For better pay, Boost productivity

WESTERN BUREAU:

Prime Minister Andrew Holness is urging Jamaicans to adopt a modernised outlook on growing and building Jamaica’s economy, including by way of emphasising workers’ levels of productivity, in order to adequately address and sustain the nation’s fiscal management.

During his keynote address at last Thursday’s grand opening of the Barnett Business Centre in Montego Bay, St James, Holness stressed that Jamaicans’ financial thinking has to evolve from what it was during the early 2000s.

“If you were to define Jamaica 20 years ago by virtue of the features of its economy, you would say that it is a country that has high debt, unstable exchange rate, high inflation, and high unemployment. How do you define Jamaica today? It is a country with low unemployment, stable exchange rate, inflation targeted and coming back to stability, and debt on its way down,” Holness said confidently.

“Therefore, the outlook that we held of ourselves as a people 20 years ago cannot be the outlook that we hold today to take us to the next level. For us to move to the next level, we are going to have to have some change in perspective … the next level for us is to treat with productivity. We need to manage the public finances so we are not indebted, so we do not spend 70 per cent out of every dollar the country earns to service debt,” Holness added.

While admitting that workers will naturally question whether they are being paid adequately for their services, the prime minister proposed that a worker’s pay must be based on how much output is given by the worker into his or her employment.

“All the conditions are in place to increase our productivity. Everyone here who works should ask yourself, ‘Am I giving the best that I can give?’ It is a question to evoke a response because immediately, the response is ‘Am I being paid enough?’” said Holness.

“The issue is ‘Yes, I must get more’, and I agree with you, but how do you get more? There is no secret stash there that we can get up and pay without it being related to what you produce,” Holness added. “We do not want to be a ‘cheap labour’ destination. We want to be a ‘high-productivity labour’ destination.”

Holness previously made a similar push for emphasising worker productivity on August 31when he noted that performance-based compensation of workers is part of his administration’s ongoing strategy for Jamaica’s development.

He made that statement two days after Bustamante Industrial Trade Union President Kavan Gayle argued that performance pay and incentive-type rewards and investments should be considered for Jamaica’s labour force in order to promote increased productivity.

In the meantime, noted western Jamaica-based businessman Mark Kerr-Jarrett, the executive chairman of Barnett Limited, suggested that fully trained employees should be sourced through the long-touted Public Sector Transformation Programme.

“I have an appeal to make and that is that our greatest challenge in all aspects of the private sector growth is the available of quality human resources. The medium to long-term solution will, without a doubt, require a total reformation of the educational system, and this will take time, but I would like to throw out a suggestion, made years ago, that the fastest way to free up trained and experienced human resources is through the public sector reform programme,” said Kerr-Jarrett.

“If we can right-size the public sector with regard to the number of staff, this could create thousands of human resources [and would provide] skilled, trained, and experienced people available to the private sector, immediately filling the human resource needs we are struggling with,” Kerr-Jarrett added.

Thursday’s grand opening of the Barnett Business Centre, which is operated by Barnett Limited, has resulted in approximately 2,200 new employment opportunities being made available in Montego Bay. The facility, which was built at a cost of US$15 million, includes the Delta Supply construction and industrial tool store, the Birdshack Fried Chicken fast-food restaurant, several medical offices, a mini-mart, two ATM services, and a full-service salon.

christopher.thomas@gleanerjm.com