As the guardian of workers’ rights and well-being, the Antigua and Barbuda Workers’ Union (ABWU) has long been at the forefront of efforts to review and modernise the Antigua and Barbuda Labour Code. For several years — across successive government administrations— the Union, working in cooperation with employer groups, legal experts, and civil society, have made significant strides in keeping the Labour Code in tune with the changing dynamics of the world of work. Through key mechanisms such as the National Labour Board, several amendments have been made that have strengthened protections and improved conditions for workers throughout the country.
We are therefore appalled by a recent pronouncement by Honourable Minister of Labour, Sir Steadroy Benjamin, that the Antigua and Barbuda Labour Code “has never been reviewed,” since 1975. This statement is factually incorrect and disregards decades of work undertaken by a broad representation of stakeholders in labour relations in Antigua and Barbuda.
Among the significant reforms achieved over the years are Amendment No. 16 of 1998, which provided crucial definitions for various terms in the Code. Amendment No. 9 of 2019 addressed critical issues related to contract work and worker classification.
So significant have been efforts to modernise the Labour Code that a first reading of a comprehensive revision was tabled in Parliament during the latter period of the United Progressive Party’s term in office. Regrettably, after the change in government in 2014, the incoming Browne administration failed to give this bill a second or third reading after more than a decade—a delay that disadvantaged thousands of workers.
Despite these setbacks, the ABWU has remained actively engaged at the National Labour Board and continues to make robust contributions toward the ongoing revision of the Labour Code.
We call on the Labour Minister to exercise greater diligence and accuracy in his public statements. To deny or omit crucial facts about the progress we have made in modernizing the Labour Code is to try to erase the tireless work of dozens of stakeholders in labour relations who have endeavored to secure a fairer, more just labour system in Antigua and Barbuda.
Nevertheless, we remain committed to dialogue and cooperation in the interest of the thousands of workers across this country. We urge the Minister to fulfil his commitment and table a comprehensive revision of the Labour Code in Parliament within this legislative year.
The Antigua and Barbuda Workers’ Union will continue to stand firm in defence of the nation’s workers.
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ABWU…. That acronym is another word for “grandstanding”. The AG said the Labour Code has not seen any COMPREHENSIVE review. In other words, not just an amendment here and there. What is there to be “appalled” about with this factual statement? What the AG is speaking about is a holistic review of the ENTIRE Code to bring it in line with contemporary employment and labour practices.
David Massiah, Fernando Samuel, Chester Hughes, and R. Anderson Edghill (your media person) need to wheel and come again and stop reacting to unnecessary things.
Romarlo Anderson Edgehill is a pastor pickney (just like RAG TAG) and choose to mix up himself in politics. School children say he felt entitled to a certain position at ABS and vex that he didn’t get it, so he take off.
He comes from a Christian family, so don’t know why he getting himself mixed up with nastiness
@wash an basin
I COMPLETELY agree with you. They do NOTHING to protect / represent or support the many many employees that give them money in the form of union dues. Take your head out of “I hate ABLP and Gaston” and do the dam people that pay you to represent them work! You are a bunch of loosers. Taking handouts from the very employers you are SUPPOSE to be representing us against. Bunch a loosers. The whole bag of you…… #DISGRACE
Why is it that whenever certain persons make their statements and blunders there are always foot-soldiers to make the analysis? Cutie, like Max and the Money-Hawk, cannot be taken at their word. He is notorious for endorsing a document, verifying that he knew the Jumby that was standing before him; the things that are only seen on RIPLEY’S BELIEVE IT OR NOT.
Funny that the two ammendments that he mentioned came in 1998 and 2019. Seems that blue government did nothing to change. And please, if you wait so late in a term ( your second term) to attempt make ammendments, that did not pass before elections, it means you had no intentions of making them or that you just s.l.o.w.
This “union” is IN BED WITH HOTELIERS!!!!! What a CORRUPT, USELESS, INCOMPETENT, GREEDY, ROTTEN, SELFISH “union”
This is why hospitality workers need to follow suit like teachers and form their own union.
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