August 10, 2017: The Ministry of Labour and Small Enterprise Development is calling on President of the Banking, Insurance and General Workers’ Union, Comrade Vincent Cabrera to cite the source of his retrenchment figures.
In a letter to the Editor, penned by the Ministry in response to an article by Michelle Loubon and published on August 3, 2017 in the Express Newspaper, headlined ‘4,000 retrenched’ since September’ the Ministry clarified that the figure referenced by Cabrera was for the period September 2015 to July 2017 and not as stated from the article, “… September 2016, to now”.
The Ministry of Labour and Small Enterprise Development wishes to correct the erroneous information published and advise that for the period September 2016 to July 2017 one thousand seven hundred and fifty four (1,754) workers were reportedly retrenched and not four thousand (4,000) as claimed by Comrade Cabrera.
The fact is that the present retrenchment figure of 4,574 is based on the retrenchment notifications received by the Minister of Labour from Employers for the period September 1, 2015 to July 31, 2017. The legal requirement outlined in Section 4(1) of the Retrenchment and Severance Act 32 of 1985 states, “Where an employer proposes to terminate the services of five or more workers for the reason of redundancy he shall give formal notice of termination in writing to each involved worker, to the recognized majority union and to the Minister.”
In the Release ‘5,275 Jobs created through 2017 PSIP Programme’ issued from the Ministry of Planning and Development on August 4, 2017, ‘ the Honourable Camille Robinson-Regis stated that 5,275 new jobs were created based on projects undertaken by various Ministries through the Public Sector Investment Programme (PSIP). These figures were cited from the Job Creation Report as at June 30, 2017.
The Ministry of Labour and Small Enterprise Development is releasing its retrenchment figures, for the period September 1, 2015 to July 31, 2017, for the benefit of the public and reiterates its call to Comrade Cabrera to release the source of his.
Below is the summary of retrenchment data for the period September 1, 2015 to July 31, 2017.
Total Number of Workers Retrenched for the Period: 4574
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For further information please contact:
The Corporate Communications Unit
Ministry of Labour and Small Enterprise Development
868-625-8478 exts 1208, 1212, 1316