Flexi-work makes progress after 18 years of review - Legislation to facilitate telecommuting
Published:Friday | July 13, 2012 | 12:00 AM
Avia Collinder, Business Writer
After nearly two decades of discussions and trials, legislation that will effectively kill the concept of the nine-to-five workday as baseline policy is being drafted to imbed flexible work schedules into current law.
The process will not create new statute but simply adjust or amend existing legislation.
"The intention is not to legislate flexible work arrangements, so there will be no law created for the purpose of that. What will be amended are existing acts to facilitate different working times," Danny Roberts, head of the Trade Union Education Institute, said Wednesday.
"The whole matter ought to be a dialogue between employers, workers and trade unions," he said.
According to the legal department of the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, the new flexi-work policy requires changes to current statute that restrict opening and closing hours of establishments, limit the hours of work, limit the days on which some persons can work, stipulate that the workday cannot exceed eight hours, restrict the operation of some business establishments on Sundays and establish work weeks which exceed the recommended 40 hours.
Flexible work arrangements are characterised by a variable work schedule in which the traditional 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. time block is sidelined in favour of a variable schedule of hours worked.
Joseph Matalon, the outgoing president of the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica, says productivity levels are likely to improve, especially where the policy impacts commuting.
"Elsewhere in the world where flexible work arrangements have been put in place, the outcome has been positive in terms of productivity growth.
"It should be no different here," Matalon told the Financial Gleaner.
"For example, where an individual is permitted under the terms of their employment to work from home, it reduces travel time, providing that much more time for productive activity. To the extent that constant interaction is not required, we have a positive impact. That, to my mind, is the main benefit," he said.
The amendment being drafted by the Chief Parliamentary Counsel will not repeal the 40-hour per week concept, but allows workers to negotiate lighter schedules, and it redefines what constitutes overtime work.
It also gives more rights to part-time workers, who are now denied benefits such as health insurance, and is receptive to the concept of the virtual workplace.
"It speaks to people working from home and in other virtual locations. All of these arrangements fall within its purview," said Roberts.
The process to modernise working time arrangements is now 18 years old, starting as far back as 1994 when the introduction of flexi-work arrangements was mooted as fundamental to labour-market reform, and out of which came the Labour Market Reform Committee.
Flexi-work schedules already exist in several sectors, especially those dependent on the shift system, including health, transportation, security, communications, tourism, manufacturing and the mining sectors, but the policy is internal to individual operations.
"The several legislative provisions must be amended to facilitate the wholesale implementation of flexible work arrangements in Jamaica," said the labour ministry's legal department.
The new amendments will set a baseline around which companies or organisations craft workplace policy.
Roberts says many of the operations that now have flexi-schedules tend to override workers rights.
"The truth is that a number of workplace practices are in contravention of existing law, which is why there is a need now to change the laws. Manufacturing companies and hotel will continue to run their shift systems," he said.
"What is expected is where new changes are needed there ought not to be an imposition but a dialogue."
The statutes to be amended include the Holidays With Pay Act, Apprenticeship (Motor Mechanic Trade) Order, Food Storage and Prevention of Infestation Regulations, the Minimum Wage Act and Orders, the Towns and Communities Act, and the Women (Employment of) Act.
The new flexi-work law flows from July 2000 findings of a committee set up by the labour ministry to review flexi-work policies in various workplaces. A Green Paper followed in 2001, which allowed for consultation and discussions guided by Parliament on what a new flexi-policy should look like.
Several joint select committees of Parliament have been convened over the years to finalise the policy. Deliberations eventually concluded in January 2010 and a white policy paper, which is the guide for drafting legislation, was tabled sometime after.
The new legislation is expected to facilitate part-time work with benefits; allow for telecommuting; and a compressed work week.
Part-time work with benefits offers the worker the flexibility of working for part-time hours while still being able to access benefits such as group life insurance, pro-rated vacation leave and sick leave.
With a compressed work week, the employee can negotiate with the employer to undertake the traditional 40-hour schedule over a shorter span of days.
The worker can negotiate for a four-day work week instead of the traditional five workdays. This is referred as to the 4/10 schedule, said the labour ministry's legal team.
The 2010 Parliamentary report recommended that there should be no set eight-hour or 10-hour workday, but that there should be a cap of 12 hours in a workday.
It also recommended that the 40-hour week be spread across seven days instead of the current five, and that days for worship be negotiated between employee and employer.
Overtime would be earned only if the worker has completed more than 40 hours in a work week.