Comprehensive labour reform needed - JCTU head
Published:Thursday | September 23, 2010 | 12:00 AM
PRESIDENT OF the Jamaica Confederation of Trade Unions (JCTU), Lloyd Goodleigh, has cautioned the Government that any attempt to restructure the public sector in isolation from the Jamaican labour market is a recipe for disaster.
Making a submission to Parliament's Public Administration and Appropriations Committee (PAAC) in Gordon House yesterday, Goodleigh contended that there was an urgent need to address the issue of comprehensive labour market reform.
"If, as Jamaicans, we want to know why the former structural adjustment programmes failed (it's because) we failed to adjust (our) labour market at the same time that Government was trying to deal with its fiscal problems," he said.
His presentation comes against the background of the recommendations of the Public Sector Transformation Unit for restructuring the public sector.
Despite Jamaica's experiment with a raft of policies over the last 30 years, Goodleigh reasoned that economic growth continued to elude the country.
He said Jamaica had flirted with policies that centred on economic stability, inflation management, fiscal discipline, redirection of public expenditure, tax reform, the liberalisation of interest rates, competitive exchange rates, privatisation and deregulation.
"We have attempted all those programmes in the last 30 years and we still don't have economic growth. It is our view that, in those circumstances, the missing link is that we do not have labour market reform," he stressed.
Examining the state of Jamaica's labour market, the JCTU president said it lacked productivity capacity and innovation.
He said the findings of the latest International Competitive Report have indicated that Jamaica's ability to be competitive was declining.
Goodleigh reminded the committee that local and foreign direct investment was dependent on the supply of a labour force with the skills, knowledge and competencies of the 21st century.