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Nov 12, 2010 News

The three-member team being greeted by Khama Salankey (2nd right), Barbados’ Labour Officer responsible for Industrial Relations. Others from left are Donna Shortt-Gill, Dawn Gardener, and Maxine Bess.
A three-member team from the Labour, Occupational Safety and Health (LOSH) Department of the Ministry of Labour, Human Services and Social Security is in Barbados on a one-week study tour sponsored by the Organization of American States (OAS).
The team, comprising Dawn Gardener and Maxine Bess and Public Relations Officer Donna Shortt-Gill, is being hosted by the Barbados Labour Department.
The study tour is the third, in as many years, that has been sponsored by the OAS’ RIAL Fund for Technical Cooperation.
Guyana has benefitted from previous exchanges with Trinidad in 2008 and Barbados last year.
According to a release from the Ministry of Labour, this latest exchange completes the cycle of every LOSH officer being sent overseas to experience the operations of Labour Departments in other countries.
Minister of Labour, Manzoor Nadir commended the OAS’ RIAL Fund and the countries which have operated and contributed to it, in particular Canada, for providing financial support to ensure small states participate and benefit from such engagements.
The minister also mentioned that the host countries have been very willing to share their good practices.
One of the presenters, Senator Harry Husbands, speaking on the Perspectives on the Barbados Social Partnership, shared his past experience as an employee representative, union representative and government representative, and was able to view industrial relations from all levels. He outlined the challenges faced by Barbados in the early ‘90s in relation to the economic crisis and the introduction of social partners, and the current challenges facing the island nation.
Heading the Guyana delegation was Dawn Gardener, who made a presentation on the system of dispute resolution in Guyana. She also raised issues of the legal framework in dispute resolution in this country.
The study tour continues to the end of the week with the delegation attending the Barbados Annual Labour Department Employers’ Industrial Relations Seminar and conciliation meetings and paying a courtesy call on Barbados’ Minister of Labour.
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