KINGSTON, Ja­maica – The Pri­vate Sec­tor Or­ga­ni­za­tion of Ja­maica (PSOJ) is call­ing on the state to quick­ly re­solve the pay dis­pute with po­lice of­fi­cers who have been em­bark­ing up­on in­dus­tri­al ac­tion to force the gov­ern­ment to im­prove up­on its six per cent wage of­fer.

PSOJ pres­i­dent Howard Mitchell stat­ed that there was no lead­er­ship on the is­sue and that the busi­ness sec­tor is con­cerned that the sick­out by the po­lice mem­bers is grow­ing with no clear di­rec­tion from the state.

He said while the busi­ness sec­tor saw in­creased ac­tiv­i­ty dur­ing the hol­i­day sea­son, progress may be de­railed if the wage ne­go­ti­a­tions are not set­tled.

The Po­lice Fed­er­a­tion has writ­ten to Prime Min­is­ter An­drew Hol­ness urg­ing his in­ter­ven­tion af­ter the Fi­nance Min­istry said it can­not of­fer any more than the six per cent wage of­fer.

The Fed­er­a­tion has de­scribed the of­fer as an in­sult to the men and women of the Ja­maica Con­stab­u­lary Force.

Op­po­si­tion Leader Dr Pe­ter Phillips has warned that the na­tion’s se­cu­ri­ty is at risk as a re­sult of the im­passe.

“I think the en­tire coun­try has a lot of sym­pa­thy for the po­lice force and the oth­er pub­lic sec­tor work­ers. Be­cause up to now, from all the in­for­ma­tion that is avail­able to us. The gov­ern­ment has not been ap­proach­ing the ne­go­ti­a­tions with se­ri­ous­ness.

“They are sim­ply say­ing to the work­ers – take it or leave it. That’s not the way ne­go­ti­a­tions should be ap­proached … they are be­ing al­lowed to lag on the side-lines while we are fac­ing the worst crime wave ever in our his­to­ry,” Phillips said. (CMC)