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INTERNATIONAL LABOUR OFFICE

LABOUR POLICIES
IN THE WEST INDIES

GENEVA
1952

STUDIES AND EEPOBTS
ÍTew Series, ïîo. 29

PUBLISHED BY THE INTERNATIONAL LABOUR OFFICE
GENEVA,

SWITZERLAND

Published in the United Kingdom for the INTERNATIONAL
by Staples Press Limited, London

LABOUR OFFICE

PRINTED BY " L A TRIBUNE DE G E N È V E " , GENEVA, SWITZERLAND

CONTENTS
Page
INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER I : Pre-War Economic and Social Background
Economic Factors
Social Factors
Conclusion
CHAPTER II : Wartime and Post-War Trends
Regional Co-operation—The Caribbean Commission
Altering Patterns of Economic Policy
Wartime and Post-War Economic Changes
Expansion of Social Services
,
Political Organisation

3
3
18
33
; . .
. . . ; . .
: , .

CHAPTER III : Manpower

General Government Policies
Extent of the Employment Problem
Action against Unemployment

34
34
41
51
61
66

75
84
105

CHAPTER I V : The Machinery of Industrial Relations
British Territories
United States Territories
French Territories
Netherlands Territories

127
129
161
169
170

CHAPTER V : Wages, Hours and Conditions of Work
British Territories
United States Territories
French Territories
Netherlands Territories

172
174
197
205
208

CHAPTER VI : Women, Children and Young Persons
Children and Young Persons
Women
CHAPTER VII : Social Security and Related Provisions
French Territories
British, United States and Netherlands Territories
Planning and Prospects

212
213
230
240
243
246
271

CHAPTER VIII : Labour Legislation
British Territories
United States Territories
French Territories
Netherlands Territories

275
276
304
324
334

CHAPTER IX : West Indian Labour Problems and the I.L.0
Some Major Problems of Labour Policy in the West Indies . .
Some Aspects of the Application of International Labour Conventions to West Indian Territories
The International Labour Organisation and the West Indies . .

343
343
348
352

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

Apéndices
I. Area and Population of West Indian Territories

361

II. Labour Force of British West Indian Territories at Latest Census .

362

HT. Puerto Rico : Civilian Population 14 Years of Age and Over, by
Employment Status and Sex
363
IV. Jamaica : Data Regarding Wage Earners and Gainfully Occupied
Population
364
V. Jamaica Sugar Industry : Underemployment and Seasonal Unemployment
. . . . . . .
366
VI. Jamaica : Labour Union Organisation and Assets

367

VII. Jamaica : Distribution of Organised Labour according to Major
Industries in March 1948
368
VIII. Jamaica : Industrial Disputes involving Stoppage of Work according
to Industry
369
' IX. Puerto Rico : Wage Orders issued by the Minimum Wage Board up
to November 1949
370
' X . Jamaica : Employment, Working Hours and Wages in Selected
Industries in the Kingston Area
. 371
XI. Jamaica : Wage Rates and Hours in Principal Industries, 1950 . .
XII. Trinidad : Wages

....,.-..

373
375

X m . Puerto Rico : Average Hourly Wages by Industries, Fiscal Years
1934-1935 to August 1949
376

INTEODUCTION

The present report is conceived as a broad survey of labour
policies and problems in the West Indies. The territories
covered comprise the British, French, Netherlands and United
States territories in the Caribbean region falling within the
terms of reference of the Caribbean Commission, together with
the Bahamas and Bermuda.
The study is essentially an analysis of documentary information available to the International Labour Office. Nevertheless, the official principally responsible for its preparation was
afforded the possibility of visiting, in 1946 and 1948-1949,
most of the territories concerned, for the purpose of checking
the report and seeing conditions at first hand.
The report was prepared by Mr. Cedric O. J. MATTHEWS
of the Non-Metropolitan Territories Division of the Office,
with the collaboration of Mr. K. L. VEESTEEG of the same
Division in respect of the Netherlands territories.
Since the International Labour Office provides advice and
assistance to Governments only when requested to do so on
specific questions, the conclusions to the present study do not
attempt to provide solutions of the problems of policy noted.
It has nevertheless been thought desirable to draw attention,
in the final chapter, to the machinery through which the
I.L.O. can provide appropriate services.
The International Labour Office wishes to acknowledge the
assistance it has received from the four metropolitan Governments and the Governments of a number of the non-metropolitan territories both in the form of documentation and in
that of facilities for visits to the territories.

