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Orville Taylor | COVID-19, labour rights and comradery

Published:Sunday | March 22, 2020 | 12:00 AM

Increasing numbers of ‘non-essential’ workers are either working from home, have reduced working hours, or are being laid off. Production will decline, foreign exchange earnings will fall, family incomes will shrink, food and other basket of goods items will become scarcer.

The vulnerability of the working family is as great as it has been since the 1960s. Holes in the labour laws will be exposed, but it will be a foolish employer or government that exploits or allows the disadvantage because the consequences will be immeasurable.

Difficult times require decisive leadership and consensus. The global crisis did not begin here, but that doesn’t matter. We are a little island with limited resources, the chief of all is our resilience as a people. The leader of the international entity paid keen attention to this tiny nation with larger-than-life leaders and commended the Government for its handling of the crisis although there was a long distance to travel and stulls needed to be built and reinforced.

In awe of the brilliance of the minister with the PhD, the international diplomat of the three-letter acronym used words like “astonishing” and “superb work.” Encouraged by the good signs the remarks resounded, “There is no favourable wind for a sailor who knows where he is going. … You know where you want to go, and there will be externalities … you know where you want to go, and I hope you will achieve that journey for the people of Jamaica.”

You might have guessed who, but the three letters are not WHO, but IMF – the International Monetary Fund. The year was 2014, and the Jamaican minister being lauded was then finance minister Peter Phillips.

Greater Crisis

A mere six years later, the crisis is even greater, and humans are dropping faster than the value of the Jamaican dollar. With 270,000-plus tip-of-the-iceberg cases globally and our tested and confirmed cases in double figures with one fatality, the message has, thankfully, spread faster than the COVID-19 virus. Jamaicans, the most ‘scornful’ people I know, are now stepping up their handwashing, use of alcohol, stocking up on food where possible, and obeying the guidelines issued by the Ministry of Health and other national influencers.

True, the questions arise as to why churches are not forced to close, but bars with the less holy spirits are in lockdown. There are also complaints that the residents in the quarantined areas are short of supplies, but by and large, there is nothing here in Jamaica that looks like the horror stories in many metropolitan cities. Unlike these First World cities, our grocery stores and supermarkets have most of the regular stuff. For example, even though we have copious supplies of foliage and newspapers, there is enough toilet tissue on the shelves to stone dogs. Indeed, this pleases me a lot because I have had to suffer the ignominy of seeing my face wrapping fish and definitely couldn’t manage the image of someone giving me a different interpretation of ‘hindsight.’

Except for a few incidents such as idiotic taxi drivers refusing to carry the very same nurses who will attend to them when karma hits them or a report of a coughing man being attacked on public transport, there is little anarchy. Even the ‘listhping’ entertainer, Elephant Man, who ‘shizzled his nizzle’ with a wrong declaration to ‘immigrashizzle’, has faced massive criticism from not just white-collar society, but from ordinary citizens. The indignation of the society on the whole is in itself encouraging.

And encouragement sweetens labour with the endorsement from Ethiopian Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, head of the World Health Organization (WHO). Although not a visit, as it was by the head of the IMF in 2014, in a world of social distancing, the tweet says volumes. Regarding the current Jamaican health minister, Dr Christopher Tufton: “Thank you so much for your leadership – and preparedness – for #COVID19, @christufton. #Jamaica Being ready for #coronavirus is key to pushing it back fast. Together, for a safer world!”Good leadership transcends petty internal politics, and political unity and consensus are paramount now.

Add to that the comments from the American ambassador to Jamaica, “I remain encouraged by the progressive steps the Gov’t of Jamaica has taken to mitigate the spread within its borders.” Indeed, I am willing to bet that many parts of the ‘First World’ can take pages from our book.

Yet, all that can disappear in a flash if the workers, who will have to keep this country afloat and lead the post-epidemic recovery, are disenfranchised. Many of the ‘neighsayers’, including the Church, who failed to see the prophetic importance of the flexitime legislation, now see the revelation as the horsemen of the apocalypse arrive.

Compensation

‘Essential’ workers are holding the fort across industries and sectors. This is different from those described under the Labour Relations and Industrial Disputes Act (LRIDA) as essential services. The impact on the ‘skeleton’ staff is likely to be underestimated, but the remuneration and compensation will have to be taken into account. Critical here are security workers, who are essential both under the LRIDA and the current government mandate. Now more than ever, their status as contractors/workers must be settled unambiguously.

True, the Employment (Termination and Redundancy Payment) Act [ETRPA] allows for the lay-off of workers for up to 120 days without pay. Moreover, it is legal to terminate workers where the contract is ‘frustrated’ due to external factors such as disasters. But is that what you want to do to a set of people who you hope to return afterwards? The Holiday with Pay Order 1973 provides minimal periods of sick leave. Thankfully, the Government is providing a drop-in-the-bucket compensation for workers who might lose their jobs due to COVID-19. However, the need for better funding of the entire social safety net is now apparent.

Still, I am very proud to be Jamaican as we weather this storm.

- Dr Orville Taylor is head of the Department of Sociology at The UWI, a radio talk-show host, and author of ‘Broken Promises, Hearts and Pockets’. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and tayloronblackline@hotmail.com.