KINGSTON, Jamaica – A future People’s National Party (PNP) Government will enact comprehensive legislation to eliminate what the party calls “abusive contractual arrangements which circumvent employment rights”, right across the economy.

Opposition Leader Mark Golding made the promise Tuesday, during his contribution to the 2024/25 Budget Debate in the House of Representatives.

“We see workers across the economy working for years under fixed term contracts, and the Government will not address this structural inequity afflicting our labour market,” Golding said.

“The slow, incremental process of eliminating this practice from the public sector, thrust on this Government by the ruling of the court affecting security guards, is just not enough. We will ensure the equal treatment of all workers, regardless of the legal form of their contracts,” he added.

The Opposition leader told the House that “We recognise that crime and other socially negative behaviour emerge from the imbalanced structure of our society. This is why we prioritise social justice and workers’ rights as an essential part of the role of government”.

As a society with a history of oppression of our people, we must be ever-mindful of the need to build healthy employment relations. That includes how the government treats the civil service. [The] Government should set the example for how all other employers treat workers. At a most basic level, we will approach all negotiations with public sector workers with respect, openness and a spirit of partnership,” Golding continued.

Golding noted that the government has been boasting of low unemployment, however, he said many of those jobs are below the International Labour Organization’s standard of decent work.

“Many young persons are frustrated and are no longer looking for a job. Low unemployment exists alongside high underemployment, with hundreds of thousands of Jamaicans of working age staying outside the workforce, unwilling to work for wages that cannot sustain them with a decent quality of life,” Golding said.

He said it was time for Jamaica to advance from a minimum wage system to a liveable wage system, and that needs to be tied to increased productivity to be sustainable.

He said the next PNP Government will introduce structural reforms that balance the interest of employers and workers to bring about productivity, equity and decent work. “Our government will seek to ensure that the workers of Jamaica are respected and their rights are protected,” he said.

Golding said under its labour reform proposals a future PNP Government:

● Will approach all negotiations with public sector workers and their representatives with respect, openness and a spirit of partnership;

● will pursue the establishment of Joint Industrial Councils in industries where there are high levels of employment but there is no common standard for working conditions and no union representation. The security guard industry, the tourism industry and the global services industry (BPO) are cases in point;

● will review the incentive legislation for Employee Share Ownership Plans to make it user-friendly and easy to comply with and administer, followed by a promotional exercise to encourage Jamaican firms to establish Employee Share Ownership Plans which align employer and employee interests and create wealth for their workers at all levels, from the bearer and the janitor to the CEO;

● will establish a commission to examine the dire situation now faced by communities in former sugar areas, and to develop a comprehensive plan for the economic revitalisation of those areas and

● will put in place proper and dignified relocation arrangements for the families of former sugar workers.

“These priority areas will all be built out using social transformation and social protection interventions, techniques and measures, and will be linked into health and wellness strategies. They will be informed by gender considerations, and directly address the needs of persons with disabilities, with inclusion being a guiding principle,” Golding said.