“Labour Department needs to be strengthened,” says PM

By Ryan Haas
Reporter-SKNVibes.com

BASSETERRE, St. Kitts-IT was revealed this morning (Jan. 6) on the weekly radio program “Ask the Prime Minister” that the government plans to be more proactive in fortifying the Department of Labour in 2009.

Responding to a caller who claimed that the Labour Department was not “giving justice” to the general public that attempted to utilise its services, Prime Minister Dr. Hon. Denzil Douglas said that he agreed with the caller that the Labour Department needed to be closely scrutinised by the government.

“I agree with you that the Labour Department needs to be strengthened in terms of its human resource capacity and also in terms of the legislation it has at its fingertips in pursuing the interest of the workers in this country.”

While Douglas accepted that the Labour Department had been on the decline, he said that he believed it would not be long before it was bolstered by the actions of his government and their partners. ~~Adz:Right~~

“The Labour Union, which was a very vibrant partner in our development, has been weakened over the years. We have an issue and the government is aware of that.

“However, the Minister of Labour [Hon. Sam Condor] is very anxious and very much committed to ensuring that there is continued improvement in the services that are provided by the Department of Labour. The entire government is in fact committed to that,” he said.

For the legal side of the department, Douglas said that the Parliamentary Representative for Constituency #2, Hon. Dwyer Astaphan, would be serving as a legal consultant.

“He is supposed to be pursuing a contractual arrangement with the Attorney General’s office in order to revisit the labour laws, and hopefully bring them strength and teeth.

“We believe that…very shortly we will begin to see something coming out of this consultation that has been provided,” the PM reassured.