The Tribune

By AVA TURNQUEST

Tribune Staff Reporter

aturnquest@tribunemedia.net

MINISTER of Labour Shane Gibson yesterday announced the government’s plans to table legislation to ensure the protection of workers rights in the country.

Mr Gibson said lawmakers were getting ready to begin a consultative process in a bid to include all social partners and hope to introduce some of the legislation when Parliament reopens on July 25.

“For workers all over the country these are very challenging times, the biggest problem they’re having right now is trying to find work,” Mr Gibson said.

“Some are unemployed, over-employed, underemployed. You have a lot of employers taking advantage of the loopholes in the legislation.”

Mr Gibson added: “Depending on what sort of feedback we get from [stakeholders] will determine whether we will have to go back to the drawing board and redraft legislation or whether they will accept them the way they are.”

Discussions on drafting further legislation was inspired by the challenges faced by former City Markets workers, who still await compensation including their severance packages and pension plans, and other employees who faced similar circumstances in the past.

Yesterday, trade union executives asked former City Markets employees to keep hope alive and expressed their confidence in the government’s commitment to ensuring that compensation was received.

Mr Gibson said: “We don’t have all the details yet, what we are doing is trying to understand all the issues that are affecting workers right now, particularly when it comes to redundancies.

“In some instances you have foreign investors who come, employ individuals. They have benefits with them at the end of their employment and either they are unwilling or unable to [compensate employees].

“The bottom line is employees generally are not receiving what is due to them so once we’ve had an opportunity to review those cases we will then draft legislation to ensure we better protect employees.”

The labour minister met with individual unions yesterday as part of the government’s proactive bid to resolve long-standing issues and nurture dialogue between stakeholders.

Speaking to the general morale of workers in the country, Mr Gibson said: “Basically, I find a sense of renewed hope from trade unions.

“I have extended to them courtesies that in the past were very limited and we have committed to legislating social dialogue.

“We’ve committed to meeting on a regular basis to get feedback and address concerns on a timely basis so my impression is that everybody is happy right now.”

He added: “But that’s all relative because even though we agree to meet and discuss the issues at the end of the day we’ll never agree to everything.

“This is a honeymoon period, it will be put to the test very soon whether we will be able to sustain it.

“As of right now there is a good relationship, as long as we will be able to keep the dialogue open and be as frank and transparent as possible, as we should, then I believe that we should continue to have that relationship where we have mutual respect for each other.”