( L - R )Blair and Hinchcliffe

Ross Sheil, Staff Reporter

Bishop Herro Blair is calling for a "revolution" in the way Jamaican employers treat their workers.

Working class Jamaicans remain enslaved by their employment conditions, said Blair, who was speaking on Saturday night at the Capital and Credit long-service awards at the Jamaica Pegasus hotel in New Kingston.

His comments on the poor pay and benefits of many workers coincide with an anticipated rise this week in the cost of baked goods. Such an increase would be the second time baked products have had significant increase in costs witin the last six months.

"In the Jamaican context today, workers are one group of stakeholders who are often neglected and sometimes abused in the name of profit-making," said the bishop to the half-empty ballroom. "Sometimes, workers bear close resemblance to our forefathers of the sugar plantation. Though slavery officially ended in 1838, we have similarly refused to totally abolish the slavery-like principles which guide labour relation between management teams and workers."

Jamaica and other countries are, this year, celebrating the bicentenary of the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade.

Unfair comment

President of the Jamaica Employers' Federation, Audrey Hinchcliffe, rebutted his comments.

"That's the most unfair comment that I have ever heard! The employers in this country, maybe with a few exceptions, comply with the labour laws," said Mrs. Hinchcliffe. "He makes it sound like the Wild West in terms of labour - he needs to get out there and see for himself!"

Increased productivity

The Bishop, who also serves as the political ombudsman and head of the Peace Management Initiative, cautioned companies not to be anxious about allowing share options for their workers. The increased sense of ownership among workers would, he reasoned, increase productivity.

But Mrs. Hinchcliffe said that employers were not anxious over share options. Her own company, Manpower Services Limited, is considering such a move in the future, she said.

Working conditions were again in the news this week following the publication of a survey conducted by University of the West Indies master's student, Ann-Murray Brown, into the working conditions of women working in the wholesale district, downtown Kingston. The research found that conditions were frequently in breach of local and international labour organisation employmentand labour laws.

All nine women involved in the survey were paid the minimum wage, which Government raised in January from $2,800 to $3,200.

Commenting on the increase, Opposition Spokesman on Labour, Ruddy Spencer, said that workers' spending power still remained lower in real terms than at the time of the last increase, made in January of the year before.

ross.sheil@gleanerjm.com