CHAPTER I

PRE-WAR ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL RACKGROUND
ECONOMIC FACTORS

The West Indies are essentially areas of primary production
in which industrial development is very limited. Except in a
few areas mineral resources are rare or are not exploited; agriculture forms the basis of economic life, and West Indian economies, whatever the degree of dependence on agriculture,
generally lack diversification. The production of specialised
export crops—of which sugar cane is the most important—and
the importation of foodstuffs and manufactured goods are
characteristic of the economy. The system is based on two
related considerations. In the first place, industrial development is limited by the absence or deficiency of natural resources
necessary for the development of modern industry. In the
second place, it is considered that the production of relatively
high-priced export crops offers the most economically sound
means of exploiting the land resources of the area ; sugar cane
production has best met this requirement in the region as a
whole. The direction of capital investment, a typical Caribbean
import, and the skills and experience of the labour force are
primarily determined by these conditions and contribute to
their continuation. At the same time almost exclusive dependence on export crops as the basis of economic life has its
hazards in the fluctuation of world market prices, varying
trade policies and the subsidisation of rival producers. But
what is usually regarded as the alternative or the supplement,
subsistence agriculture or production for internal markets,
has discouraging features : low prices and returns and comparatively indifferent production methods. The high populationland ratio emphasises the difficulties of the latter policy. In
normal years the level and character of economic activity in
most of these territories has been too low to prevent a large
degree of unemployment or underemployment. The limited

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

extent of intra-Caribbean trade and the influence of political
affiliations on the pattern of trade policies have also been of
some consequence.
Character of Production
The general pattern described above varies from territory
to territory. The following brief summary indicates the prevailing forms of economic activity in the different territories
immediately before the outbreak of the second world war.
British

Territories.

In the Bahamas sponge fishing, the principal industry,
was suffering as a result of disease in the sponge beds ; by 1940
tomatoes had become the only important export. The economic
life of this Dependency was, however, centred around the
winter tourist trade from the United States, " the mainstay
of the colony ". 1
The economy of Barbados was the most outstanding
example among the British territories of dependence on sugar
and sugar products ; in 1939 these comprised 98.75 per cent.
of exports ; reliance on external trade for foodstuffs and
manufactured goods was very marked and was a further
indication of the character of local production.
Bermuda was essentially a tourist resort ; agriculture,
carried on largely by tenant farmers, consisted principally of
the production of winter vegetables and lily bulbs.
The economy of British Guiana, despite the undeveloped
state of its interior, was more varied than that of most other
territories. While the production of agricultural export crops,
in particular sugar cane products, occupied the foremost place,
mining (bauxite, gold and diamonds) was a major activity ;
there was a substantial forest industry and, except for white
flour, this territory was virtually self-sufficient in foodstuffs.
I n British Honduras in 1939, chicle, timber and woods
accounted for 74.4 per cent, of the colony's exports, even
though forest industries employed only some 6,000 workers ;
a considerable part of agricultural production was devoted to
the growing of cash crops, but the territory was not selfsufficient in foodstuffs.
1

American Geographical Society : The European Possessions in the Caribbean
Area (New York, N.Y., 1941), p. 7.

PBE-WAR ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BACKGROUND

In Jamaica production for internal markets had an important place beside the production of export crops, but the
importation of foodstuffs was nevertheless on a large scale.
Bananas and unrefined sugar constituted 65 per cent, of the
island's exports in 1938. Disease was gravely affecting agricultural production and particularly the large number of smallscale growers of cash crops. Manufacturing industry, other
than processing of agricultural products—in particular, rum—
was minimal.
In the Leeward Islands group, two distinct patterns
existed ; Antigua and St. Christopher produced chiefly sugar
cane products on the traditional estate lines ; in Montserrat
and Nevis, sea island cotton was the chief product, produced
primarily by small proprietors and share croppers, while in
the British Virgin Islands cotton was the principal cultivated
crop and beef cattle the principal item of export.
In the Windward Islands group, Dominica exported
principally lime products and also produced a good local
food supply. In St. Lucia, estate-produced sugar was the
principal export item ; the considerable peasant population
was more particularly occupied with the cultivation of vegetables and fruit for home consumption than of products for
export. St. Vincent's leading exports were arrowroot and sea
island cotton ; small proprietors grew a substantial proportion
of these and other crops, although the greater part of the
island was still in large estates. The production of food crops
was sufficient to permit a small export trade. In Grenada,
cocoa and nutmegs were the principal exports ; food crops
were grown fairly extensively.
The mineral resources of Trinidad and its comparative
progress in developing manufacturing industry, distinguished
the island from the rest of the British West Indies. In 1938
petroleum products accounted for 68.4 per cent, of Trinidad's
exports and there were more than 200 factories producing
mainly for local consumption. Sugar cane and cocoa were the
most important crops ; agricultural production was approximately evenly divided between the estates and small holders.
French

Territories.

