Changing times

This is according to Minister of Labour, Social Security and Human Resource Development, Senator Dr. Esther Byer-Suckoo, who delivered welcome remarks at the ‘Breakfast Meeting to Discuss the Draft National Human Resource Development Policy for Barbados’ yesterday at the Radisson Aquatica.

 

She said that in the past five decades Barbados has experienced so much development, success, fame and prosperity in various endeavours around the world and everywhere you go you can find a Barbadian in all sectors of society, something which she herself has seen when she has visited different countries.

 

However, the ease of Barbadians travelling to other countries to seek out and successfully secure employment no longer exists. For example, the days of travelling to other countries and seeing nurses and policemen who are Barbadian no longer exists because the demands have changed, said the Minister of Labour.

 

“But today, the world is different. Perhaps different from when those persons would have launched out into the world to make their mark. We say that the world has become smaller; the needs have changed. Barbadians, for example, can’t go to the UK in droves like they did before and perhaps seek their success in London Transport as they may once have done. Nurses don’t find it as easy to move across the world and policemen are not moving across the world.”

 

These changes have also extended to the Ministry of Labour, who no longer receive requests for Barbadian workers to go to the United States and work in such areas as cane cutting, while this country along with their North American neighbour, Canada, are now recruiting persons for hospitality jobs either internally or if they do seek outside candidates, there is increasing competition from countries across the globe.

 

“We have experienced changes in the Ministry of Labour, especially when it comes to external employment. The United States isn’t hiring cane cutters like they once did and we know that that is where Barbadians made their fortune. Canada and the United States are meeting their needs for hospitality jobs either internally or there is competition from across the globe – other job markets. Persons are competing from Guatemala, from Mexico, from the Philippines for the jobs that we once pretty much thought were ours and we kind of had that confidence that we would get all of the jobs that we thought that we wanted in those areas.”

 

In addition to this, preferential arrangements such as those for Barbadian workers have also ended and this is as a result of international standards as well as the economies of these countries which aim to do what they need to do internally, in order to secure employment for their citizens first and foremost, added Byer-Suckoo. (PJT)