Coming to grips with free movement of labour

Systems are all go for government’s plan to open up the local economy to skilled labourers from other Caricom countries.

Prime Minister Patrick Manning announced his administration’s intention  to diversify the labour market at the recently held 14th Inter-Sessional Caricom Heads of Government meeting. This move, he said, was part of the effort to have TT ready to enter into the Caricom Single Market and Economy (CSME) by year’s end. Support for government’s plan has been forthcoming from members of the business community and even major players in the trade union movement. However, many maintain, government has to be careful in the way it proceeds.

According to Carlton Gibson, Second Vice President of the Oilfield Workers Trade Union (OWTU), labourers have been moving throughout the islands for a number of years without the aid of any administrative policy. “There are Trinidadian labourers working in islands such as St Lucia and Grenada among others, just as there are labourers from these countries employed here,” he said, in a telephone interview. “We are a Caribbean people and with or without an official policy, the movement of labour will continue,” he asserted.

President General of the Seamen and Waterfront Workers Trade Union (SWWTU), Michael Annisette, shared Gibson’s sentiment. Describing himself as “a Caricom nationalist,” Annisette noted that he had no objection to the opening up of the local economy to skilled Caricom labour. But this, he said, must be reciprocated by the other islands and regulated in such a way that it will not be used and misused for cheap labour. “Foreigners,” he went on, “will be coming into TT without the benefit of a collective agreement and a proper regulated committee needs to be set up to oversee the involvement of the trade union movement.”

UWI Economist, Dr Dhanyshar Mahabir, believes that free movement ensures greater employment of our human capital. “If we are moving towards greater integration in the Caribbean region, it involves not only the free movement of goods but the free movement of capital as well,” he said, adding that one would expect that human capital or rather skilled labour should be able to move with relative freedom within the region.” “This is a valuable first step in facilitating the free movement of labour in the region,” he added. However, he asserted, one country cannot bear the burden, hence the need for reciprocity. He said, “if for example, there is a shortage of accountants in TT, then those from Jamaica and Barbados or any other Caricom island can come here to work. Just the same, if there is a shortage of engineers in St Kitts, then our engineers should be able to go there to work.

“If however, only one country does it and others do not follow, then we are simply opening up our market to competition,” he said. He warned that, “we can find ourselves with low wages for professionals without them having the opportunity to migrate within the region.” This, he said, may have the perverse effect of forcing our skilled labourers to migrate out of the region entirely. Mahabir maintained that if reciprocity was achieved on this particular sphere of the market, the next move would be to the level of the free movement of unskilled labour throughout the islands. “Of course,” he said, “if we go in this direction, we might just find there is an influx of unskilled labourers moving from the more depressed territories to the more buoyant territories. “This influx would have to be catered for, given the burdens which may be imposed on social services,” he added.

President of the TT Chamber of Industry and Commerce, David O’Brien, expressed his belief that bringing in labourers from other Caricom countries would be an asset to TT since it would help to fill the gaps in the sectors where there is a shortage of labour. The energy sector is one such example. Professor Ken Julien, former Dean of the Faculty of Engineering at UWI, and Chairman of the National Energy Skills Centre (NESC) has said that over the next five years TT will need an additional 3,000 individuals per year with tertiary level technical skills training in order to satisfy the needs of the expanding energy industry. Experts have determined that the growth in the natural gas sector and related industries is directly responsible for the rising demand for skilled workers.

Julien maintained existing training institutions put out less than 1,000 adequately skilled persons annually. Over the next seven years, there will be a need for at least 2,500 professional engineers, 4,500 engineering technicians and 1,600 skilled craftsmen. Professor Julien further noted that the production sectors needed more engineering technicians, craftsmen and more tertiary level graduates with either a Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Technology Degree. Preliminary results from a study, which is still being conducted, revealed that for the period 2000 to 2009, more than 400 professional engineers would be needed per year, over and above the number of graduates coming into the market. Julien further noted that these gaps will only become larger as the country heads into an expected 10 to 15 year period of sustained activity in the energy sector. While O’Brien stressed the importance of having free movement of labour among the Caricom countries, he could not say if the  impending implementation of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) was driving it. “If it is inevitable,” he stated, “then the FTAA will deal with the issue of labour and may just cater for the movement of labour among countries named in the agreement.”

According to Economist, Gregory McGuire, with or without an oil boom or the FTAA, the freeing up of the regional market for skilled and professional labour  is an important part of deepening the regional integration process. Under a regime of free movement of labour, he said,  new and expanding opportunities will be created for skilled personnel throughout the region. When asked whether he was of the belief that opening up the economy to outside labour would increase the cost of labour, McGuire maintained that the state of the market in terms of the balance between supply and demand would determine where wages go. “During periods of buoyant economic activity, as anticipated over the next few years, there is a tendency for labour costs to rise sometimes out of proportion with anything else,” he said, adding that increasing the supply options may have a dampening effect on wages. This point was reiterated by Annisette, who stated that if foreign labourers were brought into TT, there were employers who would not hesitate to pay them less than the local labourers.

Therefore, he maintained, some sort of regulated commission needed to prevent this from occurring. “In truth and in fact,” he stated, “all of the provisions of the ILO in terms of protective bargaining must be enshrined if this is to make sense, as well as to avoid a fall out or fighting among Caricom countries which has occurred in the past.” First Vice President of the Trinidad and Tobago Manufacturers Association (TTMA), Anthony Hosang, expressed the view that the free movement of labour can work in favour of TT, since local companies in all areas of business have invested and plied their trade throughout the region. Construction companies and construction material manufacturers, he said,  continue to tender and win lucrative contracts throughout the region and the free movement of labour will definitely aid their efforts, he said.

He went on to note that the cost of living in TT was by far one of the lowest in the region. “Labourers,” he said, “from other islands have to sustain a family overseas, at a much higher cost than a TT labourer would. “There will always be a demand for good, productive, skilled labour and we must therefore ensure that we provide our citizens with the opportunity to acquire the skills to capitalise on a larger job market,” he maintained. In the words of Dr Mahabir, PM Manning needs to ensure that there is reciprocity in the area of skilled labour as well as an acceptance of the definition of what skilled labour is. “If these two can be agreed upon,” he stressed, “then we will be making progress towards regional integration.”