In the euphoria of Independence celebrations and eager anticipation regarding the coming Christmas holidays, some may have paid little attention to the just concluded debate in the House of Assembly on the new Central Bank of Barbados Bill 2020, which is expected to get enough support in the Senate to make its way into the legislative books of Barbados.
A number of key areas are being attended to in the proposed legislation. Foremost is the plan to limit the Governor’s tenure to terms of no more than six years. Ostensibly, it is designed to “protect” the Governor from possible abuse by his boss, the Minister of Finance. We will wait to see just how that one works in reality.
During the debate, it was suggested that the new rules are to underpin the Central Bank of Barbados by good governance and strengthen its role as the regulator of commercial banks and deposit-taking non-bank financial institutions not regulated by the Financial Services Commission (FSC).
Among the critical areas of the legislation’s focus include the bank’s role in monitoring the parity of the Barbados dollar, the current structure of the Central Bank, its monitoring of the foreign reserves and its relations with other financial institutions.
These are all important areas to be addressed. But the debate on the Central Bank took an unusual turn when Minister of Labour Colin Jordan linked the legislation to the current disquiet taking place on the labour front. He said everything had to do with confidence and order in the society.
Jordan, known as a principled, man of God, who places great emphasis on his faith, was moved to warn the country that it risked slipping into a stage in its economic and social life from which there could be extremely negative repercussions for many years to come.
Mr. Jordan did not single out the hospitality sector, in which he worked for more than a decade as a senior executive, but for anyone viewing or listening, his words were pointed and focused just where we all know they should have been – at the tourism sector.
The first-time Minister in the Mia Mottley Cabinet was moved, whether by his own principles, his position as Minister of Labour, or the expediency of his political office. Whichever took priority or the combination of positions, it was time someone in Cabinet addressed the ongoing labour market unrest, and did so frontally.
For Jordan, it cannot sit well with his conscience as a Member of Parliament, whose constituency comprises significantly high numbers of hospitality and retail workers, who worked through the pandemic, at great personal risk.
Pleading with employers and specifically managers, not to “treat workers like trash”, he essentially warned that the bad treatment meted out to workers during these COVID-19 times will come back to bite these executives in the backsides when we have emerged from this COVID-19 madness.
“I’ve compared Barbados to even some of our Caribbean neighbours. When Barbadians react, it is usually when they are pushed to a certain point. And I want to say to employers, as I say to workers, let us remember that Barbados’ claim to fame; we have come to where we are mainly because we have managed, at least to the post-Independence era, to maintain a certain level of order.
“So that even as bad as the last Government was . . . they lost every seat, they put their hands up and walked away. . . .There is a certain order to how we see ourselves.
“I am calling on managers of organisations, not to do anything that would destroy the order that is necessary for the functioning of a well-ordered society and not to do things that will push people to the point where they have to react in the way that we are seeing them react in our society.”
This is not the familiar rhetoric of politicians. It seemed like an authentic concern for the future of a country that Jordan loves, as do most citizens of this island.
“It is important for us, if we are to live in a decent, fair, just, and non-discriminatory society, that we follow . . . the principles that speak to good governance and speak to a recognition that a country is not just dollars and cents but a country is made up of people.”
We hope that away from the public’s eye Mr Jordan is speaking directly and forthrightly to his former colleagues, reminding them that the industry we all depend on, rests for the most part, on the shoulders of ordinary workers in the sector – maids, cooks, cleaners, gardeners, waiters and waitresses, receptionists and bellboys.
They ought to be treated much better Mr Jordan.
