‘Real workers at last’

After years of lobbying, postal agents across Jamaica are finally being paid in line with the national minimum wage – a long-overdue development that unions see as an indictment on the Government but also as a step toward broader improvements in working conditions.

“This minimum wage that they are on now will set the pace for a new dawn for them, which would give the union more autonomy to say to the Ministry of Finance, ‘Let us now sit down and provide for them vacation leave and sick leave,” James Francis, president of the United Union of Jamaica (UUJ), which represents postal agents, told The Sunday Gleaner.

Postal agents are hired as contracted service providers by the Post and Telecommunications Department (PTD), an agency within the Ministry of Science, Energy, Telecommunications and Transport. They primarily serve rural and remote areas, maintaining access to basic postal services. Agents are categorised in a tiered system from Category A (lowest paid) to Category G (highest).

As of July, Category A postal agents, who work five hours per day, three times a week, have seen their monthly income rise from $8,125 to $22,500. Meanwhile, Category G agents, working full-time hours (eight hours per day, five days a week), now earn $60,000 monthly, up from $32,866.

This adjustment brings them in line with Jamaica’s national minimum wage of $16,000 for a 40-hour workweek.

Francis said he was officially informed of the change via a letter stating that the retainer fee for the 142 postal agents islandwide had been increased “in keeping with the increase in National Minimum Wage (Amendment) gazetted on April 23, 2024”.

The agents will also receive retroactive payments, while the additional $1,000 minimum wage increase effective June this year will be paid at a later date.

This is the first adjustment in postal agents’ payments since 1990 – a change that came too late for some.

Sixty-seven-year-old Junie* in Clarendon, who retired in December 2024 after 25 years on the job, said she was “embarrassed” by the $16,250 she earned each month, reluctantly disclosing the figure to The Sunday Gleaner.

“I don’t know how I did it, but it’s the grace [of God],” she stated, reflecting on her years working up to eight hours a day as a single mother of three, struggling to make ends meet.

Junie said that some days she would walk 40 minutes to get to work to avoid the expense of taxi fare, supplementing the little she earned by raising chickens and with assistance from relatives.

Ten years ago, she said that she decided to start contributing to the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) as a way of securing a pension because she received no benefits as a contract service provider. At the time, Junie said she had to make the payments as a self-employed individual, a responsibility she resented as she considered herself a government employee.

NOT GOV’T EMPLOYEES

However, the PTD maintains that under their contract, postal agents are not government employees and are, therefore, not entitled to pensions, disability allowances, or gratuities.

It told The Sunday Gleaner that under this arrangement, postal agents receive a retainer fee and not a salary, must provide and maintain their own premises for the postal operations, and are required to post a performance bond. The agreement may be terminated by either party on notice or for breach, the PTD said.

It also highlighted that the department’s role is to enforce the terms of agreement, and that any change to this status would require direction at the level of Cabinet and the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service.

Consequently, the PTD said it has now written to the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service for the requisite consideration to this matter.

But Junie is still lamenting that a change hadn’t come sooner.

“I was hoping ... it would be [get] better. They treat the agent dem poor,” she said.

Adasah Bennett, a 65-year-old Grade A agent in Parottee, St Elizabeth, has been on the job for more than two decades. She handles a range of responsibilities – collecting and delivering ordinary mail, delivering notices for registered letters and parcels, maintaining accurate records such as monthly mail statistics and business statements, safeguarding all postal property and funds, and ensuring that the postal agency’s premises meet the operational standards set by the department.

She told The Sunday Gleaner that this is the only job she has ever had, and boosted her “drop-in-the-bucket” earnings by baking and selling pastries.

While she’s relieved about the pay increase, the grandmother of six is also grappling with the reality of retirement without a pension.

“I went to the NIS and they said I had no benefits unless I did start buying some, but I didn’t know about that, so I don’t have anything to get,” she said.

The plight of postal agents has reignited criticism from labour unions over the government’s reliance on contract work for positions that mirror permanent roles.

CONTRACTS CRITICISM

St Patrice Ennis, president of the Jamaica Confederation of Trade Unions (JCTU), criticised the Government for maintaining arrangements where contract workers perform similar duties as permanent staff but without the same rights.

“We have agreed to embark on an employment policy for the Government where it can be clearly demonstrated in policy and in an agreement that the Government is not entertaining this kind of employment relations any more. Not just to rid themselves of what currently exists, but also in the future, not to engage persons for permanent work on fixed-term contracts,” Ennis told The Sunday Gleaner.

He expressed concern that postal agents were allowed to earn below minimum wage for so long.

“You expect or hear of situations like these in the private sector. But it is worrisome and, indeed, concerning that something like this could ever happen in a government sector,” he said.

“We are generally talking about some of our most vulnerable people who are in some situations, some are desperate, and will allow themselves to be paid monies that are even below what is the minimum standard,” he added.

While acknowledging that the 2022 Supreme Court ruling that regarded security guards contracted by Marksman Security Limited as employees and not independent contractors set an important precedent for other sectors to test, he stressed that “most people, ordinary people, do not have the deep pocket to go through such a proceeding”.

He called on the Govern-ment to implement protective legislation for such workers.

While the PTD reiterated that any change to the postal agents’ classification must come from the cabinet and the Ministry of Finance, it noted that this was being addressed by the JCTU by way of the heads of agreement.

Ennis, however, said those discussions with the Public Sector Monitoring Committee – which were expected to examine the possibility of recognising the postal agencies as employees under the International Labour Organisation’s Decent Work Agenda, and the Government’s Public Sector Transformation Programme – are being stalled.

“Those meetings used to be held on a monthly basis. Certainly, none has happened this year, and I can’t remember the last time one has ever occurred,” he said. “I can safely say that it doesn’t seem to be something that is supported by the Government.”

Despite the delays, Francis, the UUJ president, sees the wage increase as a vindication of long years of advocacy, telling The Sunday Gleaner that the increase in the retainer fee now qualifies the agents as “real workers”.

*Name changed.

sashana.small@geanerjm.com

Changes in monthly retainer fees

for postal agents

Grade A from $ 8,125.00 to $22,500.00

Grade B from $16,250.00 to $45,000.00

Grade C from $21,666.67 to $60,000.00

Grade D from $32,140.71 to $60,000.00

Grade E from $32,369.51 to $60,000.00

Grade F from $32,606.71 to $60,000.00

Grade G from $32,866.98 to $60,000.00