JavaScript is disabled in your web browser or browser is too old to support JavaScript. Today almost all web pages contain JavaScript, a scripting programming language that runs on visitor's web browser. It makes web pages functional for specific purposes and if disabled for some reason, the content or the functionality of the web page can be limited or unavailable.

Sunday, July 6, 2025

Min­is­ter speaks out against 'par­al­lel work­force'

Contract labour out of control

by

20160115

Labour Min­is­ter Jen­nifer Bap­tiste-Primus says con­tract labour in T&T has got­ten out of con­trol and has formed a par­al­lel work­force to per­ma­nent work­ers.

She said so yes­ter­day while ad­dress­ing the me­dia at yes­ter­day's post-Cab­i­net press con­fer­ence.

Bap­tiste-Primus said her min­istry would hold a work­shop in March aimed at re­duc­ing the de­pen­den­cy on con­tract work­ers.

She added the PNM had made an agree­ment with the Joint Trade Union Move­ment (JTUM) pri­or to the elec­tion to look at the is­sue of con­tract work­ers.

JTUM signed a mem­o­ran­dum of un­der­stand­ing with the PNM to look at sev­er­al is­sues fac­ing the work­ing class in T&T.

"The gov­ern­ment can ad­dress con­tract work­ers in terms of the pub­lic ser­vice and we will al­so at­tempt to in­flu­ence the oth­er em­ploy­ers in the coun­try to min­imise their de­pen­dence on con­tract labour," Bap­tiste-Primus said.

She said there was a Cab­i­net-ap­point­ed com­mit­tee to look at the is­sue of con­tract labour.

"The whole prin­ci­ple of con­tract labour has got­ten out of con­trol.

"The prin­ci­ple of con­tract labour is hav­ing a clear­ly de­fined job to be done, giv­ing some­one a con­tract to do that job and when that con­tract comes to an end, then the per­son goes his or her own way but that has not been the case," she added.

She said con­tract labour had formed a par­al­lel work­force.

"If an or­gan­i­sa­tion, the na­ture of an or­gan­i­sa­tion re­quires a par­tic­u­lar func­tion to be done on a con­tin­u­ous na­ture then there is no need for a con­tract to be giv­en. That per­son should be hired as a per­ma­nent work­er."

She said the Gov­ern­ment in­tend­ed to keep faith with the as­sur­ances giv­en and by the end of March would have a skele­tal frame­work to move for­ward.

Bap­tiste-Primus held a two-day stake­hold­ers con­sul­ta­tion, which be­gan on Wednes­day, with the Co-op­er­a­tive Cred­it Union Move­ment on two con­tro­ver­sial pieces of leg­is­la­tion.

The leg­is­la­tion un­der re­view were the Co-op­er­a­tive So­ci­eties Amend­ment Bill of 2014 and the Cred­it Union Bill of 2014.

Both bills sought to treat the cred­it unions as a bank­ing in­sti­tu­tion, a move protest­ed by cred­it unions.

She said 300 rep­re­sen­ta­tives met to look at the bill on Wednes­day and hoped they would come up with a frame­work and a jus­ti­fi­ca­tion for amend­ments that the min­istry would have to make.

Bap­tiste-Primus al­so met with the labour move­ment, em­ploy­ers and busi­ness cham­bers on the ad­vice of the In­dus­tri­al Re­la­tions Ad­vi­so­ry Com­mit­tee.

The groups met to dis­cuss the In­dus­tri­al Re­la­tions Bill 2015, which she said brought uni­ty be­tween the trade union move­ment and the em­ploy­ers.

"They both re­ject­ed the leg­is­la­tion as their was not enough con­sul­ta­tion," she said.

Fur­ther con­sul­ta­tion is ex­pect­ed to take place next month.


Related articles

Sponsored

Weather

PORT OF SPAIN WEATHER

Sponsored