Good start, Minister Kellier

Everton PRYCE

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Newly appointed minister of Labour and Social Security in the two-week-old PNP administration, Derrick Kellier, has calmly begun to give expression to the government's election commitment to "place great emphasis on job creation", by his initiatives to create, generate and identify crucial job opportunities for Jamaican workers locally and overseas.

Since assuming office, he has moved swiftly to signal his ministry's intended role and quest to play its part in job creation for Jamaican workers, as he convenes meetings with overseas ministry staff, local board members and other stakeholders.

I regard this as a good start for the minister who held the Labour and Social Security portfolio in the 2005-2007 Simpson Miller-led administration, in light of the country's soaring unemployment rate. Jamaicans eligible for the workforce but who cannot find jobs jumped from 9.9 per cent in 2007 when the PNP administration left office, to 12.9 per cent at the end of 2011, when the party regained the reins of power.

Kellier clearly comes to the labour side of his ministry in this new economic dispensation, prepared to exercise a great deal of creative and strategic thinking vis-à-vis the issue of job creation and the necessary infrastructure for achieving this objective.

I suspect, for example, that his success in getting Prime Minister Simpson Miller to return the National Productivity Centre (NPC) from the Office of the Prime Minister to the Ministry of Labour, where it properly belongs, was influenced by his studied appreciation that the centre - which is aimed at increasing efficiency and productivity in the private and public sector - can only redound to stimulating greater levels of economic growth and employment opportunities in Jamaica.

The minister deserves commendation for this bold move, because placing the NPC in the OPM was at best short-sighted, and betrayed the claim that government sub-entities falling under the OPM stand to receive greater governmental attention leading to greater impact. On the contrary, such moves often serve to impede prime ministerial broad-based strategic thinking and create unnecessary bureaucratic obstacles to the delivery of effective governance. No wonder some social partners among the unions, employers and workers were opposed to the relocation exercise to the OPM; and why the International Labour Organisation - which provided technical and financial support for the establishment of the centre - was alarmed at this development.

Kellier is sending early signals that he intends, over the next five years, to think outside the box in achieving the objectives of job creation in the labour ministry. Already, he has set about negotiating more viable processes of formal reciprocation in the overseas employment programme between Jamaica and our traditional allies, namely the USA and Canada. It is reported that within a week of assuming office, he mobilised a special group of employers from the provinces of Newfoundland, British Columbia, Alberta, and Nova Scotia in Canada, to visit Jamaica to discuss strategies for expanding job creation opportunities for Jamaican workers.

From this initiative, some 30 mechanics and tractor drivers have been recruited and will leave the island shortly to take up their new job placements overseas. And the possibility now exists, we are told, to increase by 300 the number of Jamaican workers for overseas employment in this category by the end of 2012, as soon as Kellier visits the Canadian provinces later this year to establish the appropriate framework and protocols for participating with Jamaica in the supply of workers with various skill sets. The training necessary for the realisation of these exciting job opportunities will be undertaken by the Brown's Town Community College, with whom an important partnership has been forged between Canadian employers and the labour ministry. One of the Canadian employers who recruited from among the 30 mechanics and drivers has offered to provide the government with the requisite equipment for the training of tractor drivers and heavy-duty mechanics. These, say officials of the ministry, will be installed at the college.

The possibilities for increased employment in this new area are endless, and represent an important diversification in the skill sets of overseas Jamaican workers away from the traditional agricultural worker programme, which is also set for further expansion.

Although these are early days in the life of the new administration, these initiatives for job creation overseas for Jamaican workers signal an auspicious beginning. Despite the global recession, overseas employers continue to rely on Jamaican workers in all categories of the labour force for quality service. The management of Keywar Island Resort in South Carolina, for instance, has promised 175 jobs to Jamaicans this year to work as chefs, cooks, housekeepers and bell captains.

The days of sole reliance on mega-investment projects to stimulate mass employment are behind us. Success in job creation for the future must rely on creative thinking and the will to utilise our talents in new and innovative ways. I am fascinated by Minister Kellier's resolve to redirect some of the resources earmarked for welfare benefits into training, job placements and entrepreneurship, which ultimately will result in the transformation of large numbers of people dependent on handouts.

epryce9@gmail.com

Do you feel buying into Facebook now is a good investment for the long-run?
	Yes
	No

View Results
Results published weekly in Sunday Finance

Username:
Password:

GCT to go down, white rum prices going up

Good start, Minister Kellier