Understanding Manning's economics...click the link and read more.

In the 2002/2003 Budget delivery on 21 October 2002, the then Minister of Finance Patrick Manning said that “when the PNM was returned to office late last year, it was clear that the world economy had entered a recession. The US economy had come to the end of its longest uninterrupted expansion in the post-War period, Europe was flagging and Japan continued to show signs of economic depression. In such an environment, commodity prices were generally soft. Notwithstanding this global environment, in the 2001-02 Budget, the UNC administration pressed on with revenue projections and expenditure plans based on overly optimistic assumptions for oil prices and non-oil tax collections, despite evidence available since the latter half of 2000, that a domestic economic slowdown was underway.”

Sounds familiar? Click the link above and read more in my Newsday column.

Exporting in a time of global decline...Part 2 of my lessons from Turin, Italy. Click link to read more

When it comes to the support for SMEs, as a mechanism for export development and promotion, across the globe the public/private mechanics suffer from two things — duplication in resource planning and allocation, in which the possibility of deep focus is lost and secondly, considerable bureaucratic overlap in export development and promotion, across both the private sector organisations and public sector policy and institutional framework.
Click the link above and read Part 2 of my Newsday column

Google "James Philbert" "technology" and "strategy"...nothing comes up. Click link and read Part 1 of this column.

With 15 taxi drivers murdered for 2008 already and an environment where there is a high degree of anxiety, apprehension and discomfort in the society, these many single mothers have to use public transportation. For many of them getting to and from their workplaces— restaurants, pubs, hotels and guesthouses, casinos and rum shops, ice cream shops, burger carts and cinemas — has been made treacherous, since many times they do so at late hours when regular transportation is unavailable. Many will be even more reluctant to take up shift jobs and work requiring late evening and night commuting and many who are in those jobs will simply quit. The impact of this high degree of anxiety, apprehension and discomfort in the society is now visible in the details of the country’s economic statistics.

Click link above and read Part 1 of this column.

Can we fight crime with feet and firearms alone? Click link and read Part 2 of this column.

Trinidad and Tobago’s next Commissioner of Police must have technology uppermost in his or her mind. Facing moving hotspots, threats in the air, on the coast, along the highways and in the deep forests, the Commissioner cannot conceive of a fight that involves feet and firearms. Even if the acting Police Commissioner does believe that more manpower and vehicles will slow the onslaught, then the slow pace of recruitment, the absence of a recruitment and training facility as well as the large number of officers who are unavailable because of sickness, injury or study and the general lack of sufficient manpower makes it impossible for any serious Police Commissioner in Trinidad and Tobago to be heavily reliant on feet and firearms in dealing with crime.

Click link above and read more......

Employers welcome national ban on smoking in the workplace. Click link and read more...

From a national perspective, smoking and exposure to smokers impact both the health of future employees and the probability that they themselves will be smoking at the time they enter the world of work. An important factor for employers in the context of recruitment for smoke free workplaces is the data on tobacco use by school age persons. The 2007 Trinidad & Tobago Global Youth Tobacco Survey (GYTS) showed that 37.4 percent of students had smoked cigarettes; 22.3 percent currently use any tobacco product; 14.4 percent currently smoke cigarettes; 11.2 percent currently use other tobacco products and 13.4 percent of never smokers were likely to initiate smoking in the next year.

Click above link and read more......

The decline of courtesy and manners...click link to read my comments in the Guardian.

Perhaps when those among us, who remain with sufficient sanity, reflect upon the whens and whys of a cataclysmic decline, we would find three signposts.

The first one reads that we should not have been buying gas tanks, car stereos and other smaller items from pipers who had neither shop nor shack. We also should not have been buying jewelry from people who had neither gold nor craft, but only bags of guile.

Click to read more in the Guardian.

