Economy flawed, Abdulah

Political leader of the Movement for Social Justice (MSJ), David Abdulah, made the statement during the feature address at the formal opening of the Banking, Insurance and General Workers Union (BIGWU) Seventh Biennial Conference of Delegates at the Cipriani College of Labour and Cooperative Studies on Saturday.

Abdulah noted that between 2005 to 2014, the number of people who lived below the poverty line increased from 16.6 percent to 24.5 percent. At the same time, he said, Government’s Budget increased by over 100 percent, while the country’s GDP, expenditure and the number of social programs also increased significantly.

“Something has to be flawed in the economy… The economic policies implemented by successive governments protected the interests of capital and undermined the interest of workers,” he said.

However, Abdulah stressed that part of the problem was with the labour movement because the focus had been on industrial aspects rather than the promotion of worker education and consciousness.

“It is not enough to change persons in office because… the very structures and institutions into which they operate and function have not changed their essence and serve the interest, not of workers, but of the owners and managers of big capital. Therefore, for the workers’ agenda to be realised, we have to come to the consciousness that we need to change the relations of political and economic power fundamentally,” he said. Giving remarks at the event, Minister of Labour and Small Enterprise Development, Jennifer Baptiste-Primus, noted that very little had been done to the country’s labour legislation over the past 50 years.

She assured that updating the laws would be a priority of the Government and said she intended to go to Cabinet with amendments to the Industrial Relations Act, including Contract Labour legislation, and the Corporative Credit Union Act.

Baptiste-Primus added that Government made the decision to reduce its dependency on contract labour and has hopes to ensure that every worker would enjoy basic terms and conditions.

However, to do so, she stressed that consultation with all stakeholders and patients was necessary.

“For there to be a systematic update of workers’ agenda, we need a breeding ground that will see a systematic penetration of this philosophy across all sectors.

There is a need for the Labour Movement, the Ministry of Labour, the Cipriani College of Labour and corporatives to work together to develop new areas of training to Develop the Credit union sector also,” she said