Media workers to get input from labour office

The Labour Department is offering assistance to media workers in sensitizing them to their rights amidst complaints from among the fraternity about their terms and conditions of employment.

Declining to go into details regarding the complaints being received by her department, Chief Labour Officer Claudette Hope-Greenidge told Barbados TODAY this evening that she was willing to facilitate a series of virtual programmes addressing the various elements of labour legislation, employment rights and industrial relations.

This comes against the backdrop of some members of the media raising concerns about disputed contracts as well as confusion over the role of freelancers.

“We know that freelance is a term that is quite popular particularly with journalists and so on…but each case will be taken on its own facts.

“You look at various things, who is controlling what, who provides the tools, who controls the tools, who tells you when to come, when to leave, what to do, where to go…those things come into it. But at the end of the day, you may have those things reflected across three or four persons who are described as contractors or freelancers in the media or otherwise,” the Chief Labour Officer pointed.

She added: “But then, you look at each person’s situation, because there may be something that makes one different to the other.  If a person expresses a concern to us, we then need to take it from the beginning and go through. What are your particulars of the employment What is your contract like; what happens day to day? We speak to the person, we speak to the employer…we look at how the occupation is normally carried out and we help the parties come to a determination in that way.”

Although Government’s chief labour advisor did not specify a common complaint from media workers, she noted: “Generally, complaints coming into the department run the whole gamut: holiday with pay, other types of leave, what applies, what does not apply. It could be the application of the Employment Rights Act since we have had that.  Those are some of the typical things that we get coming in. Outside of the IR (industrial relations) there could be the safety and health concerns as well, those are typical. On any given day, we do the whole range from all over,” Hope-Greenidge stated.
(emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb)