A NEW LAW governing the rights of workers goes into operation today.
The proclamation of the Employment Rights Act will give effect to changes in the relationship between employee and employer in such areas as pay and hiring and firing.
“There was a need to regularize the employment relationship,” said Linda Bowen, a Senior Labour Officer with the Labour Department, in giving reasons for the Act.
“We have had queries from concerned employees in the past, especially domestics or those people working in private households, where they felt that they were being mistreated [and] they were not being covered by the appropriate legislation…,” Bowen added.
The Act speaks to specific workers’ rights, including having a written statement of particulars of payment, the right to a written statement of employment particulars, the right to be consulted before being placed on short time or laid off, the right to priority re-hiring in certain cases, if dismissed for redundancy; the right, where employment has ended, to a certificate giving the particular of the employment; and the right not to be unfairly dismissed.
The law establishes an Employment Rights Tribunal to adjudicate on disputes over the new rights, though complaints must first be referred to the Chief Labour Officer (CLO) for an opportunity for a settlement to be reached by conciliation.
It also gives rights to employers. Bowen said if managers recognized that warnings to employees were not bringing about the desired change, then the employer would be within his right to terminate.
The introduction of the Act will also affect the work of the Chief Labour Officer. Although his role in establishing the merit of claims had previously been established in Chapter 23 of the Laws of Barbados, the Act not only acknowledges this duty but gives him more power.
“The CLO now has the authority to enter into private households and perform inspections by day or night, interview the employers therein and make determinations based on the representations (complaints) that would have been made to the department,” Bowen said.
Following the Act’s proclamation, employers will be given six months to comply.
(JS/BGIS)
