Barbados
Hopes for an early start of the 2024 sugar harvest – the maiden crop for the cooperative-owned sugar industry – may have been dashed amid contract issues between the new owners, the Barbados Energy and Sugar Company Limited (BESCO) and the Agricultural Business Company Limited (ABC), and their workers.
Deputy General Secretary of the Barbados Workers’ Union (BWU) Dwaine Paul voiced concerns on Tuesday evening following a meeting with over 70 workers. He told reporters the meeting in the Hugh Springer Auditorium of the BWU’s Solidarity House headquarters was able to shed light on pressing matters that demand immediate attention.
At the end of last year, the former state-owned enterprise, the Barbados Agricultural Management Company (BAMC), was divested to ABC and BESCO, after months of discussions between their parent, Barbados Sustainable Energy Cooperative Society Ltd (CoopEnergy Barbados) and BAMC regarding the government’s sell-off and exit from the sugar industry.
Paul said: “The staff are still concerned as it relates to matters of contract, timely payment of salaries and wages, and the matter of health and safety within the plant that need urgent attention, and the provision of safety equipment. The workers have also expressed their concern that although they have heard from members of management and have had some assurances, some coming from the office of the Minister of Agriculture, this has not yet translated into action on the ground of BESCO.
“The union, therefore, based on the information provided, will be requesting meetings with the management of BESCO to thrash out the concerns put by the workers and to deal with the matters of contracts which, in the workers’ view, are incomplete and do not speak to the full terms and conditions that they would have expected to see on re-engagement. And they believe by not having such conditions, that is a breach or a violation of what they understood would be the re-engagement process for workers of the industry.”
Paul revealed the union would be holding talks with BESCO’s management to address workers’ concerns and ensure that terms and conditions are clarified before any commitment to the upcoming crop.
He said: “The starting [of the] crop depends on getting the matters resolved. I believe that is the way it normally works. We can’t commit the workers to anything unless the workers are comfortable. The manufacturing process for sugar is not a straightforward one. It involves a lot of commitment from workers. And it’s an environment that is very challenging and therefore, to make sure that we have the best outcome, you need to make sure that the workers’ interests are looked after.
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Paul said: “The staff are still concerned as it relates to matters of contract, timely payment of salaries and wages, and the matter of health and safety within the plant that need urgent attention, and the provision of safety equipment. The workers have also expressed their concern that although they have heard from members of management and have had some assurances, some coming from the office of the Minister of Agriculture, this has not yet translated into action on the ground of BESCO.
“The union, therefore, based on the information provided, will be requesting meetings with the management of BESCO to thrash out the concerns put by the workers and to deal with the matters of contracts which, in the workers’ view, are incomplete and do not speak to the full terms and conditions that they would have expected to see on re-engagement. And they believe by not having such conditions, that is a breach or a violation of what they understood would be the re-engagement process for workers of the industry.”
Paul revealed the union would be holding talks with BESCO’s management to address workers’ concerns and ensure that terms and conditions are clarified before any commitment to the upcoming crop.
He said: “The starting [of the] crop depends on getting the matters resolved. I believe that is the way it normally works. We can’t commit the workers to anything unless the workers are comfortable. The manufacturing process for sugar is not a straightforward one. It involves a lot of commitment from workers. And it’s an environment that is very challenging and therefore, to make sure that we have the best outcome, you need to make sure that the workers’ interests are looked after.
“What is interesting to note is that the workers have pointed out that they are supposed to be now the owners of the industry, and if they’re supposed to be owners in the industry, then the treatment handed out to them must also reflect the fact that they’re supposed to be owners of the industry, and not to simply be left out of information, left out of communication and not being spoken to as persons coming into that right of ownership in the industry.”
When asked about the potential impact on the crop’s start date, Paul refrained from using the term “jeopardise” but acknowledged the real issues at hand.
“The general aim is to try to start a crop usually about February, late February, early March best, and based on the reports that we have, it’s going to call for a very dedicated effort to be able to make that timeline at this point in time. But, as I said, no official date has been given but we know that the sweet spot, as the farmers would say, would be February in terms of starting the process,” the senior union official said.
