Dear Editor,
Having read Danny Roberts' edited address: 'Leaders can no longer think outside the box, you have to think there's no box' in the Jamaica Observer on Tuesday, May 14, 2013, and having previously listened to the frustration of three prominent industrial relations practitioners on This Morning on Nationwide (April 2-3, 2013), it seems reasonable to conclude that the industrial relations climate in Jamaica is in a state of rapid decline.
One of the emerging themes from the many discourses relates to the blatant disregard for upholding industrial relations agreements and protocols, and this appears to be creating a massive deficit in trust between 'management' and 'workers'.
If we are serious about a Vision 2030 for Jamaica, then one recommendation is that industrial relations training should be mandatory for all managers across all disciplines in both the public and private sectors. It is untenable to have managers who seem clueless about basic industrial relations issues supervising staff.
Industrial relations stalwarts such as George Kirkaldy (Industrial Relations Law and Practice In Jamaica), George J Phillip and Benthan H Hussey (A to Z of Industrial Relations in the Caribbean Workplace), and Ashwell E Thomas (Industrial Relations Process and Practices: A Caribbean Perspective) have left strong legacies, but it seems they are not being harnessed.
Many managers whho are trained, however, don't seem to care. The Ministry of Labour, the Jamaica Employers' Federation and the Jamaica Confederation of Trade Unions must have an expanded role in addressing these issues if we are really serious about improving the industrial relations climate and, ultimately, productivity.
To this end, these critical stakeholders should work with the Hugh Lawson Shearer Trade Union Education Institute to pool their scarce resources and produce more journals and papers geared at strengthening the legislative framework.
While they are it, the disciplinary aspects of the grievance procedure should be reviewed, for it makes no sense for it to be applicable only to lower-level employees but not to management.
To quote from Danny Roberts: "This is where your training must lead you, for if you are unable to create that vision that provides the link between today and tomorrow, serve to energise and motivate employees, and garner commitment towards the future, then your organisation would have nowhere going."
To the trade union movement, of which I was once a part: the paradigm in industrial relations has to be more than 'interest-based bargaining'. How can there be 'win-win' in the absence of equity and justice?
Joan Francis
francisj16@yahoo.com
Make Industrial Relations training for managers mandatory
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Having read Danny Roberts' edited address: 'Leaders can no longer think outside the box, you have to think there's no box' in the Jamaica Observer on Tuesday, May 14, 2013, and having previously listened to the frustration of three prominent industrial relations practitioners on This Morning on Nationwide (April 2-3, 2013), it seems reasonable to conclude that the industrial relations climate in Jamaica is in a state of rapid decline.
One of the emerging themes from the many discourses relates to the blatant disregard for upholding industrial relations agreements and protocols, and this appears to be creating a massive deficit in trust between 'management' and 'workers'.
If we are serious about a Vision 2030 for Jamaica, then one recommendation is that industrial relations training should be mandatory for all managers across all disciplines in both the public and private sectors. It is untenable to have managers who seem clueless about basic industrial relations issues supervising staff.
Industrial relations stalwarts such as George Kirkaldy (Industrial Relations Law and Practice In Jamaica), George J Phillip and Benthan H Hussey (A to Z of Industrial Relations in the Caribbean Workplace), and Ashwell E Thomas (Industrial Relations Process and Practices: A Caribbean Perspective) have left strong legacies, but it seems they are not being harnessed.
Many managers whho are trained, however, don't seem to care. The Ministry of Labour, the Jamaica Employers' Federation and the Jamaica Confederation of Trade Unions must have an expanded role in addressing these issues if we are really serious about improving the industrial relations climate and, ultimately, productivity.
To this end, these critical stakeholders should work with the Hugh Lawson Shearer Trade Union Education Institute to pool their scarce resources and produce more journals and papers geared at strengthening the legislative framework.
While they are it, the disciplinary aspects of the grievance procedure should be reviewed, for it makes no sense for it to be applicable only to lower-level employees but not to management.
To quote from Danny Roberts: "This is where your training must lead you, for if you are unable to create that vision that provides the link between today and tomorrow, serve to energise and motivate employees, and garner commitment towards the future, then your organisation would have nowhere going."
To the trade union movement, of which I was once a part: the paradigm in industrial relations has to be more than 'interest-based bargaining'. How can there be 'win-win' in the absence of equity and justice?
Joan Francis
francisj16@yahoo.com
Make Industrial Relations training for managers mandatory
-->