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Trinidad and Tobago: Domestic workers law coming, says Baptiste-Primus, Minister of Labour and Small Enterprise Development

Trinidad and Tobago: Domestic workers law coming, says Baptiste-Primus, Minister of Labour and Small Enterprise Development

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by IDWFED published Jul 16, 2016 12:00 AM
Contributors: Wesley Gibbings/Guardian
Minister of Labour and Small Enterprise Development, Jennifer Baptiste-Primus, says she is fully supportive of the inclusion of domestic workers under labour legislation and the measure will be in “the first package” of forthcoming amendments to the Industrial Relations Act (IRA).

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Minister of Labour and Small Enterprise Development, Jennifer Baptiste-Primus, says she is fully supportive of the inclusion of domestic workers under labour legislation and the measure will be in “the first package” of forthcoming amendments to the Industrial Relations Act (IRA).

The National Union of Domestic Employees (NUDE) has led the charge on this issue for years and, during the current 64th Session of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in Geneva, raised the issue as being of ongoing concern.

Baptiste-Primus said the issue was discussed as recently as Monday when she met with the Joint Trade Union Movement (JTUM) on proposed labour law reform. NUDE argued at the CEDAW forum this week that women domestic workers in T&T face serious challenges in the face of what it describes as “discriminatory provisions in the Industrial Relations Act” that violate important principles of sound industrial relations practice.

In a dispatch from Geneva, general secretary of NUDE, Ida Le Blanc, cites that “without contracts …their terms and conditions of work are changed unilaterally” while they are also excluded from the protections of the Occupational Safety and Health Act and Retrenchment and Severance Benefits Act—a situation that has had the effect of “denying them rights as all other workers.”

She told the international gathering that domestic workers are also sometimes “fired when they enquire from the National Insurance Board whether their employer registered them or paid any contributions on their behalf”.

“They are fired without any means of redress,” Le Blanc says. “Employers get away with impunity.” Baptiste-Primus said she shares the concerns of the organisation and gave the assurance that legislation to address the situation “will be on the parliamentary agenda.”

She said recommendations for the first draft of the package of IRA amendments will go to the Office of the Attorney General and then sent out for public comment which is a process expected to last for one month.

“This issue is very much on the cards,” she told T&T Guardian. She said she “absolutely agrees” with the concerns of the organisation and that the proposed reforms will have her support at Cabinet level. She added that it will only be a matter of time before they are addressed.

NUDE has over 600 members and, during the last administration, had been assured of measures to address their concerns by then labour minister Errol McLeod which included the establishment of a Domestic Workers Register launched in June 2015.

Source: Wesley Gibbings/Guardian

Story Type: News

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