Debate over the need for time off for national sports players to represent Dominica abroad could come to an end soon.
The matter has been in the spotlight for some time now after a few of the island’s sportsmen were not given permission by their employers to travel overseas for game purposes.
The Ministry of Sports is now making an intervention into the matter, Minister responsible for Sports Affairs Justina Charles disclosed on a sports program on DBS Radio Wednesday evening.
She said a date has already been set for a meeting between with the Dominica Association of Industry and Commerce (DAIC) and the Dominica Employers’ Federation on the subject.
“We will discuss it with them, discuss the possibilities, look at the pros and cons of having that problem addressed and out of that then we will now meet with the various stakeholders to discuss whatever comes out of that meeting so we can chart the way forward,” Charles said.
But it appears the problem lies within the private sector as, according to Charles, sports players working in the public service are permitted to travel abroad on sporting duties “with full pay”.
“Government has already set policies for persons employed within the public service,” Charles said.
Warrior ah you dat???? We can say all we want but at the end of the day government needs to compensate private entities for the athletes not bring there. A private firm’ s bottom line is profit.. Maybe Govt can give them a tax break or something.
Seriously, are we taking these Ministers serious? Do they even care about sports in the country?
The leaders dont care about sports and the young people….havent Dominicans realize that ….
Righteous
It are not only the days off but also the loss of output the employee was engaged for in the first place. By all means, the private sector should feel free to sponsor employees in this way, and those who do should be applauded. However, what I would not like to see is the the introduction of some piece of legislation to compel them to do this. I’m afraid that such a move would backfire in that employers would be very cautious to ensure they do not hire such people in the first place, or worse, find a pretext to terminate their employment.
I think the government should take up the slack and pay the athletes for the time off instead of the private company. We have ministers traveling and they getting all kinds of benefites when they travel so I think the national athletes should get some kind of compensation. I support this move and they should not take to long on coming to a conclusion.
Athletes, working in the public service are paid out of the public purse. To expect private enterprises to carry the expense of one of their employees being absent for representing the country would not equitable and to be fair that burden too should be carried by us i.e. the tax payer.
After all, we do the same already for govt. employees.
@ Cassandra,
We always talk about National Pride and how much “Dominican to the Bone” we are, sometimes it is all talk. I applaud Mrs. Charles for taking the initiative to address that issue, but I also believe that the private sector should display and engage in a little more “National Pride”. I have represented Dominica on many occasions on some of the biggest sporting stages in several sports from Under 16 to International and it is a great honour to do so. Many times, the time off may be a couple days, if the companies do not want to pay these athletes for the “time off”, then they can atleast allow them to go represent the country. Hopefully the initiative will then allow the Government to supplement the lost days by those players..But the companies should allow the players to represent the Country…because some of those same “private companies” have compensated or reward athletes from other countries for performances in Regional and International competitions, but will not allow their own countryman to represent Dominica…How Patriotic is that??