The economy of Martinique was based almost exclusively
on sugar cane production. In 1939, sugar and its by-products
represented 86.4 per cent, of total domestic exports. The

LABOTJB, POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

banana industry and the pineapple industry had been
recently introduced, but were still on a small scale. Local
food production was at a level requiring substantial food
imports.
Guadeloupe was also completely dependent on agriculture
but had a more varied agricultural production because of the
differing soil and climatic conditions of Grande-Terre and
Basse-Terre. In the former, sugar cane was the basic crop ; in
the latter, the principal agricultural commodities grown were
bananas, coffee, cocoa and vanilla.
Gold mining was the principal industry of French Guiana.
Forest products were not, despite the resources of the territory,
of major significance. Coffee, sugar, cocoa and bananas were
the only agricultural products of commercial importance, but
production was below the level of local needs in the case of the
first two commodities and the exportation of the two latter was
of slight importance.
Netherlands

Territories.

The basis of the Netherlands territories economy was the
refining of Venezuelan petroleum products ; other forms of
economic activity were of minor significance though it should
be noted that large tracts of land were given over to the raising
of livestock. The following table indicates the relative value
of the principal export commodities of Surinam in 1937. 1
Commodity
Bauxite
Gold
Sugar products
Coffee
Bice

Value in thousands
of guilders
4,904
744
682
529
414

United States Territories.
The dependence of Puerto Rico on sugar cane production
was reflected in part by the occupational distribution of
the employed labour force and by the fact that during the
years 1936-1939 sugar accounted for an average of $58.9
million of an average total of $95.7 million of export trade. 2
About 25 per cent, of the total number of employables and
1

American Geographical Society : op. cit., p. 33.
Erich W. ZIMMEKMAN : Staff Report to the Inter-departmental Committee on
Puerto Rico (Washington, D.O.), 1940, p. 132.
2

PBE-WAE ECONOMIC A N » SOCIAL BACKGROUND

about 48 per cent, of all agricultural workers were directly
employed in the production of cane and sugar and about 40 per
cent, of the total payroll of Puerto Eican agriculture was paid
by the cane and sugar industries. 1 Rum distilling and the
needlework industry were the only significant manufacturing
industries. The production of coffee, tobacco, crop fruit,
vegetables and pineapples was on a substantial scale. The
United States Virgin Islands economy presented differing
patterns in the separate islands. St. Thomas was essentially
dependent upon the activity of its harbour and the related coal
and oil bunkering ; St. Croix was largely dependent upon
cattle raising and the growing and milling of sugar cane.

Level of Production and National

Income

The question of existing levels of national income and
of production is examined in more detail in Chapters I I and
V below. Data is lacking for even a general estimate of national
income levels before 1939 in the territories under consideration ;
the few national income studies made in the region have been
undertaken since 1939 though in some instances the attempt
has been made to project estimates backwards to the pre-1939
period. Nevertheless, certain available data may serve as some
indication even though the period of analysis is later than the
period examined in the present chapter.
A study made of the national income of Jamaica for the
period 1929-1938 provides, inter alia, the following figures 2 :
Residents' income
per head
£
19.2
18.6
17.5
15.8
15.0
14.7
14.9
15.0
16.4
16.9

Year
1929
1930
1931
1932
1933
1934
1935
1936
1937
1938
1

ZIMMERMAN, op.

cit.,

157.

Phyllis D E A N E : The Measurement
University Press, 1948), p. 141.

of Colonial National Incomes

(Cambridge

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

A study of the national income of Puerto Rico includes the
following findings1 :
Year ending 30 June
1930
1931
1932
1933
1934
1935
1936
1937
1938
1939

Per capita net income
U.S. $
122
107
97
85
106
. 103
114
118
119
112

Studies made by the Economic Adviser to Development
and Welfare in the British West Indies for a number of territories for the year 1942 provide the following figures :
Territory
Barbados
British Guiana
Grenada
Jamaica
St. Vincent

Average per capita income
£
s. d.
27 0 0
28 15 0
23 0 0
26 0 0
14 5 0

It may be assumed that, in view of the rise in prices between
1939 and 1942, national income levels in 1939 in these territories
were markedly lower than the figures cited.
Miscellaneous estimates that have from time to time been
made in regard to the national incomes of the West Indian
territories and the per capita revenues and expenditures of
the different territories, suggest that their per capita national
incomes tend to be about one fifth of those of the metropolitan
countries respectively responsible for their administration
and that among the territories themselves there is a scale
in this respect which their general economic circumstances
indicate. The Netherlands territories occupy the highest
position; production is essentially industrial and wage levels
at the refineries are well above general West Indian levels.
The Pan American Union estimated per capita income in the
Netherlands territories in 1940 at $190. The two other areas
least dependent on agriculture, Bermuda and the Bahamas,
would both be high up in the scale. Puerto Eico, largely because
of its relation to the United States economy and price system,
would be placed somewhat above Trinidad and British Guiana,
which, owing largely to their diversified economy and mineral
1
Daniel CREAMER : The Net Income of the Puerto Rican Economy, 1940-1944
(Rio Piedras, P.R., Social Science Research Centre, University of Puerto Rico, 1947).

