PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, Guardian - The umbrella body for Caribbean employers is calling on Caribbean Community (Caricom) leaders to begin according representative labour and employer organisations “similar” status with member states. The Caribbean Congress of Labour (CCL) has not gone that far, but is insisting on the return of a seat among regional leaders at their annual summit and the re-establishment of a Labour Desk at the Guyana-based Caricom secretariat.

However, Caribbean Employers’ Federation (CEC) president, Wayne Chen, says his organisation is lobbying for “status similar to the (member) states” for both employers and labour. The annual meeting of heads was launched last evening. For years, presentations by the CCL and CEC have not been standing features of Caricom summits, though this was the case up to the early 1990s.

CCL president, David Massiah, said the absence of his organisation from deliberations of the summit meant the movement could not participate in an important vehicle for development. “Labour should be part of the whole process of the development of the region,” the Antiguan labour leader told the T&T Guardian. He said he could not understand why the previous longstanding practice gradually disappeared from the Caricom agenda, but he felt “the time is right for labour to be re-engaged.”