It is in many ways commendable that the workers’ unions have been holding talks to work out solutions to the problems which the economy is facing at this time. Whatever else it means, it shows that the unions understand they have a vital role in the shaping of our democracy particularly the economic democracy.
At the same time, Moody’s rating agency has also downgraded the Barbados bond rating on the basis off among other things, “the island’s anaemic growth with limited prospects for improvement”.
No minister from any party in this country relishes the sending home of people from paid government employment, and it is easy to accept that this proposal or decision to send home some workers must indeed be a desperate action of the last resort.
Last resort was a frequent expression before and after the IMF Article 4 consultation here recently.
In a sense the efforts by the unions seem to suggest that the ministerial statement delivered by the finance minister may not be the last word on the issue and that as the Prime Minister put it: “Some amelioration of the asperities” of the austerity programme may be proposed by the unions.
We sincerely hope that some softening of the Government’s policy can be found after these several talks have taken place, which might perhaps allow for the maintenance of jobs supported by a cut in salary cuts. Yet one wonders how these matters were not observed nor discovered before this late stage, since it would have been a tidier approach to announce a wages cut rather than declaring that some 3 000 jobs may be on the line.
But whether Government cuts wages or jobs or invokes a combination of both these measures, the present problems facing the economy will not disappear. Cuts in expenditure will not be enough, and the Government will have to come to the public and Parliament with concrete plans to induce growth especially in the foreign exchange sectors.
We recognize that the Sandals arrangements may represent some effort at agitating the growth of the tourism sector but there must be ordered attempts at growth and if the owners of private capital feel that the playing field is not level for all those competing in the same area; then we may not get the full benefits of all hands pulling in the same direction.
In fact one of the major concerns of our economic performance in recent times has been the issue of little or no growth, and that is an issue which weighed with Moody’s. It is for this reason that we recognize what the Government hopes will be the upside of the Sandals agreement.
Consistent critics of the Government’s economic policies have been saying for sometime that those policies will stifle economic activity and growth. In the face of growing evidence that the recession is no longer a factor inhibiting our economic growth, it may well be that in addition to economic strategy analyses; we should be also engaged in the important task of discussing how best to restore confidence-building in the policies and the administration of our local affairs.
We have a major problem demanding an urgent solution when the rating agencies and the IMF point to serious obstacles to economic growth originating in policy issues.