PBE-WAR ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BACKGROUND

resources, have a higher living level than such areas as Jamaica,
Barbados or the French territories. At the bottom of the
national income scale would come the territories largely
dependent on small-scale agricultural production.
Import Trade of the West Indies
In the present context the import trade of the West Indies
is of interest as illustrating the character of the West Indian
economies through the groups of commodities which the
different territories do not produce in sufficient quantity for
local needs. The particular relevance of this question is the
inclusion in the workers' living costs of such essential imported
items as wearing apparel and food.
The position immediately before the outbreak of the second
world war in regard to a few territories is summarised in the
following table, which provides data relating to the year 1938.
While the percentages given may appear at first sight small,
they cover some of the principal categories of imports in the
territories concerned. 1
Selected imported
commodities

Percentage of
total imports

Barbados.
Grain and
flour
Meat, fish and butter . . .
Apparel, including boots and
shoes
Cotton manufactures . . .
Iron and steel manufactures.

Selected imported
commodities
Martinique.
Flour and rice
Boots and shoes
Cotton manufactures
Machinery

10.7
9.4
5.0
6.8
4.8

Percentage of
total imports

. . .

8.5
5.0
4.5
4.9

Selected imported
Percentage of
commodities
total imports
Jamaica.
Grain and
flour
10.1
Machinery
8.0
Cotton manufactures . . .
7.0
Fish, milk and meat . . .
8.1
Apparel, including boots and
shoes
6.3
Iron and steel manufactures.
5.4
Selected imported
Percentage of
commodities
total imports
Trinidad.
Iron and steel manufactures. 18.2
Machinery
10.0
Grain and
flour
7.8
Apparel, including boots and
shoes
4.2
Milk, fish, butter, m e a t . . .
7.0
Cotton manufactures . . .
3.9

1
Compiled on the basis of information contained in the United States Tariff
Commission Report 151, Second Series : Commercial Policies and Trade Relations
of European Possessions in the Caribbean Area (Washington, 1943).

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

Pre-War Tariff

Policies

No detailed examination of the tariff policies applied in the
various territories 1 can be undertaken in the present study,
but a brief account of the relevant general policies of the four
metropolitan countries concerned will elucidate the extent
to which the trade relations of the territories were influenced
during the period by these policies.
In the British territories, after the Imperial Economic
Conference at Ottawa in 1932, tariff schedules were adopted
to increase the margin of preference for Empire goods on
which the reductions usually ranged from 25 to 30 per cent, of
the general rates. In the period 1930-1939, reciprocal arrangements by the United Kingdom, Canada and other British
countries were made. The trade agreement between the
United States and the United Kingdom, effective 1 January
1939, resulted in Caribbean legislation providing for a reduction
in imperial preference on the products specified in the agreement. Imperial preference is granted by levying lower import
duties on commodities of Empire origin than on like articles
from foreign countries. Duties are levied on all imports
except those specifically exempted ; the free lists are composed
principally of articles, whose importation is expected to promote the agricultural and industrial development of the
territories. One authority, referring to the system of imperial
preference and its effects has stated—•
It is, of course, a system of mutual preferences, not of definite
discriminations against foreign imports . . . The system of preferences has been an undoubted advantage to British trade but it
has not had the effect of creating a closely protected market for
United Kingdom production. That is best shown by the fact that,
shortly before the war, 24% per cent, of the total imports into the
colonies came from the United Kingdom and the latter took.35%
per cent, of their exports. An analysis shows, indeed, that there is
actually very little difference between the trade with those territories
which have a preferential tariff and those which have not.2
Martinique, Guadeloupe and French Guiana were, for
the purposes of French commercial policy, " assimilated "
territories. Their tariffs in general were the tariffs of France
1

For a detailed account, cf. the United States Tariff Commission, op. cit.
Lord HAILEY : The Future of Colonial Peoples (Oxford University Press, 1944),
p. 49.
2

