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Increase production, improve standard of living, workers urged
BY ALICIA ROACHE roachea@jamaicaobserver.com
Tuesday, November 03, 2009
THE Jamaica Productivity Centre (JPC) says workers can see a real increase in their standard of living if they increase their productivity at work.
Dr Charles Douglas, executive director of the centre, speaking to Observer reporters and editors at the newspaper's Monday Exchange yesterday, said, "The issue is how do we distribute the fruits of productivity gain. It should be distributed between the investor, the worker and the consumer."
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| Jamaica Productivity Centre's Executive Director Dr Charles Douglas makes a point during yesterday's weekly Observer Monday Exchange meeting of editors and reporters at the newspaper's Beechwood Avenue offices in Kingston. Douglas was part of a visiting team of Jamaica Productivity Centre board members. Also attending were Professor Neville Ying (second left), a director of the Mona School of Business; Phillip Alexander (centre), group chief risk officer, GraceKennedy Limited; senior productivity specialist, Tamar Nelson (second right); and senior communications specialist, Tenneisha Nelson. (Photo: Napthali Junior) |
He added: "What I find is that in many instances the worker sees himself as a worker, but not a consumer. And when he sees himself as a worker sharing the fruits of productivity gain as well as a consumer, he can see the dividend..."
Productivity gains, he said, would translate into higher wages and a better standard of living.
".To the extent that there is an increase in his real purchasing power he is going to demand goods and services that he did not demand before. That demand is going to encourage companies to utilise more of their capacity to satisfy that demand. That is how you see the social and economic benefits of increasing productivity," said Dr Douglas.
At the same time, Tamar Nelson, senior productivity specialist in the centre's Technical Assistance Services Unit, pointed to worker training as one way to increase labour productivity and for the worker's skills to remain relevant to the organisation. Training will have the effect of the employee being better educated, better skilled and more employable in an increasingly competitive environment, she said.
".As it relates to Jamaica, some of the things we have to look at are the sectors in which predominantly our labour is focussed. We have low skilled areas, a lot of labour is in that area, and so to improve our productivity level, we have to improve our skilled labour," she said.
"We need to move to the high skilled sectors. When we look at countries like Singapore they moved out of that labour intensive sector and has really improved the skill level of their workers and that improved productivity," added Nelson.
However, with the reality of low wages, poor working conditions, discrimination and hierarchical, worker-alienating organisational structures, some argue that the Jamaican worker has no real incentive to be more productive.
"It has to be a tripartite approach," said Tenneisha Hibbert-Nelson, communications specialist with the Jamaica Productivity Centre. "It can't be the workers alone focussing on productivity. You have to get the employers on board, you have to get the unions on board, you have to get the workers on board," she said.
This approach would, however, call for the involvement of the state.
"The Government would put things in place to ensure that when myself as a worker improves my productivity the company is working with me and we are moving the productivity of the organisation forward."
"The single most important factor that affects productivity is people," said Professor Neville Ying, board member of the centre and director of business development at the Mona School of Business.
"The inputs of people are the most critical. Especially right now in the period of recession we are looking for creative and innovative ideas from people. You have to compete, and I'm sure what is going to make the difference between you and your competitor is the creative and innovative ideas that your staff bring to the table," Professor Ying said.
"What we have to look at in the workplace is a mixture of compensation, training and development, career and personal development, elimination of discrimination. All these are very critical issues which must be addressed," he said for worker productivity to increase.
On the other hand, Dr Douglas argued that workers should not be given productivity-based incentives when targets have not been met. "This kind of situation is unsustainable," he said.
A draft Productivity Summary Report (1972-2007) produced by the (JPC) indicates that over the 35 year period output per Jamaican worker declined at an average rate of 1.5 per cent annually.
According to the report, in 2007, output per worker was only 59 per cent of that in 1972. That decline has not recovered since 2002.
As a result of the fall in productivity, the Jamaican worker has suffered a reduction in their standard of living over time.
"In the 1970s the average worker could buy more than the average worker can buy now," Dr Douglas noted. "Their standard of living was higher. We have gone back 40 years," he said.
The Jamaica Productivity Centre is the national organisation responsible for promoting and facilitating productivity enhancement at the national, sectoral, industry and enterprise levels.
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