Time to repeal or amend Shops Act

FOR MANY YEARS THERE WAS TALK about opening businesses seven days a week. As is customary there was much talk but little progress. This idea was, according to some, frustrated by the unions, while others argued that the Shops Act was responsible for blunting progress.It is therefore interesting to hear from the executive director of the Barbados Employers Confederation that local employers, particularly those in the retail sector, favour a 24-hour/seven-day week system. Given the country’s yearning for first world status, it is puzzling that this business practice has taken so long to get off the ground.While Bridgetown has been asleep,  more enlightened businesses such as the airlines have been able to satisfy industry standards and customer needs by agreeing to five days work in every seven days. This method avoided the burdensome issue of overtime, special allowances and higher rates for Sundays and bank holidays.Managers need to manage and in so doing must not allow themselves to be bullied by the unions. How is it that the unions accept such conditions of work for some members but are quick to unsheathe their swords for other businesses? Is this not discrimination? Do they not see that overtime, double time, triple time and special allowances for what is euphemistically styled  “unsociable” hours, in fact, cripples the small or any business for that matter and contributes largely  to a high cost of living.Surely it must be high time the systems at the Bridgetown Port be seen to be other than “best practice” and have long past their shelf life. This, coupled with the known fact that examination and un-stuffing of containers at the premises of the business are known to commence after normal working hours, seem to cause no headache.It is for the latter reason that institutions such as the Barbados Water Authority, are blamed for much of the water wastage in this country. It is also known that as much as 60 per cent of BWA’s wages bill was in respect of overtime. Yet, this poor country continues to struggle on with archaic,  non-productive systems in place which drain the veins of the economy of every ounce  of sophistication and productivity.Bridgetown, the capital of a country which looks to tourism for survival, is often closed while tourist liners are in port.  More attention, it appears, is paid to the fact that it is Sunday or a bank holiday, than the fact that there are five liners in the harbour and ten thousand potential consumers in search of goods of high  quality and good taste.With jobs currently at a premium, how can we assume there are not citizens, particularly young mothers who would  not be anxious to obtain work irrespective  of the hour of day or night to help to feed hungry stomachs? It is high time Bridgetown businesses face up to this reality. It is therefore urgent that the Shops Act be repealed and/or suitably amended.