AGAINST an unsettled industrial climate and a struggling economy, Minister of Labour Dr Esther Byer-Suckoo is saying that now is not the time to pull apart the Social Partnership.
She said while she is aware that now is the “silly season and people let silliness prevail we have to have levelled heads”.
“We need to come together as social partners. They don’t want us to lay-off fine. But we need to have jobs created. Government can’t create any more jobs, to pay [workers] with what.
“We need to see in the private sector jobs being created as well. We need to see the private sector working with the unions to create jobs and to create the kind of conditions for the workers and these jobs to thrive. That is what we need to do,” she said.
The Minister made the remarks on the importance of the Social Partnership to creating job opportunities for Barbados, as she spoke briefly during Friday’s Democratic Labour Party (DLP) Astor B. Watts lunchtime lecture series, at the Party’s George Street, Belleville, headquarters.
Dr Byer-Suckoo also commented that Barbados has been making the mistake of not educating students about the Social Partnership which, she said, is used by other countries around the world as an example to follow.
The Minister of Labour said she was one of a number of persons chosen by the International Labour Organization (ILO) to travel to other countries to showcase Barbados’ Social Partnership.
“Not many places in the world can you get government, unions, employers and workers to sit around the table together. I think we need to let our children know, because when you ask the man on the street about the Social Partnership, he would ask you about the eight per cent cut. They don’t know what goes on behind closed doors,” she said. (AH)