PIOJ Stages Labour Market Forum Next Week

The Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ) will be staging a Labour Market Forum at two venues in Kingston from December 9 to 10.

Themed ‘Reshaping the Jamaican Labour Market to Foster Economic Growth and Development’, the two-day forum is intended to provide a platform to discuss ways of developing a comprehensive labour market reform agenda, in tandem with the goal outlined in vision 2030, which is to make ‘Jamaica the place of choice, to live, work, raise families, and do business’.

Manager for the Community Development Unit at the PIOJ, Stephen Carr, informed JIS News that labour market reform is one of the conditionalities of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) agreement.

“We want to sensitize all the key players of the need for a comprehensive labour market reform. We also need to get them in one central location, so we can discuss the way forward in terms of labour market reform. We are anticipating that the forum, to a large extent, will achieve this,” he said.

Day one of the event, which will be held at the PIOJ’s office on Oxford Road, will explore a number of issues on labour market reform including: the findings from the Jamaica Labour Market Survey 2012; pension coverage in Jamaica; the importance of labour market reform to national development; and  informal employment. There will also be a panel discussion involving representatives from public and private sector groups.

On day two, activities will be held at the Jamaica Pegasus hotel in New Kingston, and will involve presentations on the importance of a comprehensive labour market reform to the decent work agenda; adapting social and labour policies to economic crises; economic growth through labour market reforms; the importance of a comprehensive labour market reform, in particular, human resource development imperatives.

A total of 300 representatives from the private and public sectors have been invited to attend. These include Government Ministers, Chief Executive Officers, Chief Technical Directors, Permanent Secretaries, Presidents and Principals of secondary and tertiary institutions.

Supporting organisations include the Inter-American Development Bank, Jamaica Employers Federation (JEF), Ministry of Labour and Social Security, Jamaica Confederation of Trade Unions, Hugh Lawson Shearer Trade Union Education Institute, University of the West Indies, Mona, and the International Labour Organization (ILO).

The forum is being funded by the Inter-American Development Bank at a cost of US$10,000.

For more information, persons can contact the PIOJ at 960-9339 or 906-4463.