The Jamaica Police Federation has won its lawsuit against the ministry of finance and public service, for the payment of overtime money, owed to police officers, since 2008.
The Supreme Court ruled on the matter this morning.
In the claim, the Jamaica Police Federation said, it had to sue the government and its agents, because of frustration caused by the state’s failure, to keep promises.
In ruling on the case, the court said, unchallenged evidence showed, that the existing manual system for recording overtime hours in the force, is unreliable, due to integrity issues.
On the issue of damages, Justice David Batts noted, that the court agreed with the defendants, on the 10 hours overtime payment, that was put in place, amidst the lack of a reliable system for measuring hours worked.
He declared, that the heads of agreement, referenced by the federation in the court matter, constitute binding contracts between the parties, and created a legitimate expectation for payment, on the part of the federation members.
He said going forward, government must institute a system to properly track overtime hours worked by officers so they can be compensated accordingly.
