Labour mobility roadblocks ahead, says Devon Evans
published: Wednesday March 8, 2006
Owen Arthur, Contributor
OCHO RIOS St.Ann:
Prime Minister of Barbados, Owen Authur is calling on the regional labour movement to lead a campaign to make the people of the Caribbean more aware of the improvements in labour mobility under the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME).
He said that under the CSME, there are exciting prospects for labour mobility but that the increase in the spread of a virulent form of xenophobia across the Caribbean, based on the fear of job losses and competition was standing in the way of business.
Prime Minister Arthur made the call, while delivering the inaugural Hugh Shearer memorial lecture at the 12th international conference on diabetics held at Sunset Jamaica Grande Resort in Ocho Rios on Saturday night.
EMBRACE THE PROCESS
He noted that the vision of Caribbean integration was first and foremost articulated by leaders of the regional labour movement, but said that while this vision is still relevant, the process must be fully embraced by everyone, especially workers, in order to achieve desired success.
Just as the regional labour movement originally led the way in making Caribbean Integration, a key aspect of its concept of regional transformation in pursuit of its own concept of integration from below, it now has a moral obligation to help promote a public education programme for the benefit of the workers of the region to bring enlightenment to issues concerning the labour mobility, Prime Minister Arthur stated.
He pointed out that provisions for labour mobility under the CSME, and the related creation of social rights for Caribbean nationals in a new Caribbean labour market, could enable the region to access for the first time the full range of skills possess by the people of the region for the purpose of national and regional development.
PROGRAMME SUPPORT
The Prime Minister said he believes the late Caribbean industrial relations giant, Hugh Lawson Shearer, in whose honour the lecture was been held would fully support his possession.
Prime Minister Arthur said Caricom Government are in support of the programme of labour mobility and are seeking to develop and apply a regime related to contingent rights, and that these rights will incorporate the rights of access to social services and amenities to nationals working in a member state. "Work to develop a protocol on this matter has been commissioned," he disclosed.
The Barbados Prime Minister went on to say that despite the Caribbean's rich history of protecting the rights and welfare of workers, the integration process can not proceed without a clearly defined framework for social dialogue and evolution of a truly regional social partnership.
He also cited the need for 'decent work' to be conceptualise as an integrated policy. The Prime Minister added, "Above all, there is need for a "Decent Work Protocol" to be part of the formal arrangement for the CSME to ensure that labour exploitation does not become one of the unintended by product of an enlarge regional market space."
He said the CSME will be of no serious nor lasting value, if it did not offer the ordinary man and woman the prospect of a new relationship with the regional society.
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