THE Government's plan to speed labour reform amendments through Parliament this session hit a roadblock yesterday over the issue of contract employees including security guards, being defined as workers.
The Joint Select Committee (JSC) of Parliament, studying proposed amendments to the Labour Relations and Industrial Disputes Act(LRIDA) and the Trade Union Act as part of the Government's labour reform process, failed to vote on a new definition of who is a worker under the Act.
The new definition was brought to the committee yesterday by Minister of Labour and Social Security, Donald Buchanan. He said it was the result of discussions he had with employers, trade unions and government representatives since last year.
Mr. Buchanan said the definition had been agreed to by the Labour Advisory Committee (LAC) on January 5. The LAC is a tripartite industrial relations committee comprising representatives of the unions, the employers and government, chaired by the Minister of Labour.
But, Senator Navel Clarke (PNP), who is also a deputy island supervisor of the National Workers Union (NWU), said he could not support the newly-proposed definition. He said less than two weeks ago, his union had agreed to support the previous amendment which had been approved by the JSC in December, 1999, and which specifically covered contract workers, such as security guards. He suggested the matter be voted on next week, instead.
None of the other three Parliamentarians attending yesterday's meeting, Senator Peter McConnell and JLP spokesman on Labour, Clifton Stone, and Government backbencher Canute Brown objected to Senator Clarke's suggestion.
Mr. Stone said while he understood the need to have the amendments dealt with urgently, he thought Senator Clarke's request was reasonable: "I don't think a couple days will make a great difference," he said.
Mr. Brown said the unions might have legitimate concerns and he didn't think it unreasonable to give the committee time to digest the proposals which, in any case, were coming from meetings outside of the committee.
Mr. Clarke said: "I don't want to be accused of holding up anything. I would prefer to be able to, in all conscience, vote and accept the situation which was agreed to by the parties, but I would like to have confirmation that this is a position the trade unions want."
Mr. Buchanan tried to go ahead with the meeting, but eventually succumbed to the arguments of his fellow Parliamentarians and agreed the vote would be postponed for another meeting.
