Labour Commissioner seeks acknowledgement of human dignity in the business place

Leblanc addressed a workshop on Monday. File photo

Labour Commissioner in the Ministry of Justice, Immigration and National Security Dr. Matthew Leblanc has stated that employers and business managers must remember that employees play a vital role in productivity and so must know that “work is a question of human dignity.”

He was speaking at the opening ceremony of a ‘Workshop on Productivity Improvements for Small and Micro Enterprises’ held at the Fort Young hotel on Monday morning.

Leblanc said that the status of an employee and his/her work should hold the same level of importance as any other position within a company, and that “human element is usually lacking.”

“Business Managers in the haste to convert their business into the necessary profit-oriented activity usually ignore the very important fact that work is a question of human dignity, and that the employee is as equally important as the machinery, the management, managerial staff, executives and so on. That human element is usually lacking,” he said.

He proposed various ways of solving such issues in the workplace and simultaneously enhancing productivity where basic human right are to be respected.

“We must begin with the recognition and respect for basic human right, and the acknowledgment of work as a matter of human dignity,” he said.
Leblanc stated that employers must acknowledge the employee as an “integral part of the business.”

“The employer must develop an attitude of acknowledging the importance of an employee, not only as a productive tool, not only as machinery but as an integral part of the business,” Leblanc noted.

He affirmed that the questions of health and safety, wages and basic human interaction, cooperate and institutional interpersonal communication “has to be enhanced.”

“The employer in this regard will have much less effort in micro-managing or in monitoring, disciplining and even terminating employment,” Leblanc said.

He advises that the human element “not be removed or divorced” from the considerations that are to be discussed when trying to solve various work related issues.

Copyright 2012 Dominica News Online, DURAVISION INC. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or distributed.

Disclaimer: The comments posted do not necessarily reflect the views of DominicaNewsOnline.com and its parent company or any individual staff member. All comments are posted subject to approval by DominicaNewsOnline.com. We never censor based on political or ideological points of view, but we do try to maintain a sensible balance between free speech and responsible moderating.

We will delete comments that:

  • contain any material which violates or infringes the rights of any person, are defamatory or harassing or are purely ad hominem attacks
  • a reasonable person would consider abusive or profane
  • contain material which violates or encourages others to violate any applicable law
  • promote prejudice or prejudicial hatred of any kind
  • refer to people arrested or charged with a crime as though they had been found guilty
  • contain links to "chain letters", pornographic or obscene movies or graphic images
  • are off-topic and/or excessively long

See our full comment/user policy/agreement.

7 Comments

  1. mary waner
    February 7, 2017

    Love you Ross Ross :wink:

  2. veillecasian
    February 7, 2017

    Great again Dr. LeBlanc. Dominica and the Caribbean should be proud of you for continuously promoting labour standards through public awareness and education. this is clearly not the usual talk. you have given significance to workplace issues ignored for decades. keep up the good work!!!. And by the way, don’t be distracted by those idiots who never see the light.

  3. February 6, 2017

    Put wages for us we tired work for five dollats an hour we need better so we can see what we working for and our kids can have a good meal not only ministets alone to get raisr be fair had woking people need at less 10 dollars an hour so we can pay bills and feed our kids from the 70s we working for five dollaftsit is time for a taise do something .

    • Toto
      February 7, 2017

      Yes Sir, $5 an hour and tomatoes $10 a pound. We would love to eat more of our vegetables but we can not afford it. Poverty wages we getting.

  4. Observing
    February 6, 2017

    Tell the director of a certain standard institution that. His human skills are proven over and over again to be poor as a result the institution has a high turnover rate, but if you ask the said director; he will say its the employees that’s the problem…

    • Me
      February 7, 2017

      Hm, I’ve learned that a good manager never blames employees for poor performance. After all, you appointed them in the first place so comments like that reflect poorly on your own management skills.

  5. Toto
    February 6, 2017

    Dr. Leblanc for, some time now I don’t see Mrs. Lazare in your dept. again. What happened to her.? Was eh promoted sideways or is that a state secret? Good luck to the lady anyway.

Post a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

:) :-D :wink: :( 8-O :lol: :-| :cry: 8) :-? :-P :-x :?: :oops: :twisted: :mrgreen: more »

 characters available