PKE-WAE ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BACKGROUND

with certain exceptions made in the light of local conditions.
In practice, free trade did not exist between the assimilated
territories of France since local consumption duties, and in
later years, quota systems, were in effect. Decrees changing
rates for individual territories introduced a variety between
territory and territory in tariffs, since the local legislative
authorities might pass resolutions asking for exceptions from
the metropolitan tariffs and the French Council of State was
authorised to establish special free lists for each area and
schedules of special digressions from the French tariff rates.
The special tariffs of the assimilated French territories were
for the most part designed to promote local industries, to
lower the cost of living, or for revenue.
Martinique and Guadeloupe prohibit the importation of sugar,
molasses and certain alcohols but admit free, or at rates considerably
lower than the French tariff, many 1types of foodstuffs, lumber, coal,
petroleum products and fertilisers.
The tariff of the Netherlands territories was entirely fiscal
in character.
Because of the position of Curaçao as an entrepot, any attempt to
adjust the tariff of Curaçao so as greatly to favour the products of
the home country would be neither profitable nor practicable. The
provision that the tariff shall not be framed in any way injurious
to the trade of the Netherlands or its other
territories applies in
Curaçao, however, as it. does in Surinam.8
Import duties ranged from 10 to 20 per cent, ad valorem
on enumerated articles and were 3 per cent, on all unenumerated articles. The free list included such commodities as
fertilisers, tools, plant, machinery and pit coal. I n Surinam
there was also a large free list including machinery, iron, steel,
and other metals, plants and manures and pit coal. The ad
valorem duty on unenumerated items was 10 per cent.
For tariff purposes, Puerto Eico was a part of the United.
States.
In general, the United States tariff encourages trade with the
mainland and discourages trade with foreign countries . . .since. . ..
the tariff is primarily an expression of continental economic policy.
It reflects changing conditions on the mainland and requires
adjustment of the Puerto Eican economy to mainland interests.3
1
2
3

United States Tariff Commission : op. cit., p . 311.
Ibid., p . 77.
ZIMMERMAN, op. cit.,

107.

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

The general position of the Virgin Islands was similar, but,
while the federal Government returned to Puerto Eico the
internal revenue taxes on products of Puerto Eico imported
into the continental United States, the same principle did
not apply to the Virgin Islands.
The following table gives a broad picture of the extent to
which the trade relations of some West Indian territories
were divided as between the metropolitan country and other
areas in 1939. In regard to the British territories, it is necessary
to note that the figures do not take into account trade with
other areas within the imperial preference system, e.g., CanadaBritish West Indies trade is considerable.

Territory

Puerto Rico
Trinidad

Percentage by value of
Percentage by value of
imports from metropolitan exports from metropolitan
countries
countries
37
63
28
35
66
92
34
26

41
98
63
69
99
98
17
56

Source : Commercial Policies and Trade Relations of European Possessions in the
Caribbean Area, op. cit., and Thirty-Ninth Annual Report of the Governor of Puerto Rico
(San Juan. P.R., 1939).

Organisation of Production
The organisation of productive enterprise in the West
Indies is closely inter-related with a variety of other social
and economic factors to which reference is made elsewhere
in this study. In particular, in the all-important field of
agricultural enterprise, its connection with questions of land
tenure, ownership and use is fundamental.
Consideration
of the situation is here confined to brief notes on the organisation of production of the principal agricultural commodities
and manufactured products and on land settlement policies.
The agricultural phase of the sugar industry was and
is organised mainly on the plantation or estate system, though
in several territories such as Trinidad and Puerto Eico the cane

PEE-WAB ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BACKGROUND

farmer operating on a family basis or with the help of a few
hired hands provides a significant percentage of the cane
grown. In Trinidad in 1939, for example, cane farmers produced 44 per cent, of the cane crop. In British Guiana, on the
other hand, the corresponding proportion was very small.
Studies of comparative efficiency in production 1 have
reached conclusions indicating the economies of large-scale
production : (a) higher productivity on estates than on
peasant holdings because of a higher level of organisation,
management and capital resources, better access to research
findings, better cultural practices, greater readiness and ability
to utilise in practice the results of scientific investigation and
(b) higher productivity on the larger than on the smaller
estates for similar reasons, differing only in degree. One
authority has stated in regard to the situation existing in
1939—
Setting aside a few commendable exceptions in other branches,
sugar estates are the only elements in British West Indian agriculture2
in which sound organisation and efficient working are to be found.
The basis of the sugar cane industry in Puerto Eico in prewar years was a high level of Government protection and
assistance, capitalisation from the United States and a high
degree of rationalisation. The extent to which control of the
industry was centralised was indicated by the P.E.E.A. 3
census of 1935, which showed that four large American-owned
corporations owned or leased 24 per cent, of all cane land and
that 31 per cent, of the production of sugar resulted from their
operations. The view in the Zimmerman report was also that
large-scale operation requiring large investments was necessary to maintain the competitive position of the industry. 4
In the industrial phase of the sugar industry, local conditions have created wide diversity. For example, generalisations
about optimum production units in sugar manufacture are
hazardous because of differences in local circumstances,
1
Cf. Colonial Development and Welfare in the West Indies : Agriculture in the
West Indies (London, H.M. Stationery Office, 1942), Colonial No. 182.
2
West India Royal Commission : Report on Agriculture, Fisheries, Forestry and
Veterinary Matters by F. L. EKGLEDOW (London, H.M. Stationery Office, 1945),
Cmd. 6608, p. 91.
3
Puerto Rico Reconstruction Administration.
4

ZIMMERMAN, op. cit., p.

