A Cabinet committee will soon be reviewing drafted laws on health and safety to govern all workplaces.
Minister of Labour, Dr Esther Byer-Suckoo made the disclosure yesterday at the 69th Annual Delegates Conference of the Barbados Workers’ Union (BWU).
“. . . The Safety and Health at Work Regulations are on the front-burner and will receive the attention of the Governance Committee of Cabinet in a matter of days,” she told the gathering at Solidarity House in Harmony Hall, St Michael.
She said there were three other sets of labour legislation in the pipeline – the Holiday with Pay (Amendment) Act, the Employment Rights Bill and the Amendment to the Shops Act.
The Holiday with Pay (Amendment) Act “will bring clarity to certain aspects of the legislation, including the process for calculating average pay and an amended definition of total remuneration to prevent those workers being employed and paid only on a commission basis from being disadvantaged,” the minister explained.
She said the Employment Rights Bill “will seek to confer employment rights on both employers and employees”.
Among these rights is that to a statutory minimum of notice of termination. The legislation will cover and the establishment of an Employment Rights Tribunal for the determination of issues relating to employment rights.
The Amendment To The Shops Act is to “remove the current restrictions of opening hours for those operations classified as shops,” Byer-Suckoo said.
“Built into the legislation is the requirement for adequate rest breaks and transportation arrangements which take into consideration the needs of the workers in the new proposals,” she said.
Byer-Suckoo said an important goal for her was ensuring that the “decent work” objectives for which trade unions had been pressing “are achieved through the modernisation of existing labour legislation and introduction of new laws”.
General secretary of the BWU, Sir Roy Trotman, said he hoped the new regulations would be in place “sooner rather than later”.
The conference continues next Saturday. Sir Roy is down to address the conference and there is also to be a presentation on the rodent and dengue fever risks in Barbados. (TY)
