Edmond Campbell, Senior News Coordinator

ORANE

Jamaica has, on average, recorded negative productivity levels for more than three decades, eroding some of the gains achieved during the 1950s and immediate post-Independence period, according to the head of one of the largest corporations in the island.

Douglas Orane, chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of Grace-Kennedy Limited, who made the observation, drew on a study conducted by Dr. Charles Douglas, executive director of the Jamaica Productivity Centre, which revealed that between 1970 and 2000, Jamaica's average annual labour productivity was -1.8 per cent.

He was speaking yesterday at the National Productivity Awareness Week organised by the Ministry of Labour and Social Security and the Jamaica Productivity Centre at the Jamaica Pegasus in New Kingston.

The study showed that, during the decade of the 1950s, the country's output per worker stood at an average annual rate of 8.4 per cent. This declined but remained positive at four per cent during the 1960s. However, the decade of the 1970s saw Jamaica's average annual labour productivity rate declining further to -0.4 per cent.

Dr. Douglas' research showed that the annual productivity rate slipped again during the decade of the 1980s to -0.7 per cent. This poor performance remained unchanged in the 1990s.

Leadership failed

Suggesting that this was an indictment on the various political administrations of the country, Mr. Orane said this dismal performance meant that "the leadership of our society has failed us and failed our people because all of our people want to be better off, but somehow we haven't been able to get our act together to get productivity moving in a way that other countries have done."

Mr. Orane argued that the country should learn from the mistakes made and chart a new way forward instead of engaging in a blame game.

He said that, since the year 2000, nothing has changed in terms of productivity output, noting that the country's economy has been growing at an average one per cent per annum while the population grew at a similar rate.

"It means that the growth in productivity for Jamaica is just about zero over the last several years," he added.

The GraceKennedy CEO said Jamaicans are increasingly migrating to countries where productivity is growing rapidly, including the United States, Canada and the Eastern Caribbean.

Commenting on the impact of the poor productivity levels, Mr. Orane said this lack of growth has affected the standard of living of all Jamaicans.

Turning to the industrial scene, Mr. Orane said several wage negotiations are not being pursued with productivity improvement as the underlying principle for wage and salary increases.

"We need to reverse this trend as wage and salary increase without the accompanying increases in productivity will lead to greater inflation, which in the end erodes the purchasing power of the workers who get increases and jeopardises the viability of the business, as well as the international competitiveness of Jamaica," the GraceKennedy CEO contended.

He proposed that rewards should be linked to productivity at every workplace.

"From this point onwards, every salary and wage settlement in Jamaica, whether individual or collective bargaining, ought to be productivity-linked," he added.

Productivity is a measure of how much is produced per unit of resources used in production. The transformation of economic resources (inputs) into output defines production.

Labour Productivity Across Decades from the 1950s -

Output per worker

Average Annual Rate 8.4 per cent

1960s - 4 per cent

1970s - 0.4 per cent

1980s - 0.7 per cent

1990s - 0.7 per cent