Noted labour attorney Reginald Lobosky has foreshadowed many domestic and international challenges on the labour front in The Bahamas in 2003.
One of those major challenges is The Bahamas having acquired the reputation of being one of the highest priced labour environments in this hemisphere, Mr. Lobosky said.
He said that this couldn’t continue to exist without placing “seriously in jeopardy” the country’s economic prospect for the future.
“The challenge is there,” Mr. Lobosky told the 12th Annual Bahamas Business Outlook on Monday. “The need is immediate, the awareness of the need for a productivity programme or policy is apparent and the endorsement of such programmes by most interested parties has taken place.”
Mr. Lobosky said that productivity schemes will vary in detail from industry to industry, but the central purpose will always be the same, which is to increase the production of goods and services by employees without adding to the costs of that production.
The further idea is, he said, it to permit employees to share in those increases which accrue to the employer as a result of the increases in productivity, not on a fixed or guaranteed-salary basis but on the basis of merit or achievement or fixed goals.
He told the group of businesspersons that they should be aware that “material or monetary gain has proven not to be the only necessary precursor to a successful productivity policy.”
Giving his outlook for labour and related matters, Mr. Lobosky said that activity could be expected to arise because of the review of existing labour legislation, which may result in amendments and also enactment of new measures to deal with new issues such as better regulation of trade unions, the ILO’s Convention 87 and whether the present Industrial Tribunal system should be replaced by the creation of an Industrial Side of the Supreme Court.
Another domestic issue, which is arising and is long overdue, is the growing acceptance of the principle that employee compensation should be tied to increases in employee productivity, he said.
The international issues will arise, he said, because of The Bahamas looming agreements with the World Trade Organisation (WTO), the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), and the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSM&E).
Mr. Lobosky said that he expected the FTAA agreement to be patterned after the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and perhaps, to a lesser extent by the WTO agreement except for trade in services.
He added that the fears of the mass migration of labour as a result of The Bahamas joining the WTO or FTAA are probably not well founded and that if such a problem were to arise at all, it would perhaps arise more readily as a result of the CSME
By Lindsay Thompson, The Nassau Guardian