Although acknowledging that the industry was already behind schedule, complicating efforts to meet the typical February-March timeframe for starting the crop, he said that “the issues pertaining to the workers are real and, therefore, we have to find resolution”.
“It’s unfortunate that the conversations that we’re having at this point were not possible last year. But that aside, the union is committed on behalf of the workers to going forward. I have seen as best as we can, as swiftly as we can to address the issues to be able to have them settled so that they can really focus their attention on what they do best in terms of making sure we have a successful sugar crop in 2024,” he added.
Paul said most of the workers that attended the meeting were working under BESCO and they are the ones primarily affected at this time.
“Workers on the ABC side are being brought back in as we speak, so that process is not completed from the information we have received . . . . I believe the focus is on the factory and getting the factory started which is under BESCO up and running because we are in a time-sensitive period.”
Paul expressed optimism that within the coming days, “we should be able to request and have a meeting with the leadership of the industry to be able to table, address and resolve these issues in a way that will see us remain on track for the 2024 crop”.
“I see that from the backdrop that at this stage, we are also a little behind the game because regardless of what happened in the transition, the fact [is] we are at a point now where we are late into February and we still have a lot of work to be done,” he added.
The BWU official also acknowledged that discussions with independent farmers were yet to get underway, adding another layer of complexity to the situation.
Elsewhere on Tuesday, one official close to the talks expressed optimism. President of the Sugar Industries Staff Association (SISA) Dwight Miller told reporters the contract talks were progressing smoothly.
At a Congress of Trade Unions and Staff Associations of Barbados (CTUSAB) press conference earlier in the day, he said that although only a skeleton crew of 145 workers returned in January, the transition has “generally been occurring smoothly”.
“Like any process, there has been teething problems,” said Miller who confirmed that the workers flagged concerns about the contracts to the union. “But through dialogue with employees and the new management, they have been able to get most of those contracts basically sorted out to the satisfaction of both management and the employees. That has been a plus going forward for the workers.”
Field and factory workers were “glad to be back at work, and to be functioning in a new environment, and having a new ethos in terms of going forward”, the SISA boss said.
“We are anxious to see how the 2024 sugar harvest will go and how this new management will be able to corral the workers during this period. I am hopeful that [issues] will be resolved before the start of the sugar harvest. So far, the dialogue that workers have been having with management has been pretty cordial. I am hoping that as long as that continues, then we should be able to get a resolution to any issues that are outstanding
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The Bahamas
The Government’s top procurement official yesterday predicted that it will be “on target” to disclose all contract awards within 60 days – as required by law – come March 2024.
Carl Oliver, the acting chief procurement officer and Ministry of Finance’s deputy director of economic planning, told Tribune Business that the Government plans to disclose all contract awarded via the Go Bonfire online portal for October and November 2023 by February.
Given that the current Public Procurement Act requires that details on government contract awards be published within 60 days of issuance, he explained that hitting this publication deadline will bring the Davis administration into compliance with the law’s demands.
“We’re not far away,” Mr Oliver told this newspaper of the 60-day disclosure requirement. “The information that was just published was from September 1, 2022, to September 30, 2023. The next submission will be for October and November. The deadline for November is the end of January.
“In February we will be providing information for October 2023 and November 2023. After that, we will be on target. We’re moving in the right direction, and myself, the financial secretary [Simon Wilson] and the minister [Michael Halkitis] are quite pleased with the results we are getting. We are on schedule for March.”
The original Public Procurement Act, which came into effect on September 1, 2021, but has now been repealed and replaced, required from that moment on that all government contracts be disclosed within 60 days of their issuance. The Government was supposed to disclose the name and address of winning bidders, the procuring entity, the procurement selection method and the value of the contract.
The revised Public Procurement Act took effect on July 1 this year. The Government’s initial release of contracts awarded via the Go Bonfire portal provides the value of the awards, identifies the procuring entity and procurement vendor, plus the winning bidder, but provided no address for the latter or any further details.
That first release, which came in mid-October 2023, covered the nine months to end-June that year and detailed 843 contracts worth a total $140m. Yesterday’s release, which covers up to end-September last year, effectively covers the three-month period that comprises the third quarter.
