LABOUR Minister Derrick Kellier yesterday hinted at plans for a productivity-linked wage system, as he launched National Productivity Week at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel in Kingston.

“Productivity-linked wage systems are expected to boost productivity and incomes of the workers, improve the profitability and competitiveness of firms, improve labour-management cooperation and industrial relations,” the labour minister said.

Kellier, who had expressed concerns about Jamaica’s low rate of productivity, later told the Observer that productivity-linked wages would decrease the number of industrial disputes that occur because workers would be more satisfied and employers would feel comfortable compensating workers fairly, based on the productivity of their enterprise.

“It is crucial that we should go that route so as to establish more trust between workers and employers and this is something that we will be pursuing and encouraging employers to adapt as well as the unions.

“This is a win-win situation for investors and workers,” said the labour minister.

National Productivity Week, being staged by the labour ministry in association with a number of private sector companies, was organised against the background of a general lack of awareness of the issues relating to productivity and its importance to national economic and social development.

Several workshops are scheduled to be held during the week, which organisers hope will help workers to improve productivity.

Kellier told the launch that companies that fail to improve productivity would be unable to compete against more efficient ones in other countries and could face closure.

He said also that if employers failed to invest in new and appropriate technology and make the production process more efficient, they would not achieve greater sales and bigger profits. Many businesses, the minister added, have weak and outdated infrastructure which continue to act as obstacles to growth.

“The available information suggests that national productivity levels have either been flat or fallen and the country needs to be alerted to this worrying fact and must be mobilised to do something about it,” said Kellier. “At the same time, there is need for greater technical training in the techniques of productivity measurement, management and indeed improvement,” he added.

Analysis by the Jamaica Productivity Centre (JPC), said Kellier, showed that productivity trends over the past 50 years suggested that with the current annual labour productivity growth of 1.5 per cent, it would take 47 years for output per worker to double.

“However, if we could achieve labour productivity growth of around three per cent, Jamaica’s output per worker would double in just 23 years,” Kellier added.

In the meantime, the head of the Jamaica Employers Federation, Jacqueline Coke-Lloyd, urged employers to continuously improve the productivity level of the organisation as a prerequisite to effectively compete in the global market.

“Every Jamaican needs to realise that they have an important role to play and benefits to be derived from improving their levels of productivity,” she said.