Five officers attached to the Ministry of Labour (MoL) are in Barbados for a week-long attachment, as the ministry strives to strengthen the capacity of its labour department by exposing labour officers to various training programmes and seminars overseas.

Deputy Chief Labour Occupational Safety Officer, Clive Nurse, Assistant Chief Labour Occupational Safety Officer, Lydia Greene, and three OSH officers -Dexter Semple, Natasha Duncan and Karen Forde are the officers participating.

According to a release from the Government Information Agency (GINA), at a simple ceremony held recently where the five officers were presented with their air tickets and per diems, Labour Minister Manzoor Nadir pointed out that every two years, through a conference set up by the heads of the Organisation of American States (OAS), there is an Inter-American Conference for Labour Ministers and according to GINA, the meetings are held in various countries, with the discussions revolving around what is taking place among labour ministries of OAS member countries. The last cycle was 2008/2009.

Nadir stated that part of the involvement has been the support of the Ministry of Labour, Human Services and Social Security‘s Labour Department with programmes to expose the Labour Officers to international best practices in labour and Occupational Safety and Health (OS&H) administration. According to GINA, the Labour Minister also pointed out that, Permanent Secretary within the Labour Ministry, Trevor Thomas will be representing him at the Labour Minister’s meeting which will be held in Argentina. He said that over the past 18 months, the support of the OAS has been estimated to be in the region of some US$140,000. Nadir expressed his gratitude to the OAS for coordinating and supporting the activities of the Ministry, noting that as of this meeting, there remain only two members of staff of the Labour Ministry who in the last 18 months had not gone overseas for international exposure and training. GINA stated that the focus of this year’s conference in Argentina is primarily on the Inter-American Network on Labour Administration and the mechanism to allow Technical Cooperation and the sharing of information best practices under the Ministry of Labour.