– Minister Nadir in budget presentation
Government will continue to enhance existing training programmes for persons in various disciplines to ensure that the workforce receives training to enhance its earning capability and have a better quality of life.
Minister of Labour Manzoor Nadir, in his presentation yesterday during the 2010 Budget debate in the National Assembly, stated that this year, provision for workforce training has increased to provide a second chance to persons. The amount allocated in 2009 was $86M, while this year’s allocation is $120M.
“The Budget has in it a significant amount of resources to ensure that our labour programmes are as effective as they were last year and can be even better in 2010. In this regard, over 1,100 persons sought the assistance of the Labour Department with their grievances against employers, 900 of them have been successfully resolved by the department and we collected in excess of $38M from employers for those workers,” Minister Nadir said.
Noting that this year’s allocation is a 14 percent increase over the 2009 allocation of $4.6B, the Minister said that the Ministry of Labour, Human Services and Social Security received the largest percentage increase. This year the Ministry’s allocation amounts to $5.262B.
Minister Nadir noted that last year $25M was budgeted for single parent training targeting 250 persons. These persons were drawn from the register of single parents who asked for training and earned below the minimum. Letters were sent out and the Ministry received 412 applications.
The Minister noted that the decision was made to train all the applicants and partnerships were established with Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) to ensure that applicants receive training in the various disciplines. The Ministry was able to successfully graduate 372 persons and this year more money is provided in the budget of the Board of Industrial Training for this particular programme.
The Minister noted that another dimension was added to the programme and those trained will be encashing vouchers worth $65,000 to purchase tools to ply their trade. The Ministry has done this in order to assist persons in using their skills to better their lives.
The Ministry will also be enhancing its programmes to ensure workers’ safety and will be focusing on protecting the rights of the workers in the mining and forestry sectors. The Minister stated that the ministry will go the extra mile to ensure that those working in those sectors are properly protected.
Stating that there have been too many accidents and deaths in jobs where persons work at dangerous heights, the Minister noted that the Ministry will be setting new standards to protect workers.
Also, registration of workers in the construction sector will be done since these workers move from contractor to contractor and do not get the benefit of coverage by the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) and PAYE remittances. The Ministry will also be looking at the non-payment of wages in the construction sector since there have been many cases where workers were not paid for the period they worked.
Meanwhile, workers in the area of security will also be benefiting from increased attention, and Minister Nadir noted that work has already commenced in the sector, especially for workers in guard services.
Noting that the Ministry will continue to implement initiatives to tackle child labour, the Minister noted that the TACKLE Programme which seeks to end child labour through education will be embarking on a project to provide transportation services to school children. Through the Government’s programme, school children are provided with uniforms and hot meals which have helped to increase attendance in schools, and it is expected that the transportation service will assist further in this regard.
This programme, the Minister said, has a small budget of 1M Euros over three years, in collaboration with the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and funded by the European Union (EU). Two buses will be provided to transport children between the end of the Linden Highway to the south, and the Soesdyke junction to the north.
Also as a pilot this year, an aggressive programme to energise cooperatives will be launched since many of the cooperative societies are plagued by mismanagement. Minister Nadir pointed out that the Linden Utilities Coop Society Limited for many years has had problems with management, and while the Ministry has had to intervene twice before, a management committee was appointed to bring the books up to date. The Society was handed over to its members in 2008 after the books were updated, and the Minister noted that to date there has been no cause for the Ministry’s intervention.
In 2009, the Ministry targeted 1500 school-drop outs for training and a total of 1200 graduated in July last year, while another 1100 persons will be graduating next month, exceeding the target set.
Last year the Central Recruitment and Manpower Agency (CRMA) achieved a 10 year high in the placement of people, Minister Nadir said. Most of the vacancies that were placed with the Agency were from the private sector and the service will be improved this year to allow for online applications. (GINA)