Devon Dick AS JAMAICA commemorates the 172nd anniversary of the Christmas Rebellion, it was appropriate that Half Moon Hotel shone brightly in announcing at its Christmas function that their employees would be going on a five-day work week. The Christmas Rebellion was a watershed event that started in St. James. Half Moon Hotel, which coincidentally is situated in St. James, might with this five-day work week, have a ripple effect on working conditions of employees in the hotel sector and perhaps a revolution in the working environment in Jamaica.
Half Moon has challenged the status quo which claims that businesses that operate 24/7 have to have a flexi-time work system of six or seven days a week work. The Christmas Rebellion was also about working conditions. Sam Sharpe and his followers decided that they would strike if they were not paid wages for their labour. They believed that the monarch of England had granted them their freedom and that it was being withheld by a wicked planter class. They wanted to be free and to have the freedom to earn their way. They did not want handouts. They did not want someone else to be in charge of providing food, shelter and medical care. In fact, it was observed that the leaders of the revolt were the slaves who were largely treated humanely. They however, wanted to be free to earn a livelihood while being concerned about the vast majority who were dehumanised and who were treated in such a way that their life expectancy as a slave was seven years.
PUBLIC AGENDA
Half Moon Hotel is, therefore, placing the issue of working conditions of hotel workers on the public agenda. In December 2003, I was a guest at a hotel and I heard a foreign visitor asking a waiter how come she was at work so early after being there for a long time. I know of a hotel that made its waiters do a eight- hour shift comprising a breakfast shift from approximately 7 am to 11 am and dinner 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. The employees had no time or could not afford to go back home. It escapes hotel owners and managers that overworking employees will not allow them to perform at optimum levels. A well rested worker is more efficient and effective.
Two years ago, while at an upscale hotel, my wife and I were walking on the property and we noticed two security guards fast asleep beside each other in a small uncomfortable golf cart when they should be on duty. I felt sorry for them so I did not wake them up or report them to the hotel management. Security guards are generally underpaid, so in addition to working a night shift they also have daytime work. But couldn't they take turns sleeping on the job?
UNFAVOURABLE WORKING CONDITIONS
Too often the working conditions are unfavourable. That is why there needs to be a minimum wage that is fair and does not institutionalise poverty because it is set so low that a family of five could not live reasonably on that wage. The Ministry of Education and Culture pays ancillary staff with 30 years service a ridiculously inadequate wage.
However, this is not to claim that the worker is always right. I have heard some ridiculous claims by workers. In addition, I think that the Redundancy Act needs revising because it appears too beneficial to workers at the expense of a struggling company.
This season of remembering the Christmas Rebellion should be used to highlight the contribution of the participants in this landmark making event. Hap-pily, Professor Verene Shepherd is part of a project to have the Court Trial of the protesters available in print form for all Jamaicans to read. In addition, she is researching the unsung heroes of the Christmas Rebel-lion, and in conjunction with the Jamaica National Heritage Trust, will be erecting a Wall next year to honour those unsung heroes.
However, as good as those acts are, it is equally important that in tribute to the heroes of the Christmas Rebellion, the country makes a deliberate effort to improve the working conditions of employees while enabling investors to make a reasonable return on the risk taken.
The Rev Devon Dick is pastor of the Boulevard Baptist Church.