Cancer fighting foods. Click link to read new report

Cancer is no longer thought to be solely the product of factors outside of our control such as heredity or accidental contact with toxic pollutants. In fact, scientists believe there is a great deal we can do to reduce our risk of developing the disease. The 2007 Expert Report by the World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) found that the food we eat and other lifestyle choices such as daily physical activity and maintaining a healthy body weight are key to preventing cancer. This epic report - which was five years in the making and reviewed 7,000 large-scale studies - found that an unhealthy diet is linked to about one third of all cancer cases.…

Click the link above to access article and read full report.

What is Sir Allen Stanford up to? Click and read a balanced comment from Forbes Magazine

Forbes magazine says that "Stanford's investment strategy can be described as sure and steady. It doesn't compare its investment returns with any benchmark (those comparisons are a "promotional vehicle," says financial officer Davis). Instead it sets an internal return on investment targets based on the market environment. It uses leverage sparingly, and holdings are diversified across countries and currencies."

Click the above link and read about Sir Allen, his money and his plans for cricket.

My comments on the National Insurance Fund...in response to criticism by NIB..click and read.

I wish to point out that the commentary offered was fully supportive of the increased contributions and the work of the NIB and offered the same caution that the actuarial review offered, that is, that the long-term health of our NI Fund is dependent on certain factors and periodical reviews of contributions and management of the benefits are two of those factors.

What does the financial crisis do to employers and employees? Click and read my Newsday column.

On 9th. October, 2008 the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) reached a record 14164.53 points, its highest ever. According to the Daily Journal (9 October, 2008) Wall Street was celebrating the fifth anniversary of a bull market that had created $10 trillion in shareholder wealth since 2002. Exactly one year later, the DJIA went below 9000 points for the first time in five years, dragged down by a 39 percent slide is the US Stock Market and the disappearance of US$ 7 trillion in shareholder value.

What will this mean for employers and their employees? Perhaps we should be looking at three things : pension funding, employee compensation and job losses. Click the above link and read Part 1 of my Newsday column.

Comparing the HCU to the US financial markets.....click here to read

The remarkable amount of US taxpayers’ funds already used to shore up the global financial markets will give embattled Hindu Credit Union (HCU) investors more than a glimmer of hope that the Minister of Finance of Trinidad and Tobago may consider stepping in to fill the $400 million black hole which auditor Ernst and Young has found in the HCU’s books.

Click the link above to read my Newsday column.

Rowley's $10. million invoicing error...click to read my thoughts.

It must be worrisome to hear that even after facing doubts regarding a $10 million invoicing issue, the PM still appointed the former housing minister to the Ministry of Trade and Industry.

What other doubts and questions had Mr Manning overlooked?

Is Minister Jerry Narace serious?Click here, scroll down and read my thoughts.

Health Minister Jerry Narace’s glib denial of the spread of dengue, the deaths resulting from it and the danger to the public is a colossal public failure. The Senator clearly is accountable to no one and the public has no means of making him accountable.

Read more at the link above.

Monday 15 September 2008....I am on Morning Edition.

Taxpayers fund the Ganja Farmer

The taxpayers of this country must be absolutely outraged to see in today's Sunday Express Mix Magazine that the Entertainment Company - a special purpose State Enterprise- funded the launch of Marlon Asher's new album. For those who don't know, Asher is the self proclaimed ganja farmer. That may not be a problem, but at the launch, our tax money funded his posters, which show him with a spliff between his lips and a marijuana leaf prominently displayed in the corner of the poster.

Not only is marijuana illegal in this country- the last time I checked- but the State funds and fully supports a number of initiatives aimed at keeping narcotics off the streets and out of people's hands. In fact the Prime Minister is on record as saying that the out of control crime is fuelled by the trade in narcotics. Isn't it therefore outrageous that Alvin Daniell and his Board at the Entertainment Company - a lawyer included- could agree to use taxpayers funds to pay for this rubbish?

I would really like to ask Alvin Daniell, the same man who pens so many nation building songs, to tell me whether he would use his personal funds to support a culture of drug use?

