MMS accuses SERHA of wrongful termination
Published:Friday | July 15, 2022 | 4:12 PMRuddy Mathison/Gleaner Writer
Manpower & Maintenance Services Limited (MMS) is accusing the South East Regional Health Authority (SERHA) of terminating its contract with Spanish Town Hospital without due notice.
The move has thrown some 300 workers, contracted by the company that provided cleaning services at the hospital, as well as groundsmen, on the unemployment list.
Some of the workers protested on the hospital compound Tuesday, claiming that they were unfairly treated and could not wait long for the payment of money in lieu of notice.
Head of Manpower & Maintenance Services Limited, Audrey Hinchcliffe, said those workers who protested are ill-advised, because they were told that the contract with the hospital was terminated and that the company had scheduled a meeting Tuesday to discuss payments in lieu of termination notice.
“They will be paid all leave payment that is due to them, all payments up to the 31st of July, all monies due to them for redundancy and those entitled to notice pay will be paid,” Hinchcliffe told The Gleaner.
Hinchcliffe then accused SERHA of violating contract laws when it did not afford the company the 90 days’ termination notice that is stimulated by law.
“We got the letter that the contract was awarded in 2021. We got no notice, upon receiving the letter, that the contract was awarded to another company, and we were awarded children’s hospital (Bustamate Hospital for Children). We asked SERHA for a meeting to find out when the contract would end.”
According to Hinchcliffe, no meeting or communication ensued until late in the day on July 1 when SERHA’s attorney contacted the company advising it that Manpower has one month’s notice to leave Spanish Town Hospital.
“So, we immediately wrote to the workers and notified them of the clause in the contract that stipulates that when the client terminates the contract, their services would automatically be terminated,” Hinchcliffe said.
She added that at a meeting held Tuesday, the workers were advised that they would receive all payments due to them. However, the company has up to one year to make redundancy payments.
Hinchcliffe said that at a meeting held last week with the board of SERHA, Manpower insisted that the 90-day termination notice in lieu of payment be honoured, but that plea was rejected by the regional health body.
The matter, she said, is now being handled by the company’s attorney.
Meanwhile, director of SERHA, Errol Greene, said there was a contract with Manpower that expired some years ago and SERHA was in a month-to-month arrangement with the company.
“We subsequently put out a public tender for a new contractual arrangement to be put in place and another company won the bid,” Greene told The Gleaner, adding that Manpower was not oblivious of this development.