Antigua and Barbuda Government : ILO partners with Labour Department on Caribbean Labour Market Information System Project

ILO partners with Labour Department on Caribbean Labour Market Information System Project

Posted On: January 30, 2013

A team from the International Labour Organisation (ILO) is on island this week to install a software package that will see greater efficiency and procedural practices within the Labour Department.

Mr. Reynold Simons Senior Specialist, Employment and Labour Market Policies and Mr. Kerwyn Roach, Software Developer are at the Labour Department administering training to users and installing the software that will work in "support of enhancing and computerising labour administration services, compilation of labour statistics and facilitating the dissemination and use of labour market information that will see the collection of valuable statistics and information".

The ILO Decent Work Team and Office for the Caribbean formally established the Caribbean Labour Market Information System (CLMIS) Project in August 2010 and pilot projects were established in both St. Lucia and St. Vincent. The aim was to "implement a revision of selected Labour Administration functions, establish the organisational and human resource capabilities to computerise these functions using an integrated system of Labour Administrative Records and produce a set of key labour and employment statistics from these records." 

It is envisaged that the product will aid the Labour Department by enhancing the quality of their service delivery, capability to design employment and labour markets interventions and monitor the impact of such policies and programmes. Staff to be trained will be drawn from the four specialized units within the Department; Employment, Labour Relations, Inspections and Statistics. These persons will populate the system by imputing data during their daily interactions with the public. This also allows them to capture and input information relating to informal matters such as walk-ins and telephone inquiries.

Minister of Labour, Sen. the Hon. Dr. L. Errol Cort said the Ministry is indebted to the ILO for their continued assistance to the Labour and other Departments. He added that they have provided critical assistance in bringing this project to fruition.

The project consists of two major components, the CLMIS Labour Administration Application that standardises the Labour Department's major reporting procedures and introduces a supporting software package. Current modules include procedures to handle and report on complaints handling, dispute resolution, labour inspections, and various other employment and Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) related operations.

The second component is a web based dissemination system for Labour Market Information (LMI). This application allows the participating producers of labour market information to disseminate a nationally agreed package of LMI to the public using the internet.

Two of the major collaborating agencies that will help to initially populate the system are Social Security and the Statistical Division. Mr. Simons said once the system is adequately populated the ILO team will return and launch the website, possibly in the next four months.