GOVERNMENT COULD cut its wages bill and sustain employment levels if it adopted flexible working arrangements in the public sector, especially in revenue-earning departments.
This is the view of Tony Walcott, executive director of the Barbados Employers’ Confederation (BEC).
He made the suggestion in response to the pending lay-off of 3 000-plus public servants and Minister of Finance Chris Sinckler’s warning over the weekend that with the coming of the Central Revenue Authority in April, Government would be better placed to ensure self-employed people paid their taxes.
Walcott said that as part of the restructuring of the economy going forward, the concept of contracting people short-term should be examined. This involved the Social Partnership rethinking the practice of a work day being eight hours and a work week being 40 hours.
With this accepted, Government could look again at the nature of certain jobs that didn’t necessarily require eight hours a day to complete.
