Labour minister urges businesses and workers to maintain level heads

The island’s Minister of Labour, Social Partnership Relations and the Third Sector Colin Jordan is fearful that “people will drown” if employers and employees panic during the current COVID-19 crisis.

Jordan is expressing concern that there is already tension among workers facing job losses and some employers have also started to panic over the social and economic fallout from continuing closures and lockdowns.

While acknowledging that business owners would fear the potential disappearance of their years of investment due to the inability to make money in the present climate, the minister is at the same time cautioning them to keep their heads on to avoid a worsening of the situation.

“So there is that fear on the part of employers as well…I keep asking people ‘just keep your heads on’ because if employers panic and workers panic the outcome will never be good. It would be like everybody…you know the drowning man catches at a straw? So it would just be a flapping around and people will drown in a situation like that,” he told Barbados TODAY.

“So we are asking people to keep their heads [on]. We recognize that the climate is tense and the climate is tense because there is a fear all around…fear on all sides. I have to salute the workers because workers continue to work, even inspite of the fears that they have,” Jordan stated.

“There are people who go to work fearful of contracting the illness, but a lot of people have that fear. There are also quite a lot who have the fear, not for themselves, but of taking the virus back home to their families, but who have committed that they are going to work to help to keep the economy afloat. I salute those workers,” he added.

Addressing the issue where some employers are reportedly insisting that their workers turn up for duty while awaiting COVID-19 test results, the Minister of Labour has put all such persons on notice that they are breaking the law which is reflected in the Chief Medical Officer’s COVID-19 directives under the Public Health Emergency legislation.

“That is the law and no employer can compel any person, any worker to go against what the Chief Medical Officer says,” he declared.

“It has even gone further in this period to say even when you are at home try not to mix up with the other people at home in those kinds of situations,” the Cabinet minister pointed out.

Jordan also addressed another contentious labour relations issue that has emerged during the pandemic which relates to whether a worker who has to remain home pending confirmation of their COVID status, is considered to be on sick leave.

“There is no law where that is concerned because, at that point, the person is not ill. So that is where there needs to be some give-and-take and dialogue between the worker and the employer. That is not set. There is no law governing that. If the person is ill and they are in isolation, that illness becomes part of sick leave. So there is National Insurance provision for that,” the labour minister said.

He noted that most collective union agreements allow for persons to have time away from work if they are ill.

“Illness only comes into play when there is a positive diagnosis, but the waiting of results is a grey area. It is not set in law. I have been talking to employers and HR people throughout this period and unions too and I encourage the employers to recognize that this is a public health emergency and there is a level of humanity that we from government’s perspective is leading on; but we expect businesses, employers to understand that. And I would say that, by and large, many are,” Minister Jordan told Barbados TODAY.

At the same time, he has conceded that not all businesses were created equal and there are some with more financial strength.

“We recognize that not all businesses are the same. There are some with deeper pockets than others; there are some with reserves, there are some without reserves. There are all types of businesses and categories of health of businesses. Not all are equal, but we ask that as far as possible, if there is going to be pain, let the pain be shared,” Jordan declared. (emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb)