More calls for protection from contract work arrangements

Labour relations experts are again appealing to the Jamaican Government to give more protection to contract workers.

Khurt Fletcher, Assistant Island Supervisor of the National Workers' Union (NWU) wants more private sector entities to engage the Ministry of Labour in discussions on the matter.

Contract workers have been known to provide a wide array of services, sometimes identical to those of staff members, but have not been afforded the same privileges and benefits.

Mr Fletcher, speaking Monday on RJR’s Beyond the Headlines, argued that this discrepancy needs to be addressed, as a matter of urgency.

“Once that job is continuous in nature, and it is continuous for the development of that organization, it ought to become a permanent job,” he asserted.

Outside of that arrangement, he’s suggesting that, where firms determine that they will need to employ contract workers, they should apply to the Ministry of Labour, “for the period in which they would want to employ these people on contract.”

The Ministry of Labour would then decide whether it is proper to approve these short term contracts, he said.

Dr. Orville Taylor, Senior Lecturer at the University of the West Indies, also speaking on Beyond the Headlines, pointed to the Barbadian severance pay legislation, which he said provides important checks and balances, preventing periodic hiring and laying off of workers, thereby blocking their access to the benefits of full time employment.

“Decent work is not welfare; it is an important part of any developmental strategy because it will pay money in your pocket,” he affirmed.