As this country moves to open its borders to more skilled nationals from the region, one independent senator is adamant Barbadians must be given the first choice of available jobs.
Head of the Barbados Workers’ Union Senator Toni Moore told the Upper Chamber on Friday that with the current economy and high unemployment rates, it was necessary to ensure citizens could provide for their families.
“Barbados today is one in which the economy is challenged, in which there is a higher rate of unemployment that shouldn’t make any of us comfortable. If we don’t understand that we must create an environment that provides for our citizens, the average man and woman in the street, an opportunity to know that where opportunities present themselves, they have a right to first refusal, we may find that all of the debates we have heard earlier about being xenophobic and so on may become more apparent than they should be,” she stressed.
She therefore insisted that government paid attention at the national level to creating an environment that ensures citizens were protected within the bounds of legislation to have the right of first refusal when new jobs became available.
During the debate on the Caribbean Community (Movement of Skilled Nationals) (Amendment) Bill, 2020, she expressed heavy concern that some businesses were advertising for workers permits overseas when the jobs could be filled by Barbadians.
“There are skills that reside locally but there are employers that for one reason or another, would prefer to move not only outside of their companies, but also even outside of Barbados, to hire some of the most basic skills and one has to raise in his or her mind, the question why. Why would you need to go outside of Barbados for a cook when our Barbados Community College is turning out so many suitable people? Why would you have to go outside for a general worker? Why would you have to go outside for a housekeeper or for a professional tree climber?” Moore questioned. (JMB)