Portable benefits plan needs national education push – AG

Attorney General Wilfred Abrahams has urged an immediate, nationwide public education drive to prepare Barbadians for the proposed National Portable Benefits Framework, warning that without clear understanding, workers could miss out on key protections and opportunities under the new system.

“It is necessary for this to work to have the widest possible educational programme, because unless a worker understands their entitlements … then they’re always at the whim and fancy, at the mercy of somebody else,” he said as the House of Assembly continued debate on the resolution on Friday.

Barbados needed “a national campaign of education” in the “shortest possible time” to explain what portable benefits are, how they work, and what they would mean for employees, employers and the country overall, he said.

Portable benefits are designed to follow workers from job to job rather than being tied to a single employer.

“Portable benefits are benefits that a person accrues by working and that follow the person from job to job,” he said. “The critical thing is they are not tied to the employer and they’re not tied to the job.”

He compared the proposed arrangement to an insurance policy, where workers contribute into a system and the benefits remain available to them when needed.

The AG argued that the current system often leaves employees trapped in positions out of fear of losing health insurance or other employment-linked benefits.

“We know of situations in Barbados where people are afraid to leave a job because they don’t want to lose the benefit,” he said, citing examples of workers with sick children remaining in jobs because of medical coverage attached to their employment.

“That is not right,” he added.

Abrahams also maintained that portable benefits would strengthen workers’ bargaining power and create greater economic security.

“This actually enhances the ability of the worker to bargain for themselves,” he said. “I am now free to pick up and leave and go and investigate my options with that better job, knowing that the benefits I accrued in my last job are not lost to me.”

He described the proposal as a major opportunity to improve financial stability for ordinary Barbadians.

“If ever there was an indicator of economic security or a way to increase the economic security of the average person in Barbados, it is through portable benefits,” he said.

While noting that the framework is still being developed and has not yet been fully formalised, Abrahams said the discussion should not be confined to the government alone. He called for broad participation from the private sector, trade unions and the wider social partnership.

“This is a whole of Barbados discussion,” he said, adding that the issue was ideally suited for “full ventilation, full discussion [and] full agreement” among all interested parties.

(SB)