Raphael John-Lall
CEO of the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Management (ODPM), Major General (retired) Rodney Smart has said that climate change is having a negative impact on economies in the region from the labour market to damaged infrastructure to the health of workers.
According to British newspaper, The Guardian in an article dated July 18, Caribbean leaders are struggling to raise hundreds of millions after Hurricane Beryl wiped out entire islands and they have asked the UK government to back a “Marshall plan” to rebuild their devastated economies.
The hurricane, which made landfall in the Caribbean on 1 July, killed at least 11 people, demolished or damaged more than 90 per cent of buildings in Carriacou and Petite Martinique, which are in the Grenadines, and left thousands homeless and without running water, electricity and food.
On July 5, the UK Government announced a £500,000 package for Caribbean countries affected by Beryl and promised to prioritise the climate emergency. However, St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister, Ralph Gonsalves, and his Grenadian counterpart, Dickon Mitchell, have described the money raised so far from insurance policies and contributions as a “drop in the bucket.”
Smart spoke at a webinar on entitled “The Impact of Climate Change on the Workplace and Employment Relationship” last week hosted by the Cipriani College of Labour and Co-operative Studies, Valsayn.
Smart, who spoke on the devastating impact of Beryl, gave details of how climate change is hurting the economies of countries regionally and internationally.
“Climate change can impact on the labour market and the workforce. This can result in reduced job security and employment opportunities. It can cause harsher working conditions. It can impact the industry structure and economic shifts. Changes in labour policies and worker rights could result in challenges, social and economic inequality and global and regional migration. That is one of the things that we are seeing. There is this large movement of people from the East to the West because of the climate challenges that many countries have faced,” he said.
He spoke about what businesses owners and employees must undertake to survive in light of climate change and its accompanying natural disasters.
“These include businesses continuity, making sure it is at the centre. Flexible work arrangement, financial support and assistance, job security policies, Also, Employee Assistance Programmes (EAP) and training and skills development. From the ODPM’s perspective, there needs to be a new culture in the workplace, a culture of collaboration, a culture of coordination and communication. All parties being prepared for the organisation’s survival.”
He gave statistics which show that Hurricane Beryl’s adverse effects resulted in over 297 incidents in T&T, 75 per cent which occurred in Tobago.
“This is what was gathered throughout the country. Some 127 fallen trees, electricity polls, landslides, damage to houses, 104 blown roofs, blocked roads and flooding events. Also, 40 centres had to be opened and over 160 displaced persons were sheltered. While T&T had its challenges, we were nothing close to what Grenada, Petite Martnique, Carriacou and Jamaica experienced. T&T also assisted Grenada and St. Vincent by sending goods and there were four vessel loads sent very early after the passage of the hurricane.”
He said Hurricane Beryl and its impact with money lost in T&T and the Caribbean is a clear example of climate change.
“This by most of the pundits has been considered to be the result of a change in our climate. The first time in several decades we have seen a hurricane this early in the season and the track that it took was a bit unusual. It was not the norm and Hurricane Beryl has been classified by most persons as being one of those climate challenges that we face.”
Smart explained that the ODPM was established in 2005 by the Cabinet and the organisation’s main objective is to build national disaster risk management and climate change adaption capabilities with other stakeholders.
Its purpose is also to coordinate response and recovery operations when necessary and to protect the people, the environment and the economy.
He also said in T&T disaster management is done by a number of agencies in the public sector, private sector as well as civil society organisations.
Inflatonary impact
Lecturer in Labour Studies at the Cipriani College, Janice Johnson-Lorde, who also spoke during the webinar pointed to other negative effects of climate change and its accompanying potential impacts, such as hurricanes.
She referred to climate change as a long-term shift in temperatures and weather patterns and used Hurricane Beryl as an example.
She also spoke about the domino effect it can have on prices in the economy.
“An example would be marine life that is affected and the domino effect of that. There is decreased oxygen content, so here we have plants and animals dying off. Automatically, we are talking about our food chain and if we are talking about food chain, we are talking about scarcity. If we talking about scarcity, we are talking about prices. If we are talking about prices, we are talking about inflation and that will dovetail back to the employment relationship in terms of negotiation. How do we collectively bargain to maintain the purchasing power of the dollar? How do we maintain a decent standard of work?”
She added; “We are talking about water scarcity, so crops will be affected. Now we can see the price of perishables in the market. But yet we are held to 4 per cent (negotiation) in ten years, when inflation is eating away at the purchasing power of the dollar. So, we are seeing this climate change having a domino effect on almost every aspect of the worker’s life.”
She also spoke about the impact on business owners.
“We are looking at the cost of doing business. There is the infrastructural design which will have to be adjusted. So, where they were using fans, they will have to put in airconditioning units. That cost of the infrastructural design will have to go somewhere.”
She also said the employer and employee relationship in the corporate world should be taken into account as the climate change impact intensifies.
“Humans are held responsible for climate change but the impact is felt and is severe on the humans themselves. In this context, I am speaking about the employment relationship. We are looking at the employment relationship in terms of rights and responsibilities. The responsibility of worker and the rights of worker. The responsibility of management and the rights of management.”