GEORGETOWN, Guyana, CMC—Caribbean Community (CARICOM) labor ministers have agreed to a harmonized and sustained approach to labor matters that impact people’s free movement within the 15-member regional integration grouping.
A statement issued here Friday by the CARICOM Secretariat said that this was the consensus emerging from the 34th Special Meeting of the Council for Human and Social Development (COHSOD) Labour held here earlier this week.
Grenada’s Attorney General and Minister for Legal Affairs, Labour, and Consumer Affairs, Claudette Joseph, chaired the meeting, which was also attended by various regional stakeholders.
According to the Secretariat, participants took advantage of the opportunity to agree on a unified position on critical issues surrounding labor in the Community ahead of the International Labour Conference (ILC), scheduled for June 2-13 this year.
It said that these discussions are happening during a crucial period of implementing the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME), which allows for the free movement of goods, skills, labor, and services across the region.
CARICOM Secretary-General Dr Carla Barnett said that most member states have signed the Protocol on Enhanced Cooperation, noting, “This means that those countries that are ready to move forward with free movement will be able to do so.
“If everybody wants to move forward together simultaneously, that would be the most desirable of all the options,” said Barnett, adding she was looking forward to the meeting guiding “us at the Secretariat on how we can help to ensure that the views of Labour Ministers, the positions concerning labor in the Community, are properly supported.”
Joseph highlighted the importance of the discussion on free movement, noting that CARICOM leaders had set a deadline for implementing it and that the region was close to ratifying the Protocol.
“We discussed the question of the free movement of people. CARICOM had set a deadline to implement free movement. We are very close to ratifying the developed Protocol,” Joseph said.
CARICOM leaders adopted the Protocol on Enhanced Cooperation in March 2022 in Belize. It aims to facilitate deeper regional cooperation and integration among groups of countries, even if not all countries are ready to participate.
CARICOM’s Assistant Secretary-General, CARICOM Single Market and Trade, Ambassador Wayne McCook, spoke of the significance of the progress being made by labor ministers on the Labour Market Information System (LMIS).
He said this development was crucial to advancing the free movement of skills across the region. “Progress with that will help not just ministers of labor but the Community as a whole to look at the way forward regarding the free movement of skills across the region.”
Leo Preville, the director for the CARICOM Single Market, said, “Our approach to labor treatment will impact how our people move.
“So as we go forward – even this first time we’re meeting in preparation for the ILC – it will not be a one-off. It becomes a norm. It becomes the way we do business in the Community. It becomes how we inform ourselves of our positions in the wider Latin American Caribbean group in a coordinated manner. And all of those things eventually lead to the implementation of the CSME,” he added.
The Secretariat said that COHSOD promotes human and social development.
“Specifically, Article 17 of the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas states that the Council, which consists of Ministers designated by the member states, will promote and develop coordinated policies and programs to improve the living and working conditions of workers and take appropriate measures to facilitate the organization and development of harmonious labor and industrial relations in the Community.”
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