MINISTERS of Labour across the Caribbean on Wednesday continued their discussion to foster the free movement of agricultural workers and security guards.
The discussion was conducted via videoconferencing.

The Council for Human and Social Development (COHSOD) on Labour, a body which falls under the purview of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), facilitated the special technical meeting. Minister within the Ministry of Social Protection, with responsibility for Labour, Keith Scott, led Guyana’s delegation to this meeting.

“The purpose of the Special Meeting of the COHSOD is to further efforts towards implementing the mandate from the CARICOM Heads of Government for agricultural workers and security guards to move under the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME),” a statement from CARICOM read.

According to the draft agenda seen by the Guyana Chronicle, the engagement focused on determining definitions for “Agricultural Workers” and “Security Guards” and the qualification requirements for the two groups of workers. The definition of household domestics should have also been considered.

Minister Scott, in an engagement among contingents in Guyana, highlighted the importance of determining the definitions and minimum qualification requirements of the categories of workers.

Specifically, he directed focus to “Security Guards” and said there should be a distinction between “watchmen” and actual “security guards.”

At the 18th Special Meeting on the CSME held in December 2018, CARICOM Heads of Government agreed to extend the categories of nationals entitled to move across the Region to include agricultural workers and security guards under the CSME.

These additional categories are to be facilitated administratively by the end of February 2019 and implemented into legislation by member states by the end of July.

“The [COHSOD] will be guided by proposals from consultations with stakeholders in the agriculture and security sectors held on January 15, 2019,” CARICOM said.

Further, the delegates would have been guided by discussions that took place late last year regarding the definition of household domestics, at the 20th Meeting of Officials on the Free Movement of Skills and the Facilitation of Travel and the 47th Meeting of the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED).