MINISTER of Labour Mr. Manzoor Nadir has stressed the need for young people seeking employment in Guyana to make full use of the training opportunities available under his Ministry

He observed that in 2009, 450 vacancies listed with the Ministry were unable to be filled because there was a shortage of skills for drivers, sales persons, welders, electricians, etc.

The Minister is encouraging youths seeking employment to reach out to the Central Recruitment and Manpower Agency (CRMA) and to the Board of Industrial Training (BIT) to assist them in acquiring the skills needed for suitable jobs.

In this regard, he said the number one achievement during 2009 is the empowerment of 3,500 persons who have found jobs through the CRMA and almost 1,500 persons who have been trained by the BIT.

“Many times we can’t start off with the job that we want but we may have to start with the job that is available,” he advised, while addressing the media at his office on Cornhill Street, Georgetown, at the annual end of year press conference.

He announced that in 2010, the Ministry intends to develop and implement an interactive labour exchange programme which will facilitate persons being able to view vacancies online, make their applications and also receive the Ministry’s response there.

Also included in the software will be a programme that will track all of the applications for training under the BIT.

Minister Nadir further disclosed that in the new year, Government intends to train 4,000 out-of-school persons with an employable skill and 2,500 of these individuals will be trained under the BIT.

He said the National Training Project for Youth Empowerment (NTPYE) has graduated a total of 1,140 persons for the year, though its target was 1,000 and that Government has been spending $50M annually on training by the BIT.

Minister Nadir observed that the dropout rate has been the highest in Region Four (Demerara/Mahaica) with 160 of 250 abandoning their training. In contrast, he noted that there has been a completion rate of 91 percent in Region 10 (Upper Demerara/Berbice).

Initially, he said the plan was to graduate 50 persons from the Linden Technical Institute and 50 from the Industrial Training Centre in Georgetown in the Heavy-duty Equipment Training Programme. However, Region 10 graduated 103 persons while Region Four just managed to graduate 17.

The Minister cautioned against stereotyping young people as lazy, lacking ambition and having poor attitudes, as the Ministry’s experience from working with them has been overwhelmingly positive.

Errant employers
For 2009, Minister Nadir said the output in the Labour, Occupational Safety and Health Department was 30 percent better than in 2008 and this is reflected in the number of inspections that the Ministry has done.

In terms of monies collected from errant employers, he said the department collected $37M as against $33M in 2008 and that it has not been averse to taking matters to court.

He explained that the department laid 116 charges against errant employers as against 83 charges in 2008 and that, among those laid, were two against Mr. Lincoln Lewis for failure to pay workers at the Critchlow Labour College.

On November 26 last, after Lewis made two court appearances, the Minister said Acting Chief Magistrate Melissa Robertson issued an arrest warrant for him after he failed to show up in court.

In 2010, Minister Nadir said the Labour Department will be expanded to cover all parts of the country and greater compliance with the labour laws will be enforced.

“We’re looking to ensure greater compliance with the labour laws by the mining and forestry sectors. The year 2009 has been a horrible year for industrial deaths which has been climbing over the past three years. It has moved from seven in 2007, to 10 in 2008, to over 15 in 2009.”

According to him, 2009 also saw the investment in the strengthening of the institutional capacity of the labour administration with the development of software and the installation of hardware to computerise the work of the labour department.

He said the year ended with a very active last quarter with a few major matters in the department such as the GuySuCo/GAWU wages and salary negotiations, the RUSAL/Guyana Bauxite and General Workers Union dispute, the issue between the Guyana Power Company and the Guyana Public Service Union and issues between the Guyana Post Office Corporation and the Guyana Postal and Telecommunication Workers Union.

He mentioned that 2009 has seen the highest number of strikes as well as man- days loss and that wages lost due to strikes amounts to over $225.3M.

However, he observed that one of the major successes of the labour portfolio was the advancement of the HIV/AIDS workplace programme which was heavily supported by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the Ministry of Health.

He said the year concluded with the launching of the Ministry’s annual occupational wages and hours of work survey which is conducted annually.

Single Parents
Minister Nadir said 2009 also saw the introduction of the Single Parents Training Programme for which the Government had allocated $2
5M in the 2009 budget and which forms part of the Single Parents Assistance Programme.

He said it was envisaged that the Ministry would graduate 250 persons in this programme and would have taken in about 300. However, because single parents responded positively to the invitation for training, the programme took in 412.

He highlighted, too, that 275 single parents had graduated, exceeding the 250 planned and another 97 will complete their training in February 2010.

Minister Nadir offered that these numbers, along with those from the CRMA and BIT graduations, indicate that in spite of the 2009 economic crisis, the Country’s economy has been performing well and the partnership that has been established by the public and private sectors is working effectively.

“This partnership cannot be over emphasised because it is the private sector that has been hosting the overwhelming majority of available jobs and has been providing the support for our training programmes,” he remarked.

Credit Union
In 2010, Minister Nadir said the supervision and regulation of the Credit Union movement will be brought under the Bank of Guyana.

He noted that this is necessary in order to protect the contribution of members and to ensure that there is good governance, management and accountability for the contributions of members.

The Minister said 2009 has also seen the solidifying of several international partnerships resulting in a $24M training project being inked between the Ministry of Labour, Human Services and Social Security and the United Nations Development Project (UNDP).

He described 2009 as “a year that has seen labour in full flight because all sections of the labour portfolio has performed exceedingly well,” due to fact that the Ministry has engaged in several reorganizations within each department.