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A senior representative of Red Stripe, one of Jamaica's leading companies, owned by Diageo, is criticising the response of the governor of the Bank of Jamaica, Derick Latibeaudiere, to calls from the Jamaica Manufacturing Association (JMA) to make loans available to them from statutory cash reserves.
Lisa Lewis, Red Stripe's human resource director, believes the JMA suggestion is worth a look.
"If you just go online, the Bank of Japan is digging into their foreign reserves to give Toyota credit because Toyota is important to Japan," Lewis said.
Thinking out of the box
"They are thinking out of the box and they are having breakthrough thinking and I just think that we need to demand these things from our central bank, our central bank governor, our own businesses. Nobody is immune to us saying to them that they need to think out of the box."
Lewis was addressing a panel discussion on the current economic crisis, its impact and implications for employment relations in the Caribbean at the University of the West Indies' Mona School of BusinessWednesday night.
The JMA had suggested that the BoJ make available $2 billion from the cash reserves of commercial banks to stimulate the productive sector.
However, the BOJ governor dismissed the suggestion outright.
"That is nonsense because you have the cash reserves because you are trying to mop up liquidity. So, to suggest that you put liquidity out there, that is nonsense!" he had told The Gleanerin an interview folowing the JMA suggestion.
Latibeaudiere said the cash reserves, which now stand at J$29.1 billion, was not money belonging to the BOJ, but being held on behalf of commercial banks.
Lewis, however, contends that one of the approaches needed to get the country bouncing back from the global economic crisis, is persons thinking outside the box and by doing things differently.
"We have to just keep that balance until we get out of it," she said.
Strategies to prevent job losses
Among the strategies she is proposing to prevent job losses are job sharing, reduction in workdays or suspension of overtime and early retirement.
In the meantime, Kavan Gayle, president of the Bustamante Industrial Trade Union, who also presented, at the UWI event, urged employers not to use redundancies as an alternative but instead, to look at restructuring their operations to improve efficiencies and raise productivity.
"A lot of the companies when they meet with us as you walk through the door, you hear the saying 'we don't have any money, we are going to have to cut staff', that can't be the first option. It can't be!" he insisted.
Gayle said that in order to overcome the crisis the three major players - government, employers and trade unions will have to begin to trust and consult with each other.
"Employers don't trust trade unions, trade unions don't trust employers and nobody don't trust the government but we are going to start an element of trust," he said. dionne.rose@gleanerjm.com
http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/glean...usiness17.html
Lisa Lewis, Red Stripe's human resource director, believes the JMA suggestion is worth a look.
"If you just go online, the Bank of Japan is digging into their foreign reserves to give Toyota credit because Toyota is important to Japan," Lewis said.
Thinking out of the box
"They are thinking out of the box and they are having breakthrough thinking and I just think that we need to demand these things from our central bank, our central bank governor, our own businesses. Nobody is immune to us saying to them that they need to think out of the box."
Lewis was addressing a panel discussion on the current economic crisis, its impact and implications for employment relations in the Caribbean at the University of the West Indies' Mona School of BusinessWednesday night.
The JMA had suggested that the BoJ make available $2 billion from the cash reserves of commercial banks to stimulate the productive sector.
However, the BOJ governor dismissed the suggestion outright.
"That is nonsense because you have the cash reserves because you are trying to mop up liquidity. So, to suggest that you put liquidity out there, that is nonsense!" he had told The Gleanerin an interview folowing the JMA suggestion.
Latibeaudiere said the cash reserves, which now stand at J$29.1 billion, was not money belonging to the BOJ, but being held on behalf of commercial banks.
Lewis, however, contends that one of the approaches needed to get the country bouncing back from the global economic crisis, is persons thinking outside the box and by doing things differently.
"We have to just keep that balance until we get out of it," she said.
Strategies to prevent job losses
Among the strategies she is proposing to prevent job losses are job sharing, reduction in workdays or suspension of overtime and early retirement.
In the meantime, Kavan Gayle, president of the Bustamante Industrial Trade Union, who also presented, at the UWI event, urged employers not to use redundancies as an alternative but instead, to look at restructuring their operations to improve efficiencies and raise productivity.
"A lot of the companies when they meet with us as you walk through the door, you hear the saying 'we don't have any money, we are going to have to cut staff', that can't be the first option. It can't be!" he insisted.
Gayle said that in order to overcome the crisis the three major players - government, employers and trade unions will have to begin to trust and consult with each other.
"Employers don't trust trade unions, trade unions don't trust employers and nobody don't trust the government but we are going to start an element of trust," he said. dionne.rose@gleanerjm.com
http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/glean...usiness17.html
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