The government is ready to proceed with on-again off-again flexi-work week proposals, but said the controversial issue of the Sabbath, or day of rest, would have to be negotiated between employers and employees.

Minister of Labour and Social Security Pearnel Charles, said the government’s position was that the day chosen as the worker’s day of rest, or worship, would have to be decided by mutual agreement at the work place.

“We hope that in those discussions, both sides will recognise the right to a day of rest. But, I don’t know of any government that is going to legislate that this is going to be your day of rest, take it or leave it,” Charles said in response to a suggestion from Opposition MP, Ronald Thwaites (Central Kingston).

Thwaites, a deacon in the Roman Catholic Church, appeared to be going counter to the position held by ministers of labour, including Donald Buchanan and Horace Dalley, under the previous PNP administration. Both had taken the position advanced by Charles.

In asking Charles about the status of the flexi-work week proposals in the House, Thwaites suggested that historically “the traditional days of worship are legislated” and urged the minister to commit his administration and Parliament, to an acceptance of “the biblical principles of a day of rest or worship”.

Thwaites insisted that “something as fundamental” to people’s conscience should not be left to contract. He suggested that any decision should be at the election of the employees and not the employers.

Charles was backed by Prime Minister Bruce Golding who suggested that it was not something that could be pursued on the basis of a policy laid down by government.

“There is going to have to be collaboration, dialogue and, hopefully, agreement in good faith and in good spirit,” said Golding. “One of the things that we have to be careful of, is not to put a worker in a position where when he or she is being interviewed for the job one of the questions may be, ‘as a matter of interest, what is your day of worship?’,” he cautioned.

“No employer is obliged to employ anybody and, therefore, if we make it too rigid, we may in fact deprive persons of employment, when what we want to do is to create a framework in which there is going to be some accomodation. “I am not prescribing anything. I just believe that the stakeholders are going to have to try to create a framework that respects people’s right to worship, without causing their right to worship to be a disadvantage in securing a job,” the prime minister added.

Minister Charles pointed to the work of a Joint Select Committee comprising members from both the House and the Senate, appointed in 2001 by the previous government to review the issues and report to Parliament.

One of the main issues delaying agreement on the proposal has been the question of whether persons would have to work on their Sabbath. The Seventh-day Adventist Church had been concerned that the changes could create problems for its members wishing to worship on Fridays or Saturdays.

Charles told the House, Tuesday, that this was one of several issues which were not resolved by the previous committee.

The others included: the length of the work day and the work week; how overtime should be dealt with; gender issues, including night work for women and limits on daily hours worked by women; an effective machinery to monitor and investigate complaints or breaches; amendments to restrictive clauses in various legislations; and provision of a machinery allowing both unionised and non-unionised workers to have disputes conciliated or arbitrated.

The minister noted that the tripartite Labour Advisory Council (LAC), had discussed the issue at its meeting on October 24 and it was decided that another Select Committee should be re-appointed to invite further public discussion on the issues and report to Parliament.