Barbadians who move between jobs, freelance work and multiple employers should no longer risk losing access to benefits under a proposed National Portable Benefits Framework, according to Minister of Economic Affairs and Planning, Marsha Caddle.
Caddle said the proposal would create a system in which multiple employers can contribute simultaneously, and benefits would seamlessly follow workers throughout their careers without gaps.
The House of Assembly on Friday continued debate on the Private Members Resolution: National Portable Benefits Framework, which was initially tabled by backbencher and Member of Parliament for St George North, Toni Moore.
The framework proposes a new approach to social security, including pensions, maternity benefits, disability benefits, and other forms of support. Under the proposal, benefits would remain attached to the worker rather than a single employer.
Addressing what she described as the conversation around “protection and productivity”, Caddle argued that while labour rights and worker productivity must coexist, policies needed to evolve for that to become a reality.
“The Ministry of Economic Affairs is now working to bring a new Competitiveness and Productivity Commission, and the reason we found it necessary to do so is that Barbados is losing the battle on productivity.
“We’re not just talking about worker productivity; we are talking about the productivity of all the systems that support the worker. We know that if we are to succeed, we need to make sure that we are doing all that is necessary to cause us all to be productive and to contribute everything that we need to for us to be productive,” Caddle said.
However, the minister stressed that productivity was also tied to predictability and security, saying workers perform better when they feel protected.
“The idea of productivity is a multifaceted one because it also has to do with the idea of order and predictability, and that is one of the things that this resolution highlights for us, that there needs to be a certain level of predictability in what people can come to expect in their benefits,” Caddle said.
Drawing from her own experiences as a consultant, Caddle argued that financial institutions still fail to recognise non-traditional workers, while continuing to judge people based on who employs them rather than their income and reliability.
She said the resolution is transformational because it challenges society, financial institutions and government systems to modernise and recognise changing work patterns.
“People don’t understand a person who is a consultant, who is not attached to a particular institution. When I went to the bank or to the credit union and said, ‘Look, I want to borrow some money to do X or Y’, when you look at the form that you have to complete…my value as a worker, my identity as a worker is tied up in somebody else’s business…because when we’re ready to collect our money…we have to know that you are a worthy worker as mandated or as identified by somebody else, but that must be a plantation mentality,” Caddle contended.
“It is not just calling on the National Insurance and Social Security Service to act in the ways laid out here, but it is calling on all of us to act as a society to understand how work is changing. It is calling too, on the financial institutions to act, because it means that we now have to vary and make things more nuanced and make more complex, but sometimes complexity is necessary. Sometimes, sophistication in our systems is necessary to be able to accommodate people.”
Caddle explained that implementing a portable benefits system would require possible reform of the Employment Rights Act, as existing definitions of employer and employee are too rigid.
At the same time, she underscored the responsibility workers would have to take in understanding and managing their own benefits.
“If we are to make way for a system where benefits follow the worker and not the job, then it is going to mean a reconsideration of how we treat that act. It will possibly mean some revisions to the legislation, such that it allows for more flexibility in some of the definitions and therefore of the treatment of work and people, employer and employee.
“We need to emphasise, for all of us, that we have to see about ourselves when it comes to our benefits and making sure that we are protected. What the framework that is referenced in this resolution will now require is that it is not fully in the hands of one company or one employer to decide my fate when it comes to benefits,” Caddle said.
“It is now actually more fully in my hands to make sure that whomever are my clients, if I offer services, whomever are my different employers, together with me, I have to make sure that I am covered.”
Caddle also stressed the need for stronger public education and awareness programmes by the National Insurance and Social Security Service (NISSS) to ensure workers fully understand how the proposed system would operate.
(LG)
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