THE MINISTRY of Labour is not concerned solely with getting Barbadians employed; it also wants them to be productive and fulfilled, says Minister of Labour and Social Security Dr Esther Byer-Suckoo.
Furthermore, the ministry wants workers to help the island compete on the international stage, she said recently while addressing a Safety And Health At Work Act sensitization day programme.
“We want to know that as a country, the way that those jobs are performed is such that it allows Barbados to continue to develop, to keep up with the pace of what’s happening around the world, that it allows Barbados to be competitive . . . .
“We know that . . . we’re a small island and we have to compete with what’s happening in bigger countries and countries with more resources,” she said.
“But, as we’ve always said, our greatest resource is our human resource and that means not only educating our people as we have been doing very well for many decades . . . but it also means that after they’ve been educated and even while they continue further education, that when they’re at work, we allow for them to be productive . . . ,” the minister said during the event in National Heroes Square, The City.
Byer-Suckoo noted that increased productivity redounds not only to employees’ sense of satisfaction and the benefit of the organization with which they work, it also benefits Barbados as a whole.
“Everybody who comes to Barbados has to do business with us one way or another . . . and we want to know that transaction is done well and it is done to the satisfaction of both the customer and the agent who was providing that service,” she said.
Byer-Suckoo noted that the creation of jobs was not only for her ministry but all ministries working together.
“When you come into a ministry as a minister, people expect that you’re going to start creating jobs and so on but the reality of the situation was that the creation of jobs is not just something for the Ministry of Labour.
“That is something for all of the ministries together. It requires financial and economic decisions as well but certainly one of the things we have been looking at in the Ministry of Labour is increasing productivity . . . ,” she said. (NB)
