THE DESPERATION portrayed by transport workers who were made redundant earlier this year is not typical of the average Jamaican worker who is made redundant, says psychologist and productivity consultant Dr Leahcim Semaj.

In June, the state-run Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC) sent home 250 workers, a move which triggered several protests.

According to Semaj, "Most Jamaicans hate the jobs they are in. For most Jamaicans, redundancy means a chance to start over and (gaining) some money. Half start to cheer when they are told that they are on the list. I know no one who is not better off (for having been laid off)."

excited

Semaj claims that many professionals who are made redundant find other jobs within a week to two months after outplacement. His opinion is supported by 42 year-old Adrian Hunter, who was 25 in 1993 when National Computer Centre (NCC) operated by the Jamaican Government ceased operations, selling its assets to the workers for a token sum.

"I was excited," Hunter told The Sunday Gleaner."

He used his redundancy money of $60,000 to buy his first car - a used one - and also to prepare 50 acres of family land in Hanover for the planting of ginger, pine and pine tree farming.

Even when his investment in NCC went bust within a year, and when problems with squatters and new deforestation laws forced him to scale down his farming, Hunter was still a happy man.

Inner-city-based counselling psychologist Faith St Catherine paints a different picture of the typical worker who is made redundant.

Based at the Women's Resource and Outreach Centre in inner city Beechwood Lyndhurst area, she states, " People are fearful. When small income earners lose a job, they are very fearful and they do not know where the next job will come from."

These are people whose savings are small and whose redundancy payment is often much less than professionals. I have a lot of cases where they cannot pick up the pieces again. "Two weeks ago there was a man who came to me in desperation because he has a family," St Catherine disclosed.

distress

Even better paid professionals may share this distress where they view the redundancy as a severing of treasured familial ties.

On March 31, 45-year-old Courtney Francis returned from vacation overseas to find a redundancy letter on his desk at work at a telecommunications firm. Even though, he noted, "The writing was on the wall and having seen so many exercises talking place around me," he was traumatised.

A field support worker for 18 years, he said, "When it happened I had no plans. The ugliest part of it all was that I was off for a couple of days. I reported for duty and got the letter on the same day which should not have been the case. I was disappointed because the union or my manager should have called me before."

Francis is now employed, but the pay is much less and so are the benefits. " I have lost the medical," he dicslosed.

Although he received a cheque which he has invested in a medium- to long-term project, he is still resentful. "The company was home away from home. I had to defend the company on so many occasions from the criticism meted out," he explained. "But I am till in touch with quite a few of my friends there. The separation has not fully taken place."

Paul O'Connor, 51-year-old engineer, was with the Jamaica Public Service Company for 27 years before he was made redundant in 2005. He said the experience is one which has given him a new lease on life.

"I embraced it as a new experience and one which was different . I was at home for one year. It was six months before I sent out two applications. I was not really interested in going to work immediately.

"There was also the money which helped with the transition. I invested some and rested one year before getting a job with the Government Electric Inspectorate."

Counselling psychologist Faith St Catherine explains that the response to redundancy "depends on how educated you are and what contacts you have. If you are a professional, you can see the possibilities. But, when you are unskilled and semi-literate and made redundant, fear is the main response.

preparation

She adds: "There is also the matter of preparation. If the company makes the effort to help workers to reorganise and get another job through counselling, they may be more optimistic, but if they are laid off with one week's notice or none at all and they have bills to pay and children to send to school, they will be distressed and fearful."

According to Semaj, many of those who have been made redundant and with whom he worked in counselling and career planning "have stopped me on the street and say it was the best thing to have happened. They have started businesses, gone back to school, got jobs they never thought they would".

avia.ustanny@gleanerjm.com

For most Jamaicans, redundancy means a chance to start over and some money.

Redundancies 2003 - 2008

Year Total

2003 1,822

2004 2,029

2005 3,078

2006 334

2007 1,112

2008to date 2,077

Total 10,452

30579388

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