Silver is not gold.....says Martin Daly....click and read his Sunday Express column.

Martin Daly, Senior Counsel writes in the Sunday Express that:

"The exploitative political embrace is all part of the self-declared greatness of Trinidad and Tobago. Carnival is the "greatest show on earth" but it has no permanent home. Pan is the only musical invention of the 20th century but "where pan reach"? The panyards are left like the buildings of QRC, to fend for themselves. No house and land for accomplished steel orchestras, many of who have no security of tenure of their yards.

Compare the treatment of Neville Jules, All Stars great, once again ignored, and just reach Professor Copeland. Jules began his work in 1945, in the time of Zigilee, and has produced musical work continuously, up to and including the present day. He pioneered the development of the family of pans playing in orchestral mode....."

Click the link above and read the column...

Are women advancing fast enough? Click and read Part 1 of my Newsday column

From the hallowed halls of Parliament to the nation’s dance halls and fetes, women are not merely showing up for work; in many cases they are leading the way. Perhaps, calypso and soca is a good place to start. After all it was the singer Peter Cipriani of the band Rukshun who declared “Carnival is Woman”. When you consider the male’s preoccupation with sexuality and the boomsie in the music (Dikobe, M, 2004), long before Kitchener’s “Sugar Bum Bum” in 1977 and long after Iwer’s “Bottom in the Road” (1998), it is no trifling matter that the women of soca have created their own stages today– soca divas and girl power, amongst them. From high pitch voices doing back- up vocals on scratchy records for the big boys, on everything from Lion’s “Netty Netty” in 1937 to “Rum and Coca Cola” in its many forms, today’s soca divas are singing their own tunes from the frontline.

Tired of tripping on the pavement? Then click and read my Newsday column.

On all Trinidad and Tobago’s pavements there are five or six inch drops, to one’s peril. In the US, Canada and so many other places, pavements are one level, set a foot or two away from the edge of the roadway. Vehicles coming off the roadway must go up then across the pavement, using a small riser set against the pavement’s edge. Pedestrians are therefore spared the ups and downs of pavement walking, which can be damaging to the joints and a nightmare for anyone pushing a stroller or using a wheelchair.

Click on the link above and read more about what the people want from urban renewal...

Is the HCU the local Enron? Click to read my column

To many- and depositors and employees primarily- the particularly enraging element of the much touted HCU asset profile is the way it became heavily weighted in favour of land and buildings, acquired at premium prices, which now fall to be disposed off in a fire sale. Equally enraging will be the fact that the lands and buildings were generally used to house “HCU Group” activity which had no real commercial value, so that these assets existed on the books with no income stream independent of the “Group”.

The danger of that type of “off the books” arrangement is twofold. First, those funds and the use of them did not benefit from the Commissioner’s oversight; were put out of the reach of depositors who wished to retrieve their deposits and were generally put into “investment” vehicles which, on their own, were incapable of producing reasonable returns and in any event were too illiquid to permit conversion into other types of investments. Under pressure in Jamaica, Cash Plus’ Carlos Hill declared in October 2006 that Cash Plus was not a financial institution, commercial bank, investment advisor or securities dealer and did not fall under the purview of any fiscal regulatory body (Jamaica Gleaner, October 2006).

Second, like Enron, it would have been difficult for any regulator to have sight of the HCU’s true liabilities, especially if, like Enron the assets were booked with the Credit Union and the liabilities were kept in the “special purpose vehicles” in the hope that at least one of them will strike a rich vein of gold and compensate for the liabilities held by the many others. Realistically, none of then seemed likely to do that and every concerned voice was answered by bold statements of success and orchestrated protests and marches.

