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Government Senator and trade unionist Kavan Gayle wants the Ministry of Labour to ensure that investors are aware of the country's labour laws prior to them setting up business in the country.
His comment follows last week Monday's strike by employees at Royalton Hotels in Western Jamaica.
The workers protested over low wages, the absence of canteen facilities and poor management and employee relations.
Gayle, President-General of the Bustamante Industrial Trade Union [BITU], speaking Sundya on Radio Jamaica's That's a Rap, said the government should first outline the country's labour relations policy to investors to prevent a recurrence of incidents which culminated with last week's protest at Royalton hotels in Negril and Trelawny.
He reaffirmed his union's solidarity with the workers at Royalton, who were pressing for improved wages and better conditions of employment, and "mutual respect."
"These workers, on a timely basis, have to be serving, satisfying the needs of guests, sometimes dealing with irate guests, and to be getting a kind of disrespect from their employer; it's not a good thing," he declared.
He also wants the government to strengthen labour protections to enforce minimum standards.
This is necessary to avoid employees being exploited by multinational corporations, he said, urging that they be compelled to "adhere to our labour standards and provide competitive, livable wages to the workforce."
"These corporations must recognise their duty to sustain ethical and globally competitive wage structures, particularly in regions where you have economic challenges," he stressed, noting that some of these multinational hotel companies are paying higher wages "in other territories of a similar nature."
Labour Relations Code
Attorney-at-law Nicole Gordon, who also appeared on the show, grounded her critique in the provisions of the Labour Relations Code, which she argued urgently requires legislative updating.
In that regard, she quoted a foundational statement in the Code: "Recognition is also given to the fact that work is a social right and obligation. It is not a commodity; it is to be respected and dignity must be accorded to those who perform it, ensuring continuity of employment, security of earnings and job satisfaction."
Reflecting on the fact that the Code was enacted by Parliament in 1976, she asserted that it urgently needs to be updated, citing the abuse of Fixed-term Contracts, particularly in relation to industrial security guards and in the the tourism sector.
Fixed term contracts are "abused," she charged, "in order to get out of what the law states."
"We're not aligning ourselves to the spirit of the Code that we instituted," she further asserted.
Furthermore, she said, "when this code was written, it was not written for life. The intent was to amend it; the intent was to improve on it, and we have failed!"
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