St Ann Bauxite Limited (SABL) announced yesterday that approximately 150 positions, or about 20 per cent of its workforce, would be made redundant during the first quarter of 2009.

In a release from its Discovery Bay plant, SABL said the reduction would affect employees, contractors and temporary workers at all levels and would involve workers at the company's facilities in Discovery Bay, Brown's Town and Water Valley - all in St Ann.

The company said the staff cuts represented part of an ongoing cost-reduction programme that has become necessary because of the global financial crisis and "the unprecedented decline" in the demand and price of bauxite and alumina.

But in a quick response, the University and Allied Workers' Union (UAWU), which represents production workers, accused SABL of breaching the Labour Relations Code and said it would write to the company to protest this.

Prudently manage costs

Larry Holley, president of St Ann Bauxite, said: "While we continue to believe that the long-term fundamentals for bauxite and alumina are quite positive, we must prudently manage costs in the current environment.

"We regret the impact that this will have on the affected employees, their families and the local communities. Functional consolidations, which affect valued employees, are always very difficult, but are required at this time in support of the long-term sustainability of SABL," Holley said.

Lambert Brown, UAWU president, told The Gleaner yesterday that the company met with unions representing workers on the day the release was issued, but said the announcement was not consistent with laws relating to labour relations.

"The law says we should have proper consultations and this was not done. I will be writing to the company to insist on this, as they need to be consistent with the Labour Relations Code. We need to work out issues relevant to any redundancy that may take place," Brown said.

It is the second time this week that a bauxite company announced it would be cutting staff.

On Wednesday, Aluminium Partners of Jamaica announced that 250 non-permanent and unskilled workers were to lose their jobs.

That latest reduction brought to 400 the total number of persons the company would have sent home.

This latest news also follows that of another bauxite company, Windalco, which sent home 150 non-permanent workers in December.

The job cuts in Jamaica's bauxite sector come as demand for alumina falls, triggering a decline in aluminium production.

This is as a direct result of the economic crisis now affecting North America, Europe and China, which has seen a slowdown in the construction, transportation and packaging sectors, areas largely responsible for alumina consumption.