THE JAMAICA Employers Federation (JEF) will be launching a new seminar series called "Inn Chambers" to assist employers in small, medium-sized and large businesses to better understand and interpret the island's labour laws.
The series, to be launched on March 26, is to be held every two months up to October, and will see the coming together of experts on occupational health and safety, pensions and industrial relations. Participants will also include attorneys and members of the academic community, who will seek to share information in an effort to deepen the understanding of labour market legislation.
In a release, the JEF said it believed that "this series will deepen understanding as it seeks to counter the apparent weakness in our understanding and interpretation of labour-related laws."
Those weaknesses, the JEF said, "manifests themselves in the ease at which some employers innocently abandon their rights or incorrectly address issues, due to their unfamiliarity with the relevant laws and procedures." It said the series would also benefit small and medium-sized companies.
"By bringing together various practitioners, the Federation will be helping to throw light on this crucial area so that individuals and organisations can become more confident and competent when dealing with labour market legislation," the release said.
It said the series was not being designed solely for persons in human resource management and industrial relations, but "for persons to manage people issues and for those who by virtue of their jobs come in contact with institutions such as the Ministry of Labour, the Industrial Disputes Tribunal and other statutory bodies and thus have an interest in refreshing their knowledge or in some cases improve on that knowledge."
The JEF said participants will bring together their expertise and knowledge on issues such as the well-known but poorly understood labour laws, the Pensions Act and the proposed Occupational Health and Safety Act, as well as the consequences of the treaty establishing the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA).
According to the Federation, "the four-month series will undoubtedly benefit our labour market and consequently it can only assist the Jamaican economy as we seek to continue and encourage the process of constant renewal, as our nation's employers remain competitive in their effort to do their part as stakeholders in bringing about growth and productivity."
