Contractors Association

Creating Wealth
The relationship between business activity or trade and employment is an important one. An individual or enterprise may trade unfairly and earn profits but that is not sustainable. Labour creates wealth; only labour creates wealth. Unless or until somebody works no new wealth is added to the world. Business operations provide both the motivation/reason and the opportunity for labour and wealth creation. Thus the enterprise and the worker become partners in wealth creation.

This relationship extends across the employer/employee relationship to what you do - providing a service for a price. The partnership is an important element of the current debate on the impact of trade on the labour market and vice-versa. What happens in the labour market is important to trade. Trade has its certain impact on the labour market. None of us wants the wealth created by our labour or through our enterprise to accrue to someone else. Nations trade for the benefits that will accrue to their work force.

Wealth creation must have a social track which would sustain human values and enhance person’s well-being. Without such a social dimension, wealth creation remains just a form of domination and exploitation.

Conditions for Wealth Creation
In order to respond to the need to insert social ground rules in the process, the ILO in June 1998 unanimously adopted the Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work and its Follow-Up.

The strength of this declaration lies in the fact that all members, even if they have not ratified the ILO core conventions, on the basis of their membership in the ILO, have an obligation to respect, to promote and to realize the fundamental principles and rights relating to:

• freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining;
• the elimination of all forms of forced or compulsory labour;
• the effective abolition of child labour; and
• the elimination of discrimination in respect of employment and occupation.

Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests. So your membership and activities in this association is your basic and fundamental right. Let it also be for the protection of your interest!

Labour Administration aim to service the relationship between the social partners and coordinate their efforts towards "wealth creation."

The primary goal of Labour Administration is to promote opportunities for women and men to obtain decent and productive work, in conditions of freedom, equity, security and human dignity. Labour Administration practitioners have reduced this goal to four strategic objectives:

1. rights at work,
2. employment conditions,
3. social protection and
4. social dialogue.

Bear in mind that I said, "This relationship extends across the employer/employee relationship to, what you do - providing a service for a price.

1. rights at work, implies the availability of productive and sufficient work of acceptable quality which generates an adequate income;
2. employment conditions, include the right of everyone to the enjoyment of just and favourable conditions of work, including fair wages, equal rewards for work of equal value, equal opportunities, safe and healthy conditions of work, and reasonable hours of work and rest, as well as the right to organize and bargain collectively;
3. social protection requires that well designed and adequate social safety mechanisms be put in place for those occasions when they become necessary.
4. social dialogue includes all communication between the partners.

Where all four of these exist together and in good measure there is shared wealth. A longstanding wealth deficit exists in TCI. The wealth deficit refers to the non-compliance with or non-adherence to fundamental rights, the lack or absence of productive employment opportunities, the lack of, or inadequate social protection mechanisms, and the absence of structured social dialogue systems.

Concepts in Wealth Creation
Despite the fact that trade agreements and trade policies affect all areas of human activity and economic and social development, world trade has been seen in a gender-neutral fashion and not enough attention has been paid to the impact of free trade on gender inequalities and the impact of gender inequalities on trade performance. We cannot continue to shut our women out of construction.

Because these partnerships are as basic to our needs as family relationships and because they affect our lives as deeply we must pay more attention to gender in employment and labour and allow more effort into achieving wealth.

Achieving wealth involves:

1. opportunities for work that is productive and delivers a fair income;
2. freedom for people to express their concerns, to organize and participate in the decisions that affect their lives;
3. equality of opportunity and treatment for all women and men;
4. security in the workplace and social protection for families; and
5. better prospects for personal development and social integration.

These five are the conditions this association must strive for - opportunities for women and men to obtain decent and productive work in conditions of freedom, equity, security and human dignity. This association must last. You become more effective as you sustain the effort. This association is the vehicle by which you will bring about the conditions of freedom, equity, security and human dignity. It must last! Don’t bring in any influences to destroy your organization! If there are some here now warn them to straighten up or excommunicate them!

The Minister said that he will notice this association but you must work with the Minister. He will not - cannot do it for you. If you do your part you hold his feet to the fire; he has to do his part

Competence and Competitiveness
True partnerships must be your organizing concept; the concept that motivates you. Continuous learning, competitiveness and cooperation must characterize you as you go from day to day. Remember you are partners – with each other in the association and with those who hire you. Be careful to not spread your partnership too thin; do not partner with those who refuse to hire you.

Everything you do reflect on you and your partners – those in the association and those who hire you. So finish the job! Finish ahead of time! Give quality workmanship! Prove your competence! Keep the appointments you make! These are the qualities that characterize high productivity economies. No longer do we have a TCI standard and a world standard. There is no performance standard for a Belonger and another standard for an expatriate. We only have one world standard.

Consider the Interest of Others
Consider the interest of your partners and prospective partners! What are they trying to achieve? Under what constraints? Can the work that you’re giving your partner please his partners who hired him? This one who hired you is your partner; don’t hang him out to dry! Develop and establish a reputation for being a good, solid, dependable partner and you will share in creating wealth.

Cleaning up Our Act
We in TCI have to clean up our act regarding migrant workers. Too many of us see them as a source of cheap labour. Well creating wealth cannot be cheapened. The situation where the wealth created by one man’s labour accrues to another man is not sustainable. The human spirit will doubtless rebel against that.

Consolidating Gains
All of us are grandfathered in but our children will have to be world class in academics, technical as well as the practical. Do some continuing education of your own but insist on your children getting a professional education! Organize early for them to quickly get a good mix of education and experience.