I urge the ministries of education and labour to examine how long temporary appointments are allowed to continue against genuine vacancies, and to ensure that contracts and appraisals are processed lawfully, without fear or favour.

Concerned Citizen