With the fast pace of development on the island and the increasing need for a dedicated and satisfied workforce, the Anguilla Government is making an aggressive effort to ensure that the working environment between employers and employees is a smooth and cooperative experience.

L-R: Sutcliffe Hodge, Haydn Hughes and Rodney Rey

This is being approached through a current Workers’ Week of Activities organised by the Department and Ministry of Labour in the run-up to the Labour Day observance on May 2.

One of the interesting activities was a panel discussion at the Teachers’ Resource Centre on Monday evening. The panelists were Sutcliffe Hodge, Chief Executive of Cable and Wireless who spoke from the perspective of an employer and Haydn Hughes, a senior staff member at CuinsinArt Resort & Spa with a long track record in tourism, and a budding politician. The moderator was Rodney Rey, Permanent Secretary in the Chief Minister’s Office with responsibility for Labour.

Mr. Hodge emphasised that there was a need for everyone in the working environment to adapt quickly to the changing demands of the high quality and high value clientele that is being served. “As a service economy we have to adapt or die,” he went on. “This requires a new style of management and a new approach to work by both staff and management. As a team, staff and management must seek to find solutions together where stable employment, job satisfaction, job enrichment, job advancement must be the desired objectives.

“In the pursuit of these objectives, one has to accept that these are desired objectives and therefore not always realistic and achievable. Both employer and employees must engage in continuous development and training. Both parties must realise that they are stakeholders in the outcome of every situation and as such must be willing to invest some of their private time and energy in their own development. The days of employers putting against that, should be a thing of the past if we are to survive working together in the global economy.”

Labour Department Staff and others at the panel discussion

Mr. Hodge called for greater productivity among employees and the need for human resource development and training to meet the varied and changing demands of the job market. He spoke in particular of the technological changes which require employees to develop other skills to avoid retrenchment and other forms of job redundancy. He stressed the need for a new style of working relationships including caring for employees; the provision of greater benefits and the establishment of a worker/employer friendly environment.

The other panelist, Haydn Hughes, remarked that in the late 1970s and early 1980s the Anguilla Goverment had embarked on an economic development programme that would alter the social economic situation in the island forever.

“There were many people in Anguilla who disagreed with the island becoming a tourism destination due to the fact that there would be some vices that would come along with it, such as a proliferation of drugs, crime and a general breakdown of the family structure. But we decided that the benefits would outweigh the burdens and the negative aspects and we forged ahead. It was decided that it was important to keep Anguilla unique and we went for the higher end of the market. We went for the rich and Anguilla has seen the fruits of that with better economic opportunities, better roads, schools, upgrades at the hospital and now the airport; upgrades in our telecommunications systems, more and larger banks resulting in more jobs for all.
“There are beautiful hotels of which three of them are in the top ten in the Caribbean, and I am sure that when St. Regis comes on stream they too will be among the top in the region. This is something that no other destination in the Caribbean can boast of and we should be proud of this feat.”

He noted however that “it was questionable as to whether or not the people working in the industry that fuels the economy were truly benefiting from the development.”
Mr. Hughes, who underwent a great deal of tourism training in Europe, and has a long history of employment in the sector, was able to draw attention to a number of matters relating to the de-motivation of workers. He listed some of the factors as being the never-ending period of understudy, discrimination in worker recruitment and promotion; underpayment and lack of other financial benefits.

Labour Commissioner Mrs. Bradley with George Kentish, Anthony Browne (left) and Derek Gumbs (right)

Mr. Hughes ended as follows: “We have to realise that Anguilla is not a self-contained unit any longer. The world is training and promoting their people while we are not.
Development is futile without human resource development and building new hotels is nice. New telecommunications companies coming in are nice, but they cannot truly give us what we deserve unless the Anguillian people are put in a position to take full advantage of this growth and development. There must be a marriage of the two. We are behind this but I am sure that this would soon change. It better change.

“We must also change our attitudes from the Customs and Immigration to the taxi-driver, quarreling in the presence of our tourists, whose turn is next to take the guests to their hotel. This is important for the general population in Anguilla to understand the need for positive changes in our attitudes, with a goal of improved productivity, or we will soon find ourselves in the cellar wondering how we got there and trying in vain to dig ourselves out. Time is running out, Anguilla.”

Following the two presentations, there was a very interactive session involving the panelists, the moderator and the audience on the floor.

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