The world of work is changing rapidly and Government must be prepared to adapt so that the rights of Barbadians, including their incomes, are protected.
Minister of Home Affairs and Information Gregory Nicholls offered that advice yesterday as he lauded the introduction of the Protection of Wages Bill, 2026 which, among other measures, seeks to protect employees against non-payment and unlawful deductions of wages.
He said digital transformation in the workplace, the prevalence of artificial intelligence (AI) and the expansion of the gig economy, where work was not undertaken via the traditional employment contract, meant that traditional labour laws would not suffice.
The Member of Parliament for St Thomas said that with AI likely to make some jobs obsolete, “every Barbadian should be given . . . retraining as a right, because if we’re going to protect wages, if we’re going to secure the future of your ability to earn . . . , we are going to have now to focus on that right of retraining as a basic element of your rights package as a worker.
“We need . . . now to start building out AI learning and AI literacy if we are going to protect wages in a way in which this legislation is intended, because if we want to future-proof Barbados, it is my view that these are the things that we have to do,” he advised.
“We are also going to have to start contemplating training grants for people in the middle of their careers who have anchored themselves in certain areas and certain sectors, [and] have gone and done master’s [degrees] and done training, but they are going to have to have that flexibility career-wise to be able to adapt.”
(SC)