Department of Labour - A Different Point of View

The Department of Labour apparently has a very different view of the provisions of the Employment Act, 2001, than that of BECon. On the 15th of January, the President of BECon spoke to the Acting Director of Labour, Mr. Harcourt Brown. The Acting Director stated that the Employment Act is silent on meal periods being included or excluded from the standard hours of work, therefore it can be interpreted either way and it is up to the Courts to make that determination.

When the Hon. Vincent Peet, M.P., Minister of Labour and Immigration stated that "the Employment Act is silent on the question of a lunch period" at his press conference on the 21st of January, it was assumed by BECon's President that his meaning was the same as the Acting Director, however the following day the Minister explained to the President that by the Act being silent, meal periods are not included in the standard hours of work.

Yesterday a member of BECon called to say that the Acting Director informed him that scheduling staff to work 4 full days and 2 half days during the week to achieve 40 standard hours of work is against the spirit of the law and cannot be done. It is BECon's view that both the letter and the spirit of the law allow this kind of scheduling.

Due to the contradictory information being disseminated by BECon and the Department of Labour, a letter was sent today to the Acting Director, copied to the Minister, requesting that the Acting Director urgently meet with the President of BECon to discuss our different points of view with the goal of reducing disagreements.

The letter states, "One of the roles of the Department of Labour should be the providing of accurate information of what the law says to both employers and employees. In the preamble of our Constitution, it is recognized that we need the Rule of Law to be a free, democratic nation. When our laws mean different things to different individuals, we are in effect living in anarchy."

Any employer who is provided with information from the Department of Labour that is inconsistent with the information provided by BECon is urged to call, fax or email the details of the inconsistent information to BECon's office.

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