Based on the information provided, it showed a further $18.5m in contracts were awarded over the three months to end-September 2023. This took the total value of contracts awarded for the 13 months since September 1, 2022, to $158.477m, but not all agencies, ministries and departments were included in the list or that figure.
Mr Oliver yesterday confirmed that state-owned enterprises (SOEs) such as Bahamas Power & Light (BPL) and Water & Sewerage Corporation, which are major contract issuers, “haven’t been given the green light yet” to use the Go Bonfire platform because training of the relevant executives is ongoing and they are still getting to understand which procurement method to use.
He estimated that the SOEs should be ready to start using the procurement portal by “late February” or early March, again acknowledging the challenges in changing the culture and “status quo” where successive administrations have disclosed minimal details on public contact awards.
The Government has frequently come under attack from Michael Pintard, leader of the Opposition, and other members of the Free National Movement (FNM) who have accused it of deliberately failing to comply with the Public Procurement Act and especially its provisions demanding greater disclosures, openness and transparency around the awarding of government contracts.
But Michael Halkitis, minister of economic affairs, late last year asserted there was “never any sort of desire or intention to circumvent” the Public Procurement Act’s requirements as he blamed any non-compliance on the need to put in place supporting infrastructure.
He added that the Davis administration has had to ensure public officials are fully trained and equipped to implement the Act’s legally-mandated requirements. It has also had to appoint a chief procurement officer, and implement the necessary software.
“In order to really effect it, there was a large infrastructure that had to be put in place at the back end of it,” Mr Halkitis said of the Act. “For example, the appointment of a chief procurement officer, the training of procurement committees in not only the Ministry of Finance, but in every single ministry and government agency. We’re talking about IT, acquiring the IT and getting people trained up on it, and so that is what we have been doing for the last, you know, 18 months.
“We are at a position right now where we have just about completed the training. And there are some of the contracts that have to be uploaded. We think we are almost at a position where those are completed. So, you know, we will begin to do that. We can look for that in the coming weeks.”
Mr Halkitis added: “But I would just like to say this now. [There] never was any sort of desire or intention to circumvent but, you know, it’s very, very easy to go into Parliament and pass a law and say we’re doing this and doing that. You know, we see a number of pieces of legislation where we have to go back now.
“At the back end of it, there are a lot of requirements that we had to do. So the public will see that very shortly. We’re committed to doing it, those few agencies that have not fully uploaded. We have people working on that now to get that done as soon as possible. So you’ll see that shortly…definitely before the end of the year.”
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Jamaica
The claim by trade unionist Rudolph Thomas that fixed-term contracts are being “weaponised” against workers is another reminder of the government’s lagging labour market agenda, including its failure to seriously engage Jamaicans on a labour market reform report completed more than two years ago.
And neither has there been any substantial, government-led public discussion on the implications for the broader labour market of the 2022 ruling by Justice David Batts, with respect to security guards, which dealt with many of the issues of concern to Mr Thomas. In the aftermath of Justice Batts’ ruling the former labour minister, Karl Samuda, announced a committee to plan for a joint industrial council for the regulation of the private security industry “and protection of the security guards”. Little has been heard of that initiative.
Fixed-term contracts are, one the face of it, agreements between workers and employers for employment for a specified period. During that time, employees are, by and large, intended to complete specific tasks, then move on.
However, in Jamaica, trade unionists, and some political leaders, complain that such contracts are increasingly becoming the norm in employment – even when workers stay in the jobs for years.
Fixed-term contracts, critics say, are used by firms to avoid providing benefits, including pensions, to employees and the status tenuous.
“If we continue on the trajectory that we are with the misuse of fixed-term contracts, we are going to have a serious problem down the road,” Mr Thomas, a vice president of the Jamaica Confederation of Trade Unions (JCTU), told a workshop of the Labour Advisory Council.
PRECARIOUS FORM OF EMPLOYMENT
While conceding that there was a place in the economy for these arrangements, Mr Thomas argued that over the past three decades fixed-term contracts have been deployed in a way to cause “a most precarious form of employment – and that has an impact not only on labour, but also, we believe, on the national well-being”.
When he was in the job, Peter Phillips, the former leader of the opposition People’s National Party (PNP), regularly raised concerns about the arrangements, complaining in the 2019 budget debate, for example, that workers covered by them were entitled to neither vacation, sick pay, bargaining rights, nor “protection against wrongful dismissal”.
