Former UCC lecturers seek compensation as Manchester and St. James deaths investigated

Two former University of the Commonwealth Caribbean lecturers are pursuing compensation of about $9 million to $11 million each, saying the non-renewal of their contracts amounted to an unfair dismissal linked to staff complaints about pay and workplace conditions.

Their two-year contracts ended on January 3, 2025. Dr. Veronica Reid, who served as a faculty representative at UCC from 2020 to 2024, said she and a male colleague had already been given courses and teaching schedules for the January semester before receiving letters that their contracts would not continue. She told The News, "I think we were fired in retaliation to two newspaper articles," adding that no reason was given.

Reid said staff representatives had raised salary and working-condition concerns with management, and that a salary review had found employees were substantially underpaid. She denied involvement in the media reports and said she believed her representative role made her a target. UCC first offered four-month contracts, then proposed compensation of up to nine months' salary. The university later offered six months' net salary and agreed to pay one month’s net salary.

The second lecturer, who asked not to be named, said he had worked at UCC for more than four years, had no performance issue raised, and did not receive the one month’s notice he said his contract required. He said the circumstances hurt his job prospects and caused financial and emotional strain.

The National Workers Union initially wrote to UCC on the lecturers' behalf, arguing that notice requirements were breached and that both workers should be treated as permanent employees under Jamaican labour law. Union of Clerical, Administrative and Supervisory Employees president Vincent Morrison, now representing them, said, "I think they have an excellent case. I think the termination is most wrongful." UCC president Professor Colin Gyles declined comment, saying the matter remains under discussion.

In Manchester, police said 83-year-old Michael Williams, also called Mike, of Comfort District, died after falling on Sunday from a water-tank platform at a relative’s property on Woodlawn Road, George’s Valley. Investigators said he appeared to have missed a step while doing maintenance about 11 a.m. and struck his forehead on a rock. He was pronounced dead at hospital. Days earlier, 60-year-old Robert Dawes died in Balvenie Heights after steel being delivered by truck hit him.

In St. James, police are investigating the killing of 42-year-old fruit vendor Kevin Pine of Orange. His body was found about 11:30 p.m. Saturday on Miriam Way, Montego Bay, with gunshot wounds. Pine was one of three men who tried to save people swept away by floodwaters on April 19, 2022, when Beran Walters and her grandchild, Janelle, were carried off. Janelle’s body was later found; Walters remains missing.