The Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC) is strongly denying that some of its drivers are being arrested and charged for stealing revenue from the company without evidence.
Radcliffe Lewis, Head of the JUTC’s Revenue Protection Division, responding to a trade union complaint on the matter on Sunday, said the drivers were not being targeted unfairly.
“No special person is being targeted; it is a job that is being done and once you violate… you are going to be charged,” he asserted.
On the other hand, according to Mr. Lewis, it was alarming to note how many of the drivers who have been arrested are unionised.
He disclosed that last month, a senior union delegate at the company was charged with stealing a radio from one of the buses.
Complaint
Mr. Lewis was responding to claims by Milton Reid, a union delegate at the JUTC’s Spanish Town depot, that drivers were being arrested and charged without evidence.
Mr. Reid, who is a member of the University and Allied Workers Union (UAWU), told RJR News that the drivers were upset about what he characterised as the continued mistreatment of workers by the entity’s revenue authorities.
Mr. Lewis, denouncing that allegation, revealed that since the Revenue Protection Unit came into operation, the number of ticket infractions has been reduced to 10 monthly, from more than 100 per month.
Reid charged
Mr. Lewis also disclosed that Milton Reid himself will face the Corporate Area Criminal Court on July 29 on a charge of embezzlement.
Mr. Lewis said that Mr. Reid, a senior delegate of the University and Allied Workers Union (UAWU) was charged on Friday.
He added that Mr. Reid had been under surveillance for five months for ticket infractions.
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JUTC denies unfair arrest of drivers
