And while the powerhouse personalities dominated the day at the House, there was significant news coming out of the sitting. First, Government introduced a settlement of disputes Essential Services Amendment Bill. It comes as a direct consequence of the go slow and sick outs recently staged at the KHMH by doctors who are listed as an essential service.
The Essential Service Law prohibits them from striking but not from engaging in sick-outs or go-slows. Government saw that as an oversight and the amendment seeks to plug that loophole. It will make it so that sick-outs and go-slow by any essential service would be illegal.
Predictably, it’s drawn the ire of the trade union movement and President of the National trade Union Congress Dylan Reneau is quoted in today’s Amandala as saying that, quote, “it is an attack on the trade union movement....and unless we react with like force, we better roll over and play dead.” Reneau ended his quote to the Amandala with chilling finality, “does Barrow want his own version of 2005?”
The Prime Minister today told us that he feels that the tightening up of the legislation is not a provocation to the unions because it simply reinforces the original intent of the law, which is that essential services are not to be disrupted in any way. He says those types of industrial action were only excluded because when the law was first developed, sick-outs and go-slows were not being employed by unionists.
And in one more bit of House news, the Customs and Excise Duties Amendment Bill was passed in the House today. This implements the CARICOM external tariff and will lower the tax on beer imported from the Caribbean make it so that Heineken brewed in St. Lucia and Belikin brewed in Belize should sell for about the same price. Red Stripe and Carib which come from more developed CARCIOM countries will be considerably cheaper, but slightly more expensive than Belikin. The law goes into effect on August first.
