Dionne Rose, Business Reporter

In a rare moment of agreement, the Government and Opposition have both given the nod to changes giving more teeth to the 62-year-old Holidays With Pay Act.

But the leader of the country's employers' group and head of a main workers' union differ sharply on the amendments and what further overhaul is needed to the legislation.

The legislation establishes the legal framework for workers' minimum entitlement to sick and vacation leave as well as benefits such as gratuity payments.

The main point of contention between Wayne Chen, the Jamaica Employers' Federation (JEF) president, and trade unionist Vincent Morrison is a possible three-month prison sentence, reduced from a maximum six months under the old law, for employers who breach the statute.

Will harm employment

"What it is going to do in the long term is harm employment," Chen, speaking for employers under the JEF umbrella group, told the Financial Gleaner last week.

"Once you start to put draconian restrictions on what is allowed, you are creating an unfriendly environment."

Under the Holidays With Pay (Amendment) Act, 2009, passed in House of Representatives in September and in the Senate earlier this month, the maximum penalty for breaches of the act moved from $200 to $250,000 and the prison term, though reduced, has been kept in place.

The JEF wants the prison term eliminated.

"I think they should get rid of any custodial sentences completely," he said.

Morrison, who is president of the National Workers' Union (NWU), an affiliate of the Opposition People's National Party, also has a problem with the prison term but, unlike the employers, wanted it kept at the longer six months.

"We think six months was sufficient," Morrison said, noting that at that level it acted as a deterrent to employers breaking the law.

"Amending the prison time makes it easy on employers. If you have longer jail time, that must be a deterrent for employers to breach the law," he maintained.

But if the Ministry of Labour, which led the legal revision, is to be believed, employers had been flouting the old law with neither the fine nor jail time acting as a sufficient deterrent.

Statistics produced by the ministry indicated that between 2004 and 2008, an annual average of 2,400 Jamaican workers complained to that government department of unfair treatment by employers in relation to holiday with pay.

Complaints

These complaints include workers not being allowed to take their vacation and sick leave, employees not being paid for leave taken or being underpaid for leave time.

Dry goods merchants, wholesalers and employers of household help have been fingered by the ministry as the worst offenders. But bar and small restaurant owners, among other small business, are said to be perennial breakers of the applicable law.

The NWU's Morrison is of the view that the labour ministry's enforcement of the law is too weak.

"I think the ministry ought to have an inspectorate division that not only looks at those breaches, but the whole spectrum of safety arrangements," he said.

This is a claim the labour ministry dismisses out of hand, insisting that it monitors compliance through routine inspections of workplaces by officers of its Pay and Conditions of Employment Branch.

dionne.rose@gleanerjm.com