162.
2

LABOUR POLICIES I N THE WEST INDIES

such as variation in existing means of transportation to
mills. It is considered in general that a factory of 30,000 tons
capacity is technologically necessary for maximum saving on
mechanical equipment and internal operation, but in Barbados
small factories of 5,000 tons capacity operated successfully.
The estate system was and is also utilised in respect of
virtually all the major agricultural products of the area,
for example, bananas, cocoa, coconuts, rice, cotton, coffee,
limes and arrowroot.
Compared with the sugar estates,
however, estates producing other crops tend to be on a small
scale and do not occupy an all-important place in the crop
economy, nor is there to the same extent the very wide difference of efficiency of production as between estate and peasant
producer.
Share-cropping was not very extensive in the area but
was adopted on a few estates, for example, in ÏJevis for cane
and cotton, in Montserrat for cotton and in Puerto Eico.
A survey of agricultural production in general in the
British West Indies essentially based on a study of conditions
immediately prior to the outbreak of the second world war
provides comparative data of interest. The report x stated
with regard to Trinidad—
The sugar industry is well organised and efficiently worked on
the estate side, standards of estate cultivation are high and are
further improving, while the factories are for the most part large,
modern, and highly efficient . . . On cane farms the standard of
production is much lower. There is both scope and great need for
the combination of cane farming with the growth of food crops and
the evolution of a better balanced system of agriculture.
By comparison, the larger Trinidad coconut estates are
termed " reasonably efficient ", and the cocoa industry is said
to be in need of " better cultural practices ". In Jamaica,
" cultivation on (sugar estates) is rather below the standard
of other colonies . . . sugar factories are also less efficient,
cultural conditions on coconut estates are . . . on the whole,
poor. Peasant cultivation is of low standard ", and, in regard
to livestock, " husbandry methods and management are poor,
while the trade in animals is badly organised ". In British
Guiana, " sugar estates have survived on the best lands and are
efficiently worked, while the factories are modern and the
1

Agriculture in the West Indies, op. cit., pp. 46, 47, 83, 116, 136, 232, 233.

PEE-WAE ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BACKGROUND

level of technical operation high . . . Standards of rice
cultivation are fairly good in comparison with rice growing
in general and yields are high ". In Barbados, " the cultivation
of sugar cane is at a high standard . . . agricultural practice
on small holdings is less efficient than on estates ". In the
Leeward Islands, " cultural standards on sugar estates are
in general good ". In St. Kitts and parts of Antigua, " they
have improved considerably of recent years . . . There
are two sugar factories . . . both are modern, well equipped
and efficiently run ". In regard to peasant cane, " cultivation
is poor, husbandry indifferent, and yields low ". With regard
to cotton, " cultivation standards vary, they are better on
estates than on small holdings . . . there are ginneries in all
presidencies, their efficiency varies considerably . . . animal
husbandry standards are rather low ".
Brief reference may be made for purposes of comparison
with pre-war conditions in the Puerto Eican coffee and tobacco
industries. The general state of the coffee industry was
depressed. Costs of production were unusually high, the reasons
assigned being : (a) location of the coffee crops on the hilly
slopes of the mountainous interior resulting in added labour
costs ; (b) soil depletion ; (c) indifferent methods of cultivation ;
(d) decline in average yield per acre and (e) hurricanes. x
Tobacco was a small operator's crop in which insular as against
mainland capital played an important part. Of the tobacco
farmers, 65 per cent, cultivated less than one acre, 26 per cent.
1 to 3 acres and 4 per cent. 3 to 5 acres. Grading and marketing
difficulties were emphasised by the contrast between the
large number of small producers and the small number of
manufacturers. An important part of the tobacco crop was
financed, handled and warehoused by growers' co-operatives.
ÏTo detailed reference is required to the organisation of the
bauxite industry of the Guianas and the petroleum industry
of the Netherlands territories and Trinidad. These were
and are highly capitalised industries and are considered by
authoritative opinion as being conducted at a high level of
rationalisation and efficiency with assured markets.
The needlework industry of Puerto Eico, a home work
industry, requires special mention. It was and is different
in character from other important items of production in the
ZIMMERMAN, op. cit., p.

178.

