Protection of Wages Bill part of wider labour framework, Senate told

Senate leader of government business Senator Lisa Cummins warned fellow lawmakers on Wednesday that the Protection of Wages Bill now before them must be read alongside existing labour laws, as she argued the measure modernises worker protections while binding both public and private employers.

Describing the bill as part of the broader employment and industrial relations framework, she said it complements the existing labour laws, pointing to collective bargaining, National Insurance, maternity and paternity leave, and the Safety and Health at Work Act as examples of protections already in place for workers.

No legislation should be interpreted on its own, Cummins suggested.

“Every piece of legislation is read alongside other existing pieces of legislation, and you oftentimes will find, as you will see in Section 32 of this bill, consequential amendments to other pieces of legislation in order to give effect to what is contained here, but there are other pieces of legislation to cover different aspects of the legislation that the legislation must be read alongside.”

Cummins pointed to the Employment Rights Act and the Insolvency Act, which she noted are currently under review.

Barbados now has a mature industrial relations framework, she declared, unlike when the original Protection of Wages Act was passed in 1951. The new bill updates the law to reflect modern workplace conditions, she said.

“This piece of legislation that we are amending comes from a different time and place, before there was a social partnership, before we were speaking about how workers needed to be respected, what workers’ rights needed to be enforced, what the relationship needed to be between employer and employee.

“So this government, as I started out by saying that between 2018 has invested significantly and now, in legislative reforms, is also the government, at least under the Barbados Labour Party, which in 1951 passed the original legislation that we’re now making amendments to.”

The senator said workplace realities have changed significantly over the years and that the proposed amendments reflect those changes.

“Most definitely, the scenarios of 2026 are not the scenarios of 1951, when this legislation evolved and so here we are now making a number of recommendations. Here is where I want to take the conversation to be able to make sure that we understand what we have here. What does the bill bring?”

Drawing on her experience as a former business and commerce minister, Senator Cummins said the legislation is intended to protect responsible employers while ensuring workers are safeguarded.

“I was minister of business for four years, and I had the opportunity there to be able to hear from the perspective of business what some of the issues are. Legislation, as you will encounter, does not ever come to cover the ones who do the right thing. They always cover the ones that don’t. They always come to create guardrails around the people who, without those guardrails, would take the wrong positions and do the wrong things.”

The government also wants to support legitimate businesses and encourage the growth of small and medium-sized enterprises, she said.

“One of the things that we want to be able to see is how we can grow entrepreneurship in this country in an environment where many of the businesses in this country are small and medium-sized enterprises. We want to make sure that we are protecting legitimate businesses, but simultaneously that we’re working with businesses to give them clarity, so that they, in turn, protect workers and responsible employers are what we’re hoping for.”

Later, while discussing the principles of natural justice and the role of the Employment Rights Tribunal, Senator Cummins warned against judging workplace disputes based solely on social media posts.

She said: “When I talk about the right to be heard, when I talk about the right of appeal and thinking about natural justice, I spoke earlier about young people and your devices. This is social media where you could come and say the wildest things on social media; no one has the ability to either answer you or to defend you, to defend themselves, but then everybody jumps on a bandwagon because that is what is said on social media and it must be true, and there must not be anything else.”

She encouraged employees to use the formal dispute resolution process instead:

“I appeal to you as young people, be very discerning about what you see being presented in social media or sometimes in other quarters. Chances are, you are seeing 10 per cent of the story; you do not know what else is at play. So when you start to circulate, and you send all these viral voice messages or these screenshots of these online appeals, or you are bombarding people’s phones with these screenshots of messages.

“The principle of natural justice, when talking about the workforce, is important in the context of the tribunal, and we are encouraging everyone to use the services of the tribunal; there are many people who do, and to ensure that you give the employer the right to be heard. And if you’re dissatisfied with the outcome of the work of the tribunal, you automatically have the right to appeal.”

The majority leader in the upper chamber also said the legislation applies equally to the State and private employers:

“This is not an instance where you say, do as I say, not as I do. This legislation binds the state. It also says to the government itself, you can’t do any of the things that you are purporting to tell the private sector not to do and so we are bound by this.”

(LG)