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Caribbean Islands Labor Force and Industrial Relations
The labor force in 1985 consisted of some 1,042,000 persons, or
less than half of all Jamaicans. The level of employment stood at
787,700 or 75 percent of the labor force, allowing for an official
unemployment rate of 25 percent. Sixty-one percent of the
registered labor force was male. Almost 15 percent of the work
force was regarded as part-time, defined as those working fewer
than thirty-three hours per week; of that total, 60 percent were
women. According to the Statistical Institute of Jamaica, the most
numerous category of employed persons fell under the title of "own
account workers" or self-employed persons, representing 43.5
percent of the total work force. They were followed by blue-collar
workers (25.4 percent), white-collar workers (17.7 percent), and
service workers (13.1 percent).
As in other Commonwealth Caribbean nations, unemployment
continued to be a pressing economic, social, and political issue.
Throughout the first six years of the 1980s, unemployment remained
at or above 25 percent despite emigration. Women under twenty-five
years of age made up over 65 percent of those without work, whereas
men over twenty-five experienced only a 9.7-percent unemployment
rate. Whereas in United States unemployment statistics only job
seekers are considered as members of the labor force, Commonwealth
Caribbean countries include nonseekers as part of the labor force
as well. If job seekers only had been included in the 1985
unemployment figures, the unemployment rate would have been 13
percent. Because of the prevalence of underemployment and disguised
unemployment, however, many economists feel that the Caribbean
method provides the most accurate measurement.
Organized labor has played a central role in both the economic
and political development of Jamaica since the earliest days of
self-government. By 1985 there were over fifty active trade unions
on the island dominated by two large unions, BITU and the NWU (see
Historical Setting, this ch.). The BITU, the predecessor of the
Jamaican Labour Party, was established in 1938 and consisted of
over 100,000 workers in the 1980s. The NWU, closely affiliated with
the PNP, was established in 1952 and reached a membership as high
as 170,000 in the mid-1970s. In 1985 over 30 percent of the labor
force was unionized, with the overwhelming majority in the BITU and
NWU.
Throughout the first half of the 1980s, Jamaica averaged
roughly 600 industrial disputes a year, including 80 to 90 annual
work stoppages. Unlike the labor disputes of the 1970s, which were
characterized by greater wage demands in manufacturing and in
mining, strikes in the 1980s were most often over public sector
lay-offs (the service sector). Work stoppages numbered 83 in 1985,
a fairly typical number, causing the loss of 110,457 man days.
Labor strikes and disputes also occurred as a result of violations
of various labor acts, such as the Minimum Wage Act, the Holiday
with Pay Act, and the Act of Women Employment. Industrial disputes
were generally administered through the Industrial Disputes
Tribunal (IDT) of the Ministry of Labour. IDT decisions were
binding with the exception of an appeal to the Supreme Court.
Data as of November 1987
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