‘We were in the dark’

Two former elderly employees of the now defunct Office of the Political Ombudsman (OPO), who together contributed nearly 40 years of service to that institution, are, today, in dismay after going on retirement early last year and being told that they are not entitled to a gratuity or even a compassionate grant.

The current situation has left Jennie Blake, former office attendant; and Ann Berry, former messenger, in shock as repeated efforts to secure gratuity over many years were met with sheer disappointment.

The Gleaner understands that the staff of the OPO were told that they were not entitled to pension benefits because the office was created as a Commission of Parliament.

Both women went off on retirement in late April last year after legislation was passed to subsume the OPO into the Electoral Commission of Jamaica (ECJ), effectively transferring the role of the political ombudsman to all nine commissioners of the electoral body.

“I cried so many times. I cried and I prayed that God could touch dem heart,” Berry told The Gleaner.

Having given some 18 years to the OPO, Berry said she could never have dreamt that something like this could have happened to her after working with a parliamentary commission for such a long time.

“We were in the dark. Madame (former Political Ombudsman Donna Parchment Brown) was trying her best to see if she could get something for us, but her tenure ended,” she said.

Asked what she would say if given the opportunity to speak to someone in authority about her plight, Berry said: “I would let them know it is not fair to serve the country for so many years and to see I am home sick and got nothing at all. I would let them know this is not fair. Come on man! Unnu must can do something for us.”

Her former colleague, Blake, was equally despondent, noting that she was the longest-working member of staff at the OPO but went home with no compensation save for a little payment for leave.

Blake had surgery and requested that she be allowed to go off on retirement.

She said several efforts were made by the former political ombudsman to press the Parliament and Ministry of Finance and the Public Service to secure gratuity or a similar benefit to the staff.

“I felt like my labour was in vain, honestly. I am not taking back my words. I could have offered my labour elsewhere and feel appreciated,” she said.

While thanking the Parliament for giving her a plaque and bouquet, Blake said it was unfortunate that they should be treated in the way they have been by the legislature.

“I am still paying mortgage and nothing to come home and say, OK, I can use this to pay my mortgage or anything like that. So what is going to happen?” she questioned.

“I have my insurance to pay and my mother’s insurance to pay,” she added.

The Gleaner has seen a letter dated May 2024 from a senior technocrat in the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service to Speaker of the House of Representatives Juliet Holness addressing questions about gratuity payments for the staff of the OPO.

The letter stated, in part, “Unfortunately, given the fact that the criteria for the payment of gratuity as detailed in related circulars issued from the ministry from time to time have not been met by the affected employees, the request cannot be supported.”

The letter also stated: “It is to be further noted that on the advice of the Attorney General’s Chambers, where a contract of employment has expired or terminated, no adjustment can be made to such agreement retroactively.”

However, Parchment Brown told The Gleaner that she had written letters to at least three Speakers over her seven-year tenure on behalf of the staff for them to be granted gratuity but nothing was done.

Parchment Brown’s tenure ran from 2015 to 2022.

“A terrible injustice has been done to the two women,” she said.

She stressed that she wrote letters to the then Political Ombudsman Special Commission, chaired by the Speaker, to make changes to the employment status of the five staff members so that they could be employed on two-year contracts and given gratuity.

According to Parchment Brown, the human resources department of Parliament, respective clerks to the Houses, and Speakers were aware of the predicament of the OPO staff who had been treated as temporary employees.

Parchment Brown, who left the OPO at the end of her contract in 2022, said Blake and Berry “were of pensionable age but nothing was done to ensure that they obtained a pension, gratuity, or even a compassionate grant”.

The former political ombudsman noted that the two women received letters from Director of Elections Glasspole Brown, indicating that the ECJ had given approval for them to be retired from the public service.

The letters also indicated that their particulars had been forwarded to the director of pensions administration at the finance ministry.

However, attempts to get a comment from a representative in that department were not successful as calls were put to extensions that rang without an answer.

“If you have merged the OPO with the ECJ then their positions would no longer be required, so technically, you could have made [their positions] redundant, and in making them redundant, you could have paid them for the 16 and 18 years, respectively, by the two weeks calculation,” Parchment Brown suggested.

“If you could not give them a pension, at least by making [their positions] redundant you could have given them something to live off,” she stressed.

The Gleaner understands that a driver who worked with the OPO was given a compassionate grant from the finance ministry.

As Jamaica celebrates International Women’s Day in March, Parchment Brown urged the country to remember the women who serve in the background, with small titles and small emoluments.

“Let our state institutions treat them with dignity and compassion,” she added, noting that “this was an opportunity to make all the staff (of the OPO) redundant and make the appropriate payments.

“Where is the compassionate grant in recognition of the failure of the Parliament to regularise their employment by proper contracts? This is what recognition of women requires,” she said.

edmond.campbell@gleanerjm.com