There is nothing new about the Labour Clauses Public (Concessions) Bill 2024, now before the Parliament of Barbados.
This was emphatically stated today by Minister of Labour, Social Security and the Third Sector, Colin Jordan, as he addressed the post-Cabinet press conference at Webster Business Park, Wildey, St. Michael.
Mr. Jordan, who stressed that labour clauses and the idea behind them was not new to the world or to Barbados, told media representatives the Bill, laid on Tuesday, February 6, seeks to protect workers and to say to employers “there must be a level below which you should not go, in order to earn your profits”.
Providing a brief history on the Bill, Minister Jordan, explained that in 1949, the International Labour Organization, at its annual conference, adopted a convention (Convention 94) on Labour Clauses in Public contracts.
He said: “A previous iteration of government thought it, back then in the early 1950s, necessary to enshrine that in national law. So, in 1952, the Labour Clauses Public Contracts Act was passed…. Now there are some who suggest or who seem to suggest that the idea of labour clauses is new … and so the philosophy behind that speaks to businesses that employ people, that benefit from government expenditure, in other words, taxpayers’ money….
“We hold to the view that if a business that employs people is benefiting from taxpayers’ money, then their profits, and even before we get to profits, their revenue, cannot be at the expense of their employees. It cannot be at the expense of those who work for them. So, we’ve had the Labour Clauses Public Contracts Act, in place since 1952. That legislation is what we call framework legislation; framework from the perspective that it does not bind anybody to do anything but it allows the Chief Labour Officer, in consultation with employer representatives, in consultation with worker representatives, to set rates of pay; to set conditions of work, below which any business or any entity that is benefiting from taxpayers’ dollars, with respect to contracts, should not go.”
In addition, Minister Jordan stressed that the legislation aims to make sure that workers in this country are protected.
“Businesses have the right to make money. And, we are all about businesses making money. We want businesses to be profitable. Government cannot employ everybody. It is the private sector that does a lot of employing and we want private sector organisations and third sector organisations to be profitable. We want to expand; we want to increase the number of people they employ. All we are asking is that that profitability, that expansion, that growth is not at the expense of workers,” he contended.