IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ecr/col037/5453.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Flexible labour markets, workers' protection and active labour market policies in the Caribbean

Author

Listed:
  • Downes, Andrew S.

Abstract

This study examines the application of the flexicurity labour system in the Caribbean countries of Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago. The flexicurity system has its origins in Denmark and combines elements of labour market flexibility with social security for workers. After outlining the elements of the system, the study provides an overview of the labour market in the Caribbean and compares the performance of Denmark with the three Caribbean countries. The comparison shows that there is a much lower level of flexibility and security in the three Caribbean states than in Denmark. The degree of labour market flexibility is examined in the Caribbean context and the discussion indicates that some limited degree of flexibility exist especially work time and functional flexibility. Some attempts have been made to introduce financial flexibility. Some small measure of social protection exists for displaced workers in the form of severance and redundancy pay. Only Barbados has an unemployment scheme which cover workers for up to six months of unemployment. Jamaica is planning to introduce an unemployment assistance scheme. In general, the social protection schemes for workers are weak in the region. In the area of active labour market policies, training programs have been the main area of activity with some provision of employment services for those looking for jobs. All the countries have targeted young persons since these face the bulk of the unemployment in the region. Social dialogue has been developing in the countries with Barbados being at the forefront of this arrangement at the national level. Jamaica has adopted a sectoral approach. While that flexicurity system has some attractive features its full implementation is limited in the Caribbean since the institutional framework has not been fully developed to sustain the implementation of the system and the costs of the system can be a burden to national governments. It is however possible those elements of the system can be applied to the Caribbean countries (and have been applied). Labour market reform in the region can however take elements of the system into consideration.

Suggested Citation

  • Downes, Andrew S., 2009. "Flexible labour markets, workers' protection and active labour market policies in the Caribbean," Macroeconomía del Desarrollo 5453, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL).
    • Handle: RePEc:ecr:col037:5453
    Note: Includes bibliography
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://repositorio.cepal.org/handle/11362/5453
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Downes, Andrew S., 2006. "Caribbean labour market challenges and policies," Macroeconomía del Desarrollo 5410, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL).
    2. Carmen Pagés-Serra & Gustavo Márquez, 1998. "Ties That Bind: Employment Protection and Labor Market Outcomes in Latin America," Research Department Publications 4118, Inter-American Development Bank, Research Department.
    3. International Monetary Fund, 2007. "Eastern Caribbean Currency Union: Selected Issues," IMF Staff Country Reports 2007/097, International Monetary Fund.
    4. Jorgensen, Henning, 2009. "Flexible labour markets, workers' protection and the "security of the wings": a Danish flexicurity solution to the unemployment and social problems in globalized economies," Macroeconomía del Desarrollo 5443, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Katerine Bermúdez Alarcón & Augustin Emane, 2019. "La realidad del contrato de trabajo y su situación en Suramérica," Books, Universidad Externado de Colombia, Facultad de Derecho, number 1088, October.
    2. Patrice Borda & Nlandu Mamingi, 2007. "On the persistence of unemployment in small open economies," Working Papers hal-04053066, HAL.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Pierre‐Richard Agénor, 2004. "Macroeconomic Adjustment and the Poor: Analytical Issues and Cross‐Country Evidence," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(3), pages 351-408, July.
    2. Gustavo Márquez, 2000. "Labor Markets and Income Support: What Did We Learn from the Crises?," Research Department Publications 4219, Inter-American Development Bank, Research Department.
    3. Giovanna Aguilar & Sílvio Rendon, 2010. "Employment And Deadweight Loss Effects Of Observed Nonwage Labor Costs," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 48(3), pages 793-809, July.
    4. Jaime Saavedra-Chanduví, 1998. "¿Crisis real o crisis de expectativas? El empleo en el Perú antes y después de las reformas estructurales," Research Department Publications 4149, Inter-American Development Bank, Research Department.
    5. Mr. Shaun K. Roache, 2007. "Public Investment and Growth in the Eastern Caribbean," IMF Working Papers 2007/124, International Monetary Fund.
    6. World Bank, 2010. "Strengthening Caribbean Pensions : Improving Equity and Sustainability," World Bank Publications - Reports 2847, The World Bank Group.
    7. Mr. Hunter K Monroe, 2009. "Can the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union Afford to Grow Old?," IMF Working Papers 2009/038, International Monetary Fund.
    8. Ms. Magda E. Kandil & Mrs. Genevieve M Lindow & Mr. Mario Mansilla & Mr. Joel Chiedu Okwuokei & Jochen M. Schmittmann & Qiaoe Chen & Xin Li & Marika Santoro & Solomon Stavis, 2014. "Labor Market Issues in the Caribbean: Scope to Mobilize Employment Growth," IMF Working Papers 2014/115, International Monetary Fund.
    9. Preeya Mohan & Patrick Watson & Eric Strobl, 2018. "Nascent Entrepreneurs In Caribbean Small Island Developing States: Opportunity Versus Necessity," Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship (JDE), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 23(04), pages 1-18, December.
    10. MacIsaac, Donna & Rama, Martin, 2001. "Mandatory severance pay : its coverage and effects in Peru," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2626, The World Bank.
    11. International Monetary Fund, 2011. "Eastern Caribbean Currency Union: Selected Issues," IMF Staff Country Reports 2011/032, International Monetary Fund.
    12. Gerry Rodgers, 2007. "Labour Market Flexibility and Decent Work," Working Papers 47, United Nations, Department of Economics and Social Affairs.
    13. Jaime Saavedra-Chanduví, 1998. "Real Crisis or Crisis of Expectations? Employment in Peru Before and After the Structural Reforms," Research Department Publications 4148, Inter-American Development Bank, Research Department.
    14. Maloney, William F., 1999. "Self-employment and labor turnover - cross-country evidence," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2102, The World Bank.
    15. Gustavo Márquez, 2000. "Mercados laborales y apoyo del ingreso: ¿Qué hemos aprendido de las crisis?," Research Department Publications 4220, Inter-American Development Bank, Research Department.
    16. Ansgar Belke & Daniel Gros, 2003. "The Cost of Financial Market Variability in the Southern Cone," Revue économique, Presses de Sciences-Po, vol. 54(5), pages 1091-1115.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ecr:col037:5453. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Biblioteca CEPAL (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/eclaccl.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.