The Joint Trade Union Movement (JTUM) is asking for tomorrow’s mid-term review of the Budget to be deferred until it is briefed on its contents and given a chance to contribute to the process.
Speaking after a two-hour meeting with Labour Minister Jennifer Baptiste-Primus yesterday evening, OWTU president general Ancel Roget said they were not privy to measures in the mid-term budget and therefore it could not get their support.
“If there are measures that would bring hardship to the workers who are already reeling under pressure and it were not first discussed with us, although we have a Memorandum of Understanding that dictates to us that we would have meaningful, deep and wide consultation, and we did not have that, well certainly our position is clear.
“We should have meaningful consultation before major decisions that will impact workers in this country are taken. We cannot support any measure that will be adverse to workers,” he added.
Roget and his team also carried out extensive discussions with Baptiste-Primus on amending the Retrenchment and Benefit clauses of the Companies Act in the workers’ interest. Roget made reference to the hundreds of workers sent home by ArcelorMittal.
“Companies like all the ArcelorMittals will not find it attractive to go into self-induced receivership which at the end of the day renders dissolvement and puts workers on the breadline.
“Those workers are facing the stark reality of not receiving the retrenchment benefit, of not even receiving their pensions that are due to them, that is their own property. Pension is deferred earnings they would have worked for,” he added.
He said workers under the hands of “merciless” multi-nationals were a soft target because there were no tough labour laws and legislation to protect the workers.
He also called for more support for local farmers and farming in order to reduce dependency on foreign imports for food, adding Government should also pump more into agricultural produce and more local food so the country could benefit.