A minister has warned that the social security system is failing to keep pace with a changing labour market, arguing that thousands of workers juggling multiple jobs are being left without adequate protection under the current National Insurance and Social Security Service.
The system is outdated and no longer reflects the realities faced by many Barbadians working multiple jobs, St Michael South MP Kirk Humphrey told the House of Assembly on Tuesday.
As lawmakers debated the National Portable Benefits Framework resolution brought by backbench MP Toni Moore, the head of the Barbados Workers Union,, Humphrey argued that the current National Insurance structure disadvantages people outside the traditional employee-employer arrangement.
Humphrey blasted the current system of “punishing persons who are not in the traditional employee-employer relationship.”
“It is simply a matter of being fair. It is a matter of dignity. It is a matter of allowing Barbadians to be part of the Barbadian dream.”
The minister said the government has a responsibility to protect and reward people who work several jobs to support themselves and their families.
“We must go further to ensure that we live up to the principles that we have held dear, that if we ask young people to emulate persons who work multiple jobs and people who hustle legally to make sure that their children can eat, we have a responsibility, those of us who occupy this place, to make it safe for persons to do so and for people to be rewarded for it.”
Humphrey declared that the current legislative and social protection systems were no longer suited to the modern workforce.
“We all have to accept that the world has changed. What we found is that the legislative architecture and framework in Barbados in many ways is no longer fit for purpose, and if the world has changed to the extent that our legislation is no longer relevant, then our systems must change with it as well.
“A lot of the things that we value that were assets that we held onto so dearly that allowed the country to develop what we consider to be assets so many years ago, some of it are no longer assets.”
Humphrey, minister of transport and works, said more Barbadians are now working multiple jobs, while younger people are approaching employment differently from previous generations.
He noted that while hard work and “hustling” are often praised, many workers are left without adequate social protection.
“Here is the tragedy, for the average Barbadian who finds themselves in a position like that, working four or five jobs, at the end of the day, oftentimes they get nothing.
“So the value or the quality that we hold dearest hypocritically is the one that is not rewarded. We have come here to say that we have to right a wrong and to be able to fix a system to allow people who find themselves in that position to be able to live.”
Humphrey argued that the existing NIS structure was built around outdated assumptions about employment:
“One employer, one job, full time. That is primarily the system that we have, and I say without fear of contradiction that that is no longer a modern reality.
“So in addition to righting a wrong, I see the resolution brought by the honorable member as futuristic, as being able to prepare a modern Barbados for modern realities.
“These people are already driving the economy. People who work multiple jobs are driving the economy, but regrettably, they’re not building protection.”
He proposed a phased implementation of the portable benefits framework to ensure “that we get it right, we put in place the systems, the digital systems if necessary, and like all things, we have to make sure we have adequate enforcement when it comes to being able to deliver”.
The transport minister also suggested that there be wider consultation with the social partners in labour and business “so that everybody weighs in on it”.
Calling for a practical rollout of the framework, Humphrey said the proposed system could correct long-standing inequities faced by workers
“The idea of having portable benefits is extremely important. No one who has worked the way that a lot of these good people have worked without anything, and that in essence, is the wrong that we have come to this place to be able to correct.”
(LG)
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