Editorial | Kudos, Audrey Marks

Seven years ago, in November 2018, this newspaper recommended to the Government the value of leading by example. It had to do with a full rollout in the public sector of flexible work arrangements.

We are happy that the administration has finally listened, for which the public probably has to thank Audrey Marks, the minister for efficiency, innovation, and digital transformation, and, perhaps, the fact that she is still new to government and not yet encrusted in the norms of public-sector bureaucracy.

Ms Marks joined the administration last year after a long stretch as Jamaica’s ambassador in Washington and prior to that, having been an entrepreneur. She seems intent on getting things done.

Last week, Ms Marks formally launched an initiative that allows the workday in government ministries, agencies, and departments (MDAs) to be structured in four additional seven-and-a-half-hour segments: 6:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.; 7:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.; 9:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.; and 10:30 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.

This, apart from the traditional 8:30 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. schedule.

“There are approximately 32 government entities that have already implemented some aspects of the flexible-work programme and have shared positive feedback,” Ms Marks said. “So we are now going into the full implementation of flexible work … .”

CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT

According to the minister, who has been given the job of modernising Jamaica’s public sector, this initiative is part of an ongoing transformation programme aimed at creating a public bureaucracy that is “more efficient, accountable, customer focused, and better equipped” to compete in today’s global economy.

“On the PSTP (the transformation programme), we are shifting from a process-driven public service to a results-oriented one,” Ms Marks said. “Flexible work arrangements reinforce the shift by encouraging managers to focus on outputs, service quality, and accountability rather than hours spent in the office. This is fully consistent with the programme’s emphasis on performance-based management and continuous improvement,” she added.

Ms Marks’ argument, along with claims of the operational and economic flexibility the arrangement would provide to firms, has long been a critical part of the case for introducing flexible working arrangements in Jamaica. Under law, the 40-hour work week can be spread over any of the seven days, and employees can be at their jobs for up to 12 hours.

With this system, workers are not entitled to overtime pay for work until after they have completed 40 hours rather than the entitlement kicking-in after eight hours of a workday, which was previously the case.Although some sectors of the Jamaican economy have, long before the legislation, operated with shift systems and elements of flexi-time, the formal, legislated process has been long and slow. The take-up has, at best, been sluggish.

Indeed, it took decades of back-and-forth discussions, often with resistance from various interest groups, before the flexible work arrangement law was passed in 2014. Churches, for instance, wanted to preclude Sundays (and for Seventh-Day Adventists, Saturdays) being normalised as a work day. Trade unions, which then still had significant membership, resisted changes to the overtime entitlement regime.

And even after the law was passed, there seemed to be little appetite for its broad-based use, hence The Gleaner’s 2018 intervention.

We said then: “ Leading by example is a great way to get results. So, is the Government itself on board with the flexi work week idea?

“Those who work in emergency services have been participating in flexible work arrangements for years. Generally, though, government offices are tightly shuttered on weekends. One exception is tax season, when the tax offices may open their doors on Saturdays.”

Similar to Minister Marks’ current argument, we posited that for a public sector “constantly pilloried for its declining productivity”, its embrace of flexible work arrangements was one possible way to positively move the needle.

POTENTIAL VALUE

It was felt that with the adaptable work processes, ranging from staggered hours to work-from-home initiatives, adopted by workplaces, including the Government, during the COVID-19 pandemic, flexible work arrangements would be entrenched in Jamaica. However, post-COVID-19, workplaces largely returned to their old operating systems.

As Jamaica’s largest employer, the Government has an opportunity to demonstrate the potential value of having people at their desks at MDAs at staggered periods. Possible gains range from a reduction of peak-hour traffic snarls, where hundreds of millions of man-hours are wasted annually, to the enhanced convenience for citizens to access government services. This could mean lower transaction costs.

However, Minister Marks must be vigilant against managers and workers, cloistered in old habits, who will be reluctant to change or passively contrive for the system’s failure. That must not be allowed.

At the same time, the Government must be transparent about the programme’s implementation, sharing empirical data about its performance.

Seven years ago, The Gleaner suggested that the administration use information from private-sector firms that implemented flexi-work systems to inform its own rollout. The reverse can now happen.