Just months after completing an extensive rebranding exercise, the Massy Group yesterday opened T&T's first Massy Stores SuperCentre at the Trincity Industrial Estate, Tacarigua.
The facility, with 38,000 square feet of retail space, provides expanded shopping options compared to traditional Massy Stores, with a wide range of electronics, household and personal care items in additional to its supermarket offerings. The opening attracted hundreds of customers who lined up outside the outlet even before its doors opened to the public.
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Post by Trinidad Guardian. But even in the excitement of the opening of the 18th retail outlet in the local Massy Stores chain, business executives at the official ceremony were expressing concerns about the worsening labour shortage in the country. One of them, Dominic Hadeed, managing director of Blue Waters, said vacancies in his company are currently at 20 per cent.
"Talking to some of the fast food operators, between 20 to 25 per cent vacancies they can't fill. This is not even talking about absenteeism, and existing employees who probably have to work extra hours because of the staff shortage. Its really a chronic problem," Hadeed told reportersHe said business people should be able to recruit from other Caribbean countries but face problems getting work permits in some labour classifications.
"It is actually easier to get a work permit for a skilled employee than it is to get for just labourers," he said."It is something that has to be addressed. We do have a lot of make-work programmes and people just don't want these labour-related jobs. In most typical oil-related economies where they do well, a lot of the population don't want those jobs.
"Most countries do open up the labour laws to allow for labour. T&T needs to look at it as it is affecting the productivity of the country. We have a lot more consumers than producers at the moment. Business people, even though they may have a viable business opportunity, they just can't get labour."I know a lot of business people who have put projects on hold, not because they can't do well with them, but because they can't get enough employees to do the job well," Hadeed said.
While agreeing that the labour shortage is a significant problem, Gervase Warner, Massy Group president and chief executive, said that would not deter him from doing business. He said instead of the minimum wage, the Massy Group pays "what we think we need to pay people."
"We have to continue to do whatever we can. We are trying to find innovative ways to help, particularly women, because the labour force is increasingly made up of women who are more serious about coming out and wanting to work," Warner said."If we have to set up day care arrangements and transportation arrangements, it is important for us to figure out ways to make our employees' life easy so they can get to work and not have to worry about their children."
Derek Chin, chairman Movie Towne, suggested that Government follow the Canadian model where responsible employers are allowed to hire foreign labour without a work permit for about two years and with controlled measures.He added that work ethic in T&T is very poor and it is a challenge to recruit and train workers.
"In our companies we don't pay minimum wage at all. Wwe are above minimum wage and still can't attract the type of people that we feel that could become ambassadors to our restaurants or to MovieTowne," Chin said.