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

West Indies, being based on imported materials. There are
two essential sets of divisions in the industry : machine-work
in shops and handwork ; home work, hand sewing, embroidery
and the like and " inside " work—preparatory work, finishing
and shipping.
The following is a tabular picture of the industry in 1935.x
Mainland wholesale or retail stores or
selling organisations which either own plants
in Puerto Eico or buy from Puerto Eican
manufacturers
Mainland manufacturers or principals
who supply materials to Puerto Eican contractors to be processed on contract . . .
Manufacturing operations conducted in
Puerto Eico by concerns on mainland or by
Puerto Eican manufacturers
Puerto Eican contractors: receive material from mainland principals, process
material in own shops or by homeworkers
and return material to States.
Usually
distribute work through subcontractors . .
Puerto

Eican

agents

Number
About 15 concerns
About 160 concerns
About 15 concerns

About 100

subagents :

receive goods from contractors or manufacturers, distributing to home workers for
sewing, collect processed garments and articles, hire and pay home workers. Work
on commission of from 10 to 20 per cent, of
payroll. Intermediary between contractors
and home workers
. . About 3,000
Puerto Eican factory and home needleworkers. Usually piece-rate workers. Home
workers hired by subcontractors and ordinarily never come in contact with contractors. Process goods for subcontractor. Principally female and 16 per cent, (estimated)
are less than 16 years of age. Home workers
are principally handworkers or sewers . . . About 70,000

Framework of Economic Policy
The altered patterns of economic policy in the West Indies
during the period since 1939 are examined in detail in Chapter I I . To afford a basis for comparison a brief note on the
1
ZIMMERMAN, op. cit., p. 271, quoting Evidence Study No. 27 of the Needlework Industry in Puerto Rico. The Zimmerman report states that in 1940 this
structure in general applied, although numbers in general had decreased.

PBE-WAB ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BACKGROUND

major premises of policy in the period immediately preceding
1939 seems desirable.
The West Indian economies suffered severely during the
depression years, and in 1939 recovery was incomplete. World
market prices of their export products had dropped sharply
and even the preference arrangements with metropolitan
countries, where such arrangements existed, did not basically
alter the fact that the purchasing power of the customers of
the West Indies had greatly diminished.
Unemployment
and underemployment, for reasons to be noted in Chapter I I I ,
reached unusually high levels.
Nevertheless, during the 'thirties, the major pre-supposition
of economic policy was that the West Indian territories, like
other colonial territories, ought to solve their economic problems by drawing on their own resources within the framework
of existing international trade and commodity agreements and
on the assumption that Government planning for social and
economic development should remain within the narrowest
possible limits. Financial assistance was provided by the
metropolitan country for territories chronically unable to
balance their budgets. In the American territories, federal
assistance was provided through a variety of federal agencies.
The passing of the British Colonial Development and
Welfare Act of 1940 may be regarded as marking the inauguration of a new framework of economic policy. The statement
of policy on colonial development and welfare of February
1940 1 set out clearly distinctions of principle as between the
pre-1939 period and the post-1939 period which were subsequently to find application to other West Indian territories
as well as the British—
Much has already been accomplished but there is room for further
active development of financial resources of the various territories
so as to provide their people with improved standards of life. Some
of the colonies can make, and have made, great progress in strengthening their economic positions without recourse to outside help ;
and they are improving as time goes on the social services that
minister to the well-being of the people as a whole. In some territories, larger revenues could be raised without injustice by adjustment of taxation ; and considerably heavier local taxation has, in
fact, been accepted in most of the colonies since the outbreak of war.
An improvement of the Government machinery and a reinforcement
of the personnel of the development services would, in many colonies,
result in a more successful economic expansion.
1
Statement of Policy on Colonial Development and Welfare Policy (London, H.M.
Stationery Office, 1940), Cmd. 6175.

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

Nevertheless, if full and balanced development is to be obtained
and if colonial Governments are to be placed in a position to maintain
administrative, technical and social services at proper standards,
some assistance from outside is necessary at this stage. Few of the
colonies have the good fortune to possess substantial material wealth
and in comparatively few are there manufacturing industries of any
magnitude . . . However able their Government, however efficient
their economic administration, many colonies cannot finance out of
their own resources the research and survey work, the schemes of
major capital enterprise and the expansion of administrative or
technical staffs which are necessary for their full and vigorous
development. Nor can they always afford in the absence of such1
development an adequate standard of health and education services.
After adumbrating proposals later incorporated in the
Colonial Development and Welfare Act, 1940, the statement
went on to add—
The first emphasis in this much-enlarged policy of colonial
development will be on the improvement of the economic position
of the colonies. That is the primary requirement upon which advance
in other directions is largely consequential. It is by economic
development that colonies will be placed in a position to devote their
resources to the maximum extent possible to the provision of those
Government and other services which the interests of their people
demand. Assistance from United Kingdom funds should be effectively related to what the colonies can do for themselves. For this
purpose it is essential that there should be co-ordination of effort
on the part both of the Government at home and of the colonial
Governments. . . . There must be wide recognition that conditions vary greatly from colony to colony and that colonial Governments should best know the needs of their own territories and enjoy
a wide latitude in the initiation and execution of policies, the primary
purpose of which is to promote2 the prosperity and happiness of the
peoples of the colonial empire.
SOCIAL FACTORS

