Baptiste-Primus pilots Fire Service Bill

Piloting the bill in the Senate yesterday, Minister of Labour, Small and Micro Enterprise Development Jennifer Baptiste-Primus said it was with “great joy and pride” that she was doing so as she would have negotiated the particular terms and conditions and signed of on it with the Chief Personnel Officer in 2003 when she served as president of the Public Service Association.

Expressing delight to round off the last leg in the legislative process to enable fire officers who should have been enjoying their retirement benefits, she said, “It is unfair for fire officers, who may have acted continuously for over three years and would have retired without their pension benefits being calculated at a higher level, but calculated at their substantive position.” The bill will give effect, she said, to a Cabinet decision of March 22, 2012, when Cabinet agreed that the Attorney General should amend the fifth schedule of the Fire Service act to give effect to the terms of the memorandum of understanding between the Chief Personnel Officer and the Fire Service Association (Second Division) dated March 6, 2012.

“This bill will ensure that fire officers are given superannuation benefits of the higher position as all other public officers dated back to 2003,” she said. With the bill, she said, “Government is giving effect to the principles of decent work.” It will provide for a fair income, productivity, security in the workplace and social protection, whether they were promoted or not, she said. Apart from the amendment to the Fire Service Act, Baptiste-Primus said, there are many pieces of labour legislation that no longer effectively address the rights and obligations of employees or employers in the country.

The need to modernise the legislative framework to ensure that the rights of the country’s 580,000-labour force are upheld, she said, “cannot be over-emphasised.” On the legislative front, she said, the ministry has some 22 pieces of labour legislation under review.

Noting that they are all outdated, she said, the Employment Exchange Act is 98 years old.

“We have identified ten pieces of labour legislation as legislative priorities of the ministry and which forms part of this Government’s agenda,” she said.

The list of legislative priorities, she said, include amendments to the Industrial Relations Act, Retrenchment and Severance Benefit Act, Workmen’s Compensation Act, Occupational and Safety and Health Act, Cipriani College of Labour and Cooperatives Studies Act, Friendly Societies Act, and Cooperative Societies Act.

There was also need, she said, for legislation in respect of the private security sector, legislation aimed at the elimination and prevention of child labour, and legislation outlining basic terms and conditions of work for all citizens who would enter the labour market.