“They (workers) will have no pension when they retire,” he said. “Yet, in every other respect they are expected to be as productive and as invested in the work as another full-time employee.”
Justice Batts caused renewed focus on these issues in a 2022 ruling in which he held that security guards engaged by Marksman Limited were employees, rather than independent contractors. The company was therefore obligated to make payroll contributions (three per cent) on behalf of the guards to the National Housing Trust (NHT), which had claimed J$478 million for 3,000 employees over a 16-year period.
However, because the NHT had not enforced its right to collect for more than 30 years, the judge held it wouldn’t be just to allow the trust to collect the ‘debt’.
Nonetheless, Justice Batts concluded that on the basis of their contracts, the guards, some of whom were employed to Marksman for decades, were “not in business on their own”..
“… They work for Marksman and are a part of its organisation,” he wrote. “Marksman has the right to exercise direct control over the work done by the security guards.”
CLEARER PROTECTION
While Jamaica’s Labour Relations and Industrial Disputes Act defines a worker/employee (largely along the lines noted by Justice Batts), labour analysts feel that there is need for clearer protection for employees who work under fixed-term contracts – a system that tends to be less attractive to older workers, who are likely to value security. The UK – where people employed on fixed-term contracts are required to be treated no less favourably in the workplace than permanent employees – is sometimes held up as a potential model for Jamaica. In that market, a worker employed continuously for four years under such contracts is automatically treated in law as a permanent employee, unless their employment can be objectively interpreted otherwise.
These approaches should be seriously explored in Jamaica, not only in the narrow sphere financial cost/benefit analyses to firms, but the broader value of employment security to the society and the philosophical frame within which such considerations sit.
In that regard, we note the rhetorical question of Jamaica Employers Federation president, Wayne Chen, of whether it was moral corruption or “economic forces” that drive employers to “misuse” fixed-term contracts. These ought not to be mutually exclusive issues. For, as Mr Thomas implied, there is a difference between the appropriate use of fixed-term contracts and their weaponisation – such as when they rolled over, almost in perpetuity.
What Mr Chen’s observation highlights is the need for a deeper look at Jamaica’s labour market and its underpinnings, and how these should be reformed. As part of this agenda, for instance, work on the national unemployment insurance scheme, long suggested by this newspaper, as well as a national health insurance scheme should be accelerated. Similarly, an overhaul of the redundancy law should be considered.
Perhaps the way to (re)ignite these discussions is by the labour minister, Pearnel Charles Jr, re-tabling in Parliament the labour market reform report submitted by the Marshall Hall Commission five years ago, and inviting the public to comment on it.
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Trinidad and Tobago
President of the Trinidad and Tobago Contractors Association, Glenn Mahabirsingh, said yesterday that the body would be renewing its call for contractor licensing and registration legislation in the new year.
In an interview with Guardian Media, Mahabirsingh said the policy will help further regulate the industry by protecting individuals and businesses from losing their money to unqualified contractors.
Mahabirsingh said more than ten years after initial work began on a policy to regulate the industry, no further action has been taken.
He maintained that the public will benefit significantly from the legislation, arguing, “One of the activities for the association for 2024, and it is not a simple task, will be to revitalise the efforts or work that was done about ten years ago relating to registration, licensing and contractors.
“The association sees this legislation or policy on the registration and licensing of contractors as an important tool to manage the industry in terms of ensuring persons who are engaged in the industry are able to deliver.”
Meanwhile, Mahabirsingh hailed this year’s proclamation of the procurement legislation as a major boost for operations in the sector as well as its sustainability.
“This procurement legislation definitely is a positive for the industry. We have already seen fruits of the legislation such as the annual procurement plan being published by the ministries, which can be used by contractors to plan their proposed works for 2024.”
On December 8, the Ministry of Finance published the annual schedule of planned procurement activities for fiscal 2024 on its website.
The schedule includes the proposed date for the issue of bidding documents, the estimated delivery or completion date, the procurement method, the standstill period and the contract type.
The Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Property Act was fully proclaimed in April. It aims to reform the procurement laws of Trinidad and Tobago in keeping with the principles of good governance, such as accountability, transparency, integrity and value for money.
