KINGSTON, Jamaica— Officers at Passport, Immigration and Citizenship Agency (PICA) are on strike at the two major airports on the Island. The officers are reportedly on strike over their dissatisfaction concerning negotiations with the government under the compensation review exercise.
Head of the National Workers’ Union (NWU), Granville Valentine, said:
“It is very unfortunate that workers in this country have to strike and be very defensive to be properly compensated.”
Granville Valentine
Today’s action follows PICA employees’ sickout last Friday in response to what they say is a failure of the Finance Ministry and management at PICA to adequately address issues surrounding the restructuring efforts.
“The immigration officers are adamant that they intend to return to work and normalcy only when the Government would have settled their longstanding issues, including the reclassification and proper alignment related to the compensation review.”
Two alleged robbers killed in a clash with St Mary police identified.
Two alleged robbers killed in a clash with St Mary police identified.
The St Mary police have identified the two alleged robbers who lost their lives in a gunfire exchange with the police on Wednesday, March 8, 2023, on Lodge Lane Road in Annotto Bay, St Mary.
They are 35-year-old Owen Minott of a Waterford address, St Catherine and Bernard Garden, August Town addresses, and 31-year-old Donhoy Richard of a Kingston 13 address.
The police had reported earlier that a police team on patrol in the Annotto Bay area saw four men removing goods from a business establishment. Upon seeing the police, the men open fire. The police took evasive and returned the fire. Two men escaped, and Minott and Richards died at the hospital.
Three people were arrested after a bar owner got robbed
The Portland police have taken three men into custody and recovered one firearm following a robbery in Snow Hill District Friday night, March 10, 2023.
According to the police, at about 11 p.m., on Friday, March 10, 2023, the complainant had just closed her bar when a Toyota Probox motor car pulled up at the premises with armed men. The men alighted from the vehicle, forced her inside the building, and robbed her of personal items, an undetermined sum of money, liquor, and cigarettes before escaping.
The bar owner summoned the police, who intercepted the Probox on the Caenwood Main road in Hope Bay with three men onboard. The police recovered a Samsung cellphone belonging to the complainant. The police took the men into custody pending further investigation.
Based on intelligence, the police conducted operations and searched several premises in St Margaret’s Bay and Snow Hill. And they recovered an assortment of liquors suspected to have been stolen from business places in Portland.
Based on the information, the police searched St Margaret’s Main road. During the search, they found a bag containing a luger 9mm pistol with a magazine containing two 9mm cartridges.