OPPOSITION Senator Kavan Gayle wants the campaign financing proposals from the Electoral Commission of Jamaica (ECJ) to include provisions barring companies in breach of the law from financing the political campaigns.

Senator Gayle, who is also president of the Bustamante Industrial Trade Union (BITU), particularly targeted private security firms which, he says, are major contributors to the political parties, and seem to wield a high level of influence over them, although failing to remit statutory deductions from their employees’ wages, and disobeying provisions of the labour laws.

“It is obvious that the sector which employs private security guards wields a very strong influence over the political parties, in terms of how they deal with issues affecting these workers — including their working conditions; their rights enshrined in both the Constitution and various pieces of labour legislation, such as the Labour Relations and Industrial Disputes Act (LRIDA), maternity leave and holiday with pay legislation; and the fundamental issue of whether they should be considered workers or contractors,” Gayle told the Senate.

He added that for the past decade, trade unions have been pushing for the private security industry to be represented by a Joint Industrial Council (JIC), including representatives of government, employers and employees, to deal with the various issues affecting the sector, without success.

“We are convinced that we have been ignored by successive governments, because of the influence exerted on them by the owners of these operations and, therefore, we are concerned about the influence that companies like these can wield to the detriment of their workers,” Gayle said.

He also criticised the Government’s refusal to refuse applications for contracts to secure government ministries, agencies and companies from private security companies which breach the laws, including refusing to remit the deductions from their employees’ pay.

“I believe that it would be much better to send a signal to these law-breaking institutions that they will not have any chance of contributing to, or seeking to influence, the political landscape while continuing to disobey the laws of the land. We cannot have a system which turns a blind eye to loopholes like this,” Senator Gayle said.

The Senate approved the recommendations from the ECJ on Friday. They were approved by the House of Representatives on September 24. The recommendations will now be sent to the Cabinet for approval, after which a Bill will be drafted which will be sent back to Parliament for approval.