The National Minimum Wage Advisory Commission (NMWAC) is expected to get going within a few weeks, with its focus on consultations on a new national minimum wage and minimum rates for private security workers by early next year.

However, there will be at least one change to the membership of the commission handling the consulting and recommendations for several years now, as the chairman, Silvera Castro, will be giving way to Dr Ronald Robinson, a special projects consultant at the University of the West Indies (UWI), a former member of the Senate and chairman of the Private Security Regulation Authority (PSRA).

The other two members of the commission – human resource manager Bernita Locke and general secretary of the Union of Technical, Administrative and Supervisor Personnel, St Patrice Ennis — are expected to rejoin the commission when the consultations on the new rates start.

Minister of Labour and Social Security Shahine Robinson confirmed the new developments on Friday when contacted by the Jamaica Observer.

The minister last announced a 12.9 per cent increase in the national minimum wage, moving it from $6,200 to $7,000 per 40-hour workweek in the House of Representatives in June, 2018. Minimum rates for the security guards were increased to $9,700, up from $8,854 per 40-hour week, reflecting a 9.6 per cent increase. Those rates became effective last August 1.

“We have reviewed the recommendations. We have taken into account the stability of the Jamaican economy, the rate of inflation and the economic circumstance of the workers as well as the ability of the employers to absorb an increase,” she told Parliament then.

She also recommended that a joint select committee of Parliament be established to address issues raised concerning the security guards.

“I want it to have the full involvement of all stakeholders, including my colleagues on the other side of this House,” she told the House then. However, that promise is yet to be fulfilled.

While there has been much sympathy for workers, such as Government employees who may have to pay increase to helpers and other minimum wage earners while sticking to a three-five per cent pay increase per annum, there is hardly any for the private security companies which have to survive in a very competitive environment.

The issue achieved renewed life in May, when chairman of the Jamaica Society for Industrial Security (JSIS), Lt Commander George Overton, told Parliament’s Public Administration and Appropriations Committee (PAAC) that about a “race to the bottom” among the private industrial security companies for contracts.

Overton insisted that the practice of some firms reducing their employees benefits commensurate with reducing the cost for their service, was undermining the survival of the industry.

“It’s in a race to the bottom, because the purchasers of security are no longer purchasing on the basis of quality. It is all driven by price,” Overton told the committee.

The PAAC also revealed several breaches reported to them in terms of employers in the industry who were underpaying various allowances owed to their employees.

The trade unions have consistently raised concerns about the private contractual arrangements under which the guards work, which they see as the greatest block to their efforts to organise them. The workers are virtually non-organised because they have individual contractual arrangements.

Commenting on the situation, president of the Bustamante Industrial Trade Union (BITU), Senator Kavan Gayle, thinks that it would be helpful to the unions if the Government deny contracts to the companies which refuse to become part of a Joint Industrial Council (JIC) which they are urging the minister to set up.

The JIC is a tripartite body comprised of a worker and an employer representative and is usually chaired by a Government representative.

Senator Gayle also believes that the Government has no right giving contracts to security companies which refuse to comply with the labour laws.

“With Government being the biggest employer of private security, it means billions of taxpayers’ dollars are being paid into an industry which is ignoring the country’s labour laws,” he pointed out.

The issue was also raised during the meeting of the Standing Finance Committee (SFC) of the House of Representatives in February, as it reviewed the 2019/20 budget provisions in the House of Representatives.

But the minister reminded her colleagues in Parliament that while she would welcome cooperation within the industry under the umbrella of the JIC, she had no legal authority to demand that private employers, like the security companies and construction companies, join a JIC.

Outgoing chairman of the NMWAC Commission, Castro, admitted that there is a difficulty getting some private companies to operate within the laws. But, if that is so, it will be interesting to see how it is handled by the commission’s new chairman, considering that the PSRA is the regulator for the industry.

“That’s how these small fly-by-night companies come about. They just refuse to pay the workers what is authorised by law,” Castro told the Sunday Observer.

“This enables them to offer cheaper contracts to the companies. But the major companies have problems with the costing, too. I remember when I was at the cement company, when the minimum rates are increased we would ask the contractor to reduce the number of security guards we hired,” he said.

Castro eventually left the Caribbean Cement Company to take up the job of human resource manager at Guardsman Limited, the largest private security firm in Jamaica, while he chaired the commission. A situation which was seen by some of the trade unionists as a conflict of interest. However, he insisted that he became the chairman of the commission on the basis of his long tenure as one of the three commissioners.

He said that he would agree with separating the consultations for the setting of new minimum rates from the adjustment in the national minimum wage, as the tasks of the security guards demand more skills than what is required of a normal minimum wage earner.

However, he is not sure that the major companies would agree, as long as there are smaller companies which can undermine their bids.

“I think that the companies which employ the security firms need to change their attitude and put quality service before cheaper contracts. They need to look for quality in the service they are getting,” he said.