Click link and read more in my Newsday column

Urban renewal- What does it mean to employers? (Click here for Part 1 of Newsday column)

Every urban or now urban area in Trinidad has suffered from inadvertent development. Commercial areas were generally born out of residences, turned small shops, turned strip mall. Produce markets of the type seen in Tunapuna, Princes Town and Sangre Grande, have all spawned rectangles of development as nearby streets turned to cluttered shops, seeking to catch the market spill off. In an effort to capture the trade trapped in this concentrated activity around markets, some markets have tried to go upwards, like Chaguanas, with little success, mainly because there is something odd about a multi-storied market.

Click link above and read more

Productivity and Collective Bargaining (click here for PowerPoint)

This is a presentation I made to senior staff at the Ministry of Labour. It is 40 slides (quite long but required in the circumstances) and sets out how the demands for productivity measurement and rewards can be accommodated in the existing IR structure, including the Collective Bargaining process.

Who keeps the hustlers in check? (Click to read as published in Express on 18 July 2008)

Just as I inched along in the gridlock and contemplated the set of circumstances which may have cost those two hikers their young lives, the highway vendor parked his cylindrical drinks cart in front of the car. My sudden stop caused a back-up right away. The vendor never budged and in the interest of keeping the flow I got around the cart. So did every vehicle behind me.

Click the link above and read more............

Productivity: Why employers cannot reward based on increased output only (click here for video)

Now that we are moving towards the National Productivity Council, measuring and rewarding productivity is not a simple matter. Look at this video which helps introduce one of the challenges of measuring productivity increases.

Kinda boring...but worth your 10 minutes.

Obama, Jesse Jackson and that "N" word (click to read more)

The Rev. Jesse Jackson used the N-word during a break in a TV interview where he criticized presidential candidate Barack Obama, Fox News confirmed today. Previosly, Jackson had called on the entertainment industry, including rappers, actors and studios, to stop using the N-Word. He also urged the public to boycott purchasing DVD copies of the TV sitcom "Seinfeld" after co-star Michael Richards was taped using the word during a rant at a Los Angeles comedy club in 2006.

S&H_I&T HELPS (click here for more)

This is a presentation I made to 140 young persons at the Crowne Plaza on Wednesday 9 July 2008. Its the four factors for success in the world of work...S&H and I&T..it helps!

Global Road acccident Report for 2007 (click here for report)

Are you concerned about seatbelts, speed and quality of tyres? Road accidents are the number one cause of human injuries and deaths globally. There are 1.2 million deaths annually. Road traffic injuries are the leading cause of deaths globally for those between 10 to 24 years of age. Injuries cost the world between 65 and 100 billion annually- more than all the development aid available.

Updated statistics on the Global impact of HIV/AIDS (click for Report)

Everyday 6800 persons become infected with HIV; everyday 5700 die. There were 2.1 million deaths in 2007 – 76% in sub- Saharan Africa. There were 2.5 million new infections in 2007 - 68% in sub-Saharan Africa . 230,000 were living with HIV/AIDS in Caribbean in 2007. There were 17,000 new infections in the Caribbean in 2007 and 11,000.deaths.

Commercial sex is the key risk factor in the epidemic in the region, especially DR and Haiti.

Youth and Seniority in appointment of Commissioner

Given the time which passed between his nomination and the consideration by Parliament, the rejection of Stephen Williams comes as no surprise. It does however suggest some lessons to be learnt. I can well imagine that young persons are likely to believe that their youth will work against them in the job market, regardless of their competence, experience and qualifications. I could also expect that, given the acting recommendation made by the Police Service Commission and the disclosure that Williams is 26^th in the “pecking order”, seniority, in any set of circumstances, has made an unexpected return to prominence.

What a pity if we ever allow people to believe that age – or youth- can create a disadvantage, when all other requirements are met or that, when process does not produce a desired outcome, then something must be wrong with the process. If that approach continues, then soon enough, more persons will join Shadow and Stephen Williams in singing “What’s wrong with me”.

Appointment or disappoinment of Commissioner of Police

It must come as a surprise to most people that there are concerns over the process used for nominating the new Commissioner of Police. After $2.2 million and the new procedure we are still a long way from what the Government seem to have wanted in the first place- a foreigner.

