Senator the Honourable Jennifer Baptiste Primus, Minister of Labour and Small Enterprise Development presented Letters of Appointment to the newly appointed Members of the Inter-Ministerial Committee for the Development of a Labour Migration Policy for Trinidad and Tobago and expressed her gratitude to them for accepting their new roles of public service.
Minister Baptiste Primus also indicated that the appointment of the Members of this Multipartite Committee is timely as their work will be critical to the development of a Policy that is needed as there has been a recent influx of non-nationals seeking better conditions than are in their home countries. The Minister also announced that it has been Government’s Policy to “Formulate and Implement a Policy on Migrant Workers” since coming into office and she is extremely pleased that this Committee has become a reality.
Noting that there are 150 million migrant workers worldwide, Minister Baptiste Primus noted that the Policy needs to take into account all the perils associated with migration, including but not limited to exploitation, human trafficking and prostitution. The development of the Labour Migration Policy will also contribute to the country’s effort in meeting labour migration targets established by the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda and uphold our ratification of the International Labour Organisation Convention No. 97 - Migration for Employment, which contains provisions for matters such as remuneration, hours of work, overtime arrangements, membership of trade unions and social security.
The Committee is established to provide input into the development of a Labour Migration Policy for Trinidad and Tobago, including with respect to underlying principles of the Policy, baseline data, and research on best practices pertinent to labour migration so that Trinidad and Tobago can harness the benefits of labour migration for sustainable development.
Additionally, the Committee would facilitate the work of the Ministry of Labour and Small Enterprise Development towards achieving the following outcomes:
(i) improved timeframe for policy development, approval and publication;
(ii) consolidation of the Government’s position on the Labour Migration Policy;
(iii) enhanced policy coherence and co-ordination;
(iv) provision of structure and consistency to the policy development across all
Government policies and programmes;
(v) adequate preparation for external stakeholder consultations; and
(vi) co-ordinated plan for communication of policy to stakeholders.
The newly appointed Inter-Ministerial Committee for the Development of a Labour Migration Policy for Trinidad and Tobago is chaired by the Ministry’s Deputy Permanent Secretary. Members received their Instruments of Appointment from Senator the Honourable Jennifer Baptiste-Primus, Minister of Labour and Small Enterprise Development at the Ministry’s Head Office on Tuesday July 10, 2018.