new plans for cayman islands

by Caribbean PressReleases.com

An employment relations report suggesting that Cayman needs to get its labour laws in line with recommendations of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) has spurred Minister Alden McLaughlin to promise quick action. The Minister plans to engage the public in a major consultative exercise as an integral aspect of the initiative.

Among the innovations that Government plans introducing into Cayman's employment relations are an almost immediate establishment of a magistrate-level person to chair the Labour Tribunals, establishment of minimum wage, outlawing contracting out of overtime work, removal of the cap on severance or redundancy compensation, and introduction of a mandatory written contract for every employee.

In spite of a desire to quickly introduce these changes Minister McLaughlin indicated that Government will go forward in conjunction with all persons likely to be affected.

"The Ministry [of Employment Relations] is currently reviewing all legislative recommendations and the existing legislation itself in order to produce a discussion document for consultation with all the stakeholders, employees and employers alike," Mr McLaughlin said on 16 November as he tabled in the Legislative Assembly the report titled, "A review of the functions and organisational structure of the Department of Employment Relations and the labour legislative framework of the Cayman Islands."

Based on an open invitation to tender, veteran employment relations Consultant Samuel Goolsarran was commissioned to review four areas of employment relations within the Cayman Islands: provide a strategic direction for the Department of Employment Relations; recommend an appropriate organisational structure and skills capacity for the department; assess the legislative framework for employment services; and deliver an implementation plan.

A Trinidadian, Mr Goolsarran is a now retired former long-serving member of the Caribbean ILO team, and Mr McLaughlin referenced this background to stress the independence of the report. "This report therefore contains his views and not necessarily the plans or perspectives of this Government."

The Minister noted that ILO conventions provide guidelines, principles and an institutional framework within which national employment and labour policy is developed, implemented, coordinated, checked, and reviewed.

In this regard he saw Mr Goolsarran's recommendations as having a significant value to enhancement of employment services in Cayman.

On the recommendation for a magistrate-level Labour Tribunals chairman, Mr McLaughlin said this person along with a deputy will be fulltime employees of the tribunal, relieving the pressure on volunteers.

Mr McLaughlin paid tribute to the work of volunteers over the years, but said that the rising cases coming before them have created a backlog.

"This will not remove the need to continue to call on eligible members of our community as tribunal members to continue in a similar capacity to which they now serve, but will mean that decisions can be rendered more swiftly as there will be a fulltime commissioner in post," Mr McLaughlin said.

The tribunals will be separated from the Department of Employment Relations and become an autonomous body.

The Minister said that a National Minimum Wage Advisory Committee will take information from findings of the comprehensive National Assessment of Living Conditions along with submissions from interested organisations to recommend a national minimum wage.

"The consideration of this should assume that a minimum wage protocol should not be set unilaterally but through research, surveys and consultation with both employers and employees," the Minister said.

He said there will be no maximum amount for severance pay, ensuring that redundant employees will get one week's pay for every year worked regardless of the number of years.

"The removal of a ceiling for severance pay of one week's pay for each complete year of service when an employee is made redundant is only fair."

In addition to providing written contracts for every employee, employers will also have to preserve employee records for a minimum of three years.

"Laying this report today in this honourable House is a pivotal day for business leaders and employees in this country," Mr McLaughlin said, adding, "I look forward to engaging with various groups across our islands to ensure that I am armed with a very clear position on the way forward on these issues."