There is a clear case for the Police Service Commission to resign. They process was "flawed" and the nomination is "not acceptable".

If you want the background to the current process for selecting the Commissioner click the link and read the Constitution Amendment Act, 2006

Agreement on Working Time and Working conditions

My column on 3 July 2008 talked about the developments regarding the treatment of "temporary workers" in the UK. I referred to the EU Directive (for a summary of Directive click on link above) which was approved on 10 June 2008 and in my view sets the tone for what will be a global position on working time and temps.

Privy Council decision on Equal Opportunity Act, 2000

There is some ambiguity on the status of the Equal Opportunity Act and some people have asked about the impact of the EO Act on employers. The Act was found in the above Privy Council decision to be Constitutional (click on link to read Judgment and if you can't get it then cut and paste the link www.privy-council.org.uk/files/other/Suratt.rtf) and the Act has implications for employers which I will address in another post.

Equal Opportunity Act, 2000.

Click on link for a copy of the Equal Opportunity Act, 2000. If you are not linked then cut and paste the link in your browser www.ttparliament.org/bills/acts/2000/a2000-69.pdf

C183 Maternity Protection Convention, 2000 (Click to access Convention)

This is a link to the the ILO'S Maternity Protection Convention, 2000 which revised the Maternity Protection Convention (Revised), 1952, and Recommendation, 1952.

THE ROLE OF NATIONAL AND EUROPEAN EMPLOYER ORGANISATIONS

Click on the above link to read a Working Paper on the critical role Employer Organisations play in Europe

Maternity Protection Act, 1998

Looking for the Maternity Protection Act? Look no more. Just click on the link and also look out for my summary of the Act. You should also read my Newsday column "Bringing baby to work". If you have delays with the link then cut and paste the link in your browser http://www.labour.gov.tt/documents/lablaw/Maternity%20Protection%20Act,1998.pdf

Retrenchment and Severance Benefits Act

Looking for Act 32 of 1985? Look no more. Just click on the link and look out for my summary of the Act. If you never heard about the Swan Hunter case then you need to!

Occupational Health and Safety Act, 2004 (click to find the Act)

Occupational Health and Safety (Amendment) Act, 2006 (click to find the Act)

This link will take you to the OSH Amendment Act, 2006. Remember the OSH Act 2004 and the OSH Amendment Act 2006 must be read as one, since the 2006 Act makes changes to the 2004 Act.

Judicial Review Act 2000 (click to find the Act)

Labour Shortages and Full Employment

OSHA- Limping Along

Sexual Harrassment (click for Newsday column)

It is natural for employers and employees to focus on the obvious: Personal protective equipment, safe plant and systems of work, safe access and egress, emergency procedures and information, training and supervision. Nevertheless, while harassment and sexual harassment in the workplace have not been afforded their own space in local law and litigants have had to straddle various statutes and common law positions and industrial relations practices to seek redress, the OSH legislation may actually create an opportunity for more litigation.

Corporate Social Responsibility (click for Newsday column)

In this Newsday column I make the point that while CSR is great "A word of caution though is that all of this great green stuff can create a lot of cynicism in the workplace. It’s difficult to motivate stressed and burnt out employees to put aside their own issues to deal with all these great global goals that CSR is all about. "

National Insurance Funding Issues- Part 1(click for Newsday column)

In Part one of this 3 Part column I make the point that the increased NI contributions assume certain things. The challenge is for the Fund to meet these assumptions. For example the Actuarial Review is based on a rate of inflation of 5.9 per cent and declining. Is that realistic? Not so far!

"Inflation rates over the period 2000- 2005 averaged 4.58 percent but are projected at 5.9 percent for 2007 and steadily declining to 3.0 in 2016. Again the long term health of the Fund will be linked to inflation and the extent to which it is realistic to project that inflation will get down to 5.9 percent in 2007 (from currently hovering at 8 to 9 percent) and steadily decline thereafter. Inflation eats up purchasing power but rising inflation is a constant threat to the viability of benefits which are fixed."

