MONTEGO BAY, St James — President of the Global Services Sector (GSS) Wayne Sinclair is seeking clarification on how the People’s National Party’s (PNP’s) promised changes, if elected, to the existing system of contract work would impact businesses. GSS refers to the sector previously called Business Process Outsourcing (BPO).

“The nature of the business is contract-based. I’m not sure how you can run a business whose revenues are essentially contract-based and not have contract-based employment. And it’s really that simple,” Sinclair told the Jamaica Observer Monday when asked for a reaction to comments made by PNP President Mark Golding.

Addressing a campaign meeting at Sandy Bay Primary School in Hanover last Friday, Golding vowed to address what has been a long-standing concern in some quarters.

“Time come to sort out this contract work thing in the public sector and in the private sector. My commitment to you tonight, and to Jamaica, is that the next PNP Government will deliver justice for the workers of this country and will eliminate the abuse of the contract work form,” he promised.

Golding cited the GSS and tourism industry as examples where short-term contracts are used to keep workers “hanging from a string”.

“You don’t give them the security of tenure in their job and you’re depriving them of the benefits that the employment laws of the land intended them to have,” the PNP president said of employers who engage in the practice.

“Time come to cut that out. Time has come to cut out the misuse of contract work terms in the country,” added Golding.

He made it clear that he is not suggesting that there is no role for contracting individuals to do short-term, project-based work; for example, a carpenter or plumber.

“But for people who are essentially full-time employed coming to work every day, day in and day out, the rules of the job are determined by their employer, the pay that they’re getting is determined by their employer, they are workers for that enterprise. They must have the full range of rights that the workers of Jamaica have fought long and hard for,” argued Golding.

This is not the first time the topic has surfaced as both sides of the political divide have raised concerns about the ongoing arrangement. In addition, Assistant General Secretary of the Bustamante Industrial Trade Union Colin Virgo has commented on the issue on numerous occasions.

On Monday, the GSS’s Sinclair pointed to benefits of the present arrangement.

“Because our workers have generally done so well on these contracts, companies have been able to extend the contracts,” he argued.

“The very nature of our industry is that our revenues are based on contracts that we get from our clients overseas. It’s our ability to renew those contracts or supplement those contracts with additional contracts, potentially, that allows us to keep people employed for extended periods of time,” noted the GSS president.