Former deputy permanent secretary (Ag) and permanent secretary (Ag), Beverly Khan was appointed as the procurement regulator and chair of the Procurement Board of Trinidad and Tobago, on June 28, 2023 for a period of five years.
Khan leads a board that comprises: deputy chair, chartered accountant, Robby Bhola, and members Joy Abdul-Mohan; Natasha Ashby; Frederick Bowen; Nadine Bushell; David Charlerie; Herdis Lee Chee; Dr. Anthony Lamb and Tracey Rojas.
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Jamaica
MOUNT SALEM, St James — Project manager for the multi-billion-dollar upgrading of the Cornwall Regional Hospital (CRH) Vivian Gordon says completion is set for 2026 — a year later than the deadline last provided by Minister of Health and Wellness Dr Christopher Tufton.
Gordon provided the information during a tour of the hospital, on Tuesday, by Care for Cornwall Regional, a group of business interests within Montego Bay that shadows and oversees activities on the long-overdue project.
According to Gordon, the project is currently in its third phase, which started this month and should end next March. This phase includes occupation and equipment procurement. He added that stage two, which will be completed within 30 months, includes design, build and installation of additional equipment. He said contractors had wanted another 36 months to complete the project but eventually agreed to 30.
Tufton and the Andrew Holness-led Administration have taken a battering for the lengthy delays in completing the project. In July, Tufton said phased reopening would start by mid-2024 and the project completed by March 2025. However, the health minister has grown wary of providing deadlines as they have so frequently been missed.
On Tuesday, asked to comment on the deadline provided by the project manager, he stuck to that script.
“I stopped giving timelines long ago because we have had adjustments to timelines that I can’t justify on the basis of giving a timeline because a lot has changed in terms of scope. And what I’ve said to the populace is that the scope has substantially changed. We are building a new hospital, and therefore the timelines will change,” he told the Jamaica Observer.
The health minister also stressed that the facility will be in use before 2026.
“I know you’re stuck on the 30 months, but what you need to do is look at the fact that it is going to be phased in. So, we will start using the building sometime next year, and it will continue until we totally complete it,” he added.
Meanwhile, co-chair of Care for Cornwall Regional Brian Jardim expressed overall satisfaction with the work being done at CRH.
“We’re happy with what we saw today. Clearly, there’s a lot of work left to be done. Clearly, there was a lot of work to be done [in the first place]. The building had a lot of endemic issues with mould and moisture and, you know, it is a 50-odd-year-old building,” he told reporters
“We went from the basement right through the various floors of the building to see the work that has happened and is continuing to happen to get the facility up and running again. It can’t happen soon enough,” Jardim added.
Established five years ago, Care for Cornwall Regional also provides assistance when possible — either on a commercial level, by providing expertise or raising funds to be used in purchasing equipment for the health facility.
Jardim said Tuesday’s tour was aimed at getting a clear understanding of when the facility will be up and running at full capacity.
“The minister gave us an excellent presentation on next steps and we’ve witnessed quite a transformation on the way, including the existing Cornwall Regional building and the new children’s hospital that’s being built, courtesy of the Government of China,” he stated.
“We understand there’s another two to two-and-a-half year window. We’re looking at probably a 2026 completion turnkey… As Western Jamaicans, it’s a very critical part of our existence, both our team members, our families, our friends, to have a properly functioning medical care facility as the city grows,” the businessman added.
Jardim also spoke of the importance of maintenance, going forward.
“We got some assurances from the minister today, and we’re going to hold him accountable to it, that there will be a proper-running parallel company that manages the processes and the equipment and the maintenance of the building. This is like maintaining a very large hotel complex. It’s a lot of moving parts. He mentioned there’ll be, at certain times, up to 3,000 staff members in this facility [Cornwall Regional Hospital and Western Children Adolescent Hospital combined] — 700-odd beds. It’ll be the most beds on any hospital campus in the Caribbean. So, it’s not a small task. It’s not a small job and we, as members of the business community and as members of Care for Cornwall, we take it pretty seriously. We all need to shadow and give the help that we can to make sure that maintenance continues once it’s handed over,” argued Jardim.
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