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Barbados. Representatives of ministries of finance, employers and workers organizations found consensus in Barbados at the CDB Caribbean Development Bank and ILO International Labour Organization Tripartite Caribbean Symposium held on 25-26 January 2011.

Symposium participants deliberated on the recovery measures necessary to encourage the return to economic and employment growth in the wake of the global economic crisis and the limited fiscal space available in many Caribbean countries.

Measures recommended included social protection for the most vulnerable; the development of sustainable enterprises to support the creation of sustainable jobs; closer links between education and training and the requirements of labour markets and the strengthening of labour market information systems for strategic policy-making and planning.

Social protection measures already implemented in the Caribbean for the most vulnerable affected by the crisis were specially noted and included: increased assistance to pensioners and increased school feeding programs in Antigua, Grenada, St Kitts and St Lucia. There was also the enhancement of social benefits such as increases in the minimum wage in Trinidad and Tobago and Belize and the introduction of unemployment benefits in the Bahamas.

“This symposium was a regional expression of the process that the ILO has undertaken at the international level, "said Dr. Ana Teresa Romero, Director, ILO Office for the Caribbean.

The CCL- Caribbean Congress of Labour President and ABWU General Secretary Sen. David Massiah was high in praise of the CDB and the ILO for convening such an important high-level Meeting and pledged CCL support for constructive engagement through the social dialogue process.

Several UNI affiliates were among the Caribbean labour organizations represented including ABWU- Antigua Barbuda Workers Union, BITU- Bustamante Industrial Workers Union Jamaica, BFSU- Bahamas Financial Services Union, BIU - Bermuda Industrial Union, BWU-Barbados Workers Union, GTAWU-Grenada Technical and Allied Workers Union, NWU- National Workers Union St Lucia and UCB-Union of Central Bankers, Bahamas.

Contact: joanne.defreitas@uniglobalunion.org

Photo: CCL Caribbean Congress of Labour President and ABWU General Secretary Sen. David Massiah chats with Marcel Meyer President Caribbean Employers Confederation at the CDB/ILO Symposium held in Barbados.