National Insuarnce Funding Issues- Part 3 (click for Newsday column)

In Part 3 I say that:

"Notwithstanding the projections for the Fund to go into deficit by 2038, there is pressure on the National Insurance Board and the State to increase the current level of benefits paid National Insurance, mainly to offset inflation and the rising costs of private health care.

The proposed increases in contribution will fund these improved benefits once certain economic conditions are achieved — inflation steadily declines to 3.0 percent by 2016; the Fund achieves an IRR for the period 2008 to 2017 of average 10.5 percent and from 2018 to 2029 of average 8.25 percent; and the demographics follow the projections of the Seventh Actuarial Review.

These are major challenges to the NIB currently and they represent the challenges of being able to meet the improved benefits over the long term to 2048."

National Insurance Funding Issues Part 2 (Click for Newsday column)

In this Part I say that:

" The current projections do not take into consideration further improvements in National Insurance benefits and the real challenge for the National Insurance Fund over the long term will be its ability to finance benefits at current levels and also provide for double digit inflation, price increases and the erosion of purchasing power over the medium term."

TT Economic Performance

Free Movement of Labour

CHILD LABOUR

KFC's labour Issues

Crippling Entrepreneurs

Customer Service

Rural poverty and employment creation

This column was written at the ILO Conference in June 2008 regarding the agenda item "Rural Poverty and Employment Creation" I make the point that:

"Rural farmers and fisher folk cannot bring their villages out of poverty, especially if they have to depend on inoperable margins. Their prices cannot be linked, as they are now, to their desperation to get the crop or catch off their hands because they lack storage or because they lack the time, expertise or sophistication to market their produce.

Instead of being asked to settle for prices at the edge of the fields and on the beach, farmers, fisher folk and rural entrepreneurs must be given a modern view of commodity pricing and “net backs” and they must be allowed to participate more equitably in the mark-up to the end-user."

Retrenchment

The above link is the second part of the column on RBTT's transition to new ownership. In this part I make the point that :

"With some severance packages as attractive as they are, there are employees in every organisation who are quite willing to be paid to leave, but inevitably some will require more than a gentle prod and a fistful of dollars. The challenge is to create that delicate balance between gaining new skill sets and retaining sufficient institutional knowledge — or mind sets — to keep the organization aligned. More importantly, the focus has to shift to the remaining employees and the risk of organisational addiction and the potential for corporate memory loss."

HIV

I say to the Guardian in this link above that:

“Employers see HIV/Aids as a private sexual matter and they tread carefully mainly because it is a taboo subject,even among the most open-minded of employers HIV/Aids is still taboo.”

"Employers need to confront the issue and start talking about HIV/Aids as a national issue and not a private issue"

New Barbados Government

OSHA

In this Guardian interview I express the view that "one of the concerns was Section 15 a of the legislation where a worker had the right to refuse work if he had reason to believe there was a danger within the workplace."

Would workers would abuse this right especially as part of Collective Bargaining where there is no right to strike. Is this a back of the hand reversal of Collymore vs AG?

Losing hope on Child Labour

In this column I make the point that "with the rise in food prices globally — rice, flour and milk — upon which the world’s little ones depend, children are more likely to have their education sacrificed, as the household income is carved up between food and other survival basics."

Read on...

RBTT Transition (click to access Newsday column)

This column deals with some of the issues which arise with a change in ownership - including the prospect of some people suffering from change fatigue

Speech to UWI Graduates 2006 (Click to access speech)

In this speech to UWI Graduates I talk about what employers really want from Graduates and the five L's graduates should be mindful of.

CSME (Click to access speech)

Click on link for my address to a Breakfast Seminar on the subject- Complexities, Benefits and Challenges for Employers - 20th January 2005.