Region told BVI fostering ‘decent work’ ethics since hurricanes
Labour Minister Dr Kedrick Pickering gestures to his Permanent Secretary, Ronald Smith-Berkeley.
Labour Minister Dr Kedrick Pickering has suggested to the regional community that the BVI is fostering work environments that are productive and that deliver fair income to workers locally.
Productivity and fair wages are just two factors that the International Labour Organization (ILO) use to define a term known as ‘decent work’.
The ILO is pushing their ‘decent work’ agenda in the Caribbean region and, according to the organisation, decent work is achieved when employment opportunities provide other qualities such as “security in the workplace and social protection for families, better prospects for personal development and social integration, freedom for people to express their concerns, organise and participate in the decisions that affect their lives, and equality of opportunity and treatment for all women and men”.
BVI doing ‘decent work’ since hurricanes
The BVI has shown signs of those characteristics in its labour community, Dr Pickering suggested while speaking in Panama at a high-level meeting about the future of work in the Caribbean.
“Following the disasters, it was quickly realised that all work was decent work, as persons were faced with displacement from their regular jobs due to the destruction of the Tourism industry, namely hotels, yachting and restaurants,” Dr Pickering said at the meeting held on October 1.
Dr Pickering also spoke of recovery efforts that the BVI put into effect to adapt to territory’s labour needs following the 2017 hurricanes —Irma and Maria.
His statements come nearly two months after he prompted for an investigation to be launched in relation to reports that a number of expatriate workers in the BVI are being subjected to modern versions of “enslavement”.
Policies to advance ‘decent work’ agenda
Meanwhile, a media release from government said the aforementioned meeting in Panama also entertained discussions about policies and practices that would ‘advance the decent work agenda in the Caribbean’.
Below are other things that the government said were discussed at the meeting in Panama:
- Policies for sustainable, productive development for sustained and inclusive growth, with more and better decent jobs.
- Policies to promote the transition from the informal to the formal economy and to respond to accelerating technological change and to diverse forms of employment.
- Measures and policies to strengthen and redesign institutions in the world of work, including social security, and to ensure that trade union and labour rights are fully upheld.
- The digital economy and labour skills and competencies.
It is not yet clear how the matters discussed in the meeting will be applied to the BVI.
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And that Grade…. one sided P.S. is just like the ONE way street in main street Road Town!
Every other word that could be compiled has been for general consumption, all but three:
Fair, livable wages.
Indeed, the worker exploitation economy continues.
And, once all hotels are back into the game full time, so will the exploitation of our people continue at the consent of our government.
A practice that emerged in the 1960’s with the VIP and is still in practice today all because of governments that are willing to have their people exploited by slave wage providers while they reap the fruits of that slave labour.
Additionally, while consumer protection legislation that would’ve protected the poor and middle class against price gouging, excessive pricing and greed, greed and more greed has been effectively derailed.
Derailed by whom? by those who wants the staus quo to remain in place, and the exploitation and robbery of the poor and middle class to continue.
Today, new faces and minds are entering the constrictive government forces and oppressive greed politics.
Consumer protection legislation will not set prices.
Those that fall under the Labour Minister’s government portfolio are no better off. As a doctor, first….and a minister second…it’s just shameful.
What’s he been smoking? I don’t consider decent wotk ethics to show up when you want, to do substandard work that is finished at an undefined time in the future at which point one will be presented with a bill that exceeds the originally agreed upon amount.
I can’t wait to NOT have to see this man’s face in anything related to Government ever again. Such a waste!
“organise and participate in the decisions that affect their lives, and equality of opportunity and treatment for all women and men”.
In the BVi? For non belongers?
No vote, discriminatory taxation, bonded to a single employer , no right to move jobs, under constant threat of deportation…et etc.
You cannot be serious.
I have NEVER EVER read a bigger pile of BS . Just a modified version of slavery here . Get over yourselves ministers .
$300m budget is $10k a person
avg household 4
$40k spending for Household
and the government can provide subsidized housing simply out of banking fees
a way forward as the hotel wages stay low or the leave for other islands