No attempt can here be made to give a general picture
of the over-all patterns of West Indian society. There are,
however, certain aspects of the social structure and of social
standards which have a sufficiently close bearing on the scope
of the study to necessitate a sketch oí their characteristics in
the circumstances of the West Indies. Some appreciation
of the family structure and of race relations is a pre-requisite
for any understanding of some of the factors which must
inevitably shape labour policies in West Indian territories.
Information regarding general standards of nutrition, housing,
1
a

Ibid., p . 4.
Ibid., p p . 6-8.

PBE-WAE ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BACKGROUND

health and education in these areas is equally a pre-requisite
for setting in perspective the living conditions of wage earners.
The information here provided does not refer exclusively
to the pre-1939 period, but, where it relates to a subsequent
period, the picture may nevertheless be regarded as equally
descriptive in general of the earlier period.
British Territories
Family

Relations.

One of the recommendations of the British West India
Royal Commission, 1938-1939, was—
. . . that an organised campaign should be undertaken against
the social, moral and economic evils of promiscuity, the success of
which will mainly depend on the extent
to which the combined
authority of the Churches is behind it.1
The background of the Commission's recommendations was
the existence of " more or less faithful extra-legal unions and
illegitimacy rates of between 60-70 per cent." 2 This pattern
includes, at the one end of the scale, permanent cohabitation
between the unmarried which leads to a home life and the
establishment of a family group little different from the
married state and, at the other, irregular unions which may be
broken off either after a short period or even after the birth
of two or three children and promiscuity without birth control.
The historical antecedents of this situation are a matter
of common knowledge. The Africans brought to the West
Indies as slaves did not bring with them, or were not allowed
to retain in their new environment, the social disciplines
obtaining in the community from which they came. In general,
their owners were strongly opposed to their Christianisation,
and marriage among slaves was actively discouraged, if not
completely forbidden. Emancipation, while bringing with it
efforts on the part of the Government and the Churches
to improve the condition of the emancipated, meant also a
long period of economic disruption and the development of a
peasant class often physically inaccessible.
1
West India Royal Commission, 1938-1939 : Recommendations (London, H.M.
Stationery Office, 1940), Cmd. 6174, p. 17.
8
West India Royal Commission : Report (London, H.M. Stationery Office, 1945),
Cmd. 6607, p. 31.

LABOUB POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

The best endeavours of the Churches, together with what Governments saw fit to do from time to time, did not reach the bulk of
the population, and it is not surprising that . . . the institution of
marriage continued to be exceptional.1
Enough consideration does not seem, however, to have
been given to a number of factors in the existing social environment which tend to favour the continuation of this situation.
In particular, where the earning of a livelihood is usually precarious, owing to the level of earnings and the irregularity
of employment, the parties concerned must often regard
lasting commitments as undesirable.
One consequence of the position described above is the
relative frequency with which women have the major responsibility for the maintenance of a family. In these circumstances, the conditions, in the widest sense, under which
women are employed are a question of particular consequence. 2
Information analysed in Chapter VI of the present study
suggests that the family structure in other parts of the West
Indies presents broadly similar features.
Race Relations.
Much has been written about race relations in the British
West Indian area, but little that is based on adequate experience. The Boyal Commission, 1938-1939, found colour prejudice
sufficiently grave to recommend—
. . . that the active assistance of all persons of standing and of
all available means of publicity . . . should be enlisted in an
organised attempt to prevent any further extension of colour prejudice.3
Stating the position negatively, there is no legal colour
bar or racial discrimination sanctioned by law. ÏTor do the
social sanctions which obtain constitute more than an element
in British West Indian patterns of social stratification.
There are approximately three principal directions in which
tension makes itself felt. In labour relations its existence is
evident, even if the primary explanation is that offered by the
Eoyal Commission—
1

Ibid.
Cf. Chapter VI.
3
Recommendations, op. cit., pp. 26-27.
2

PEB-WAE ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BACKGROUND

Where people of one colour are predominant among employers
and the workers are found almost wholly from those of another
colour, it is perhaps inevitable in times of labour troubles that racial
and economic issues should be confused.
During the pre-1939 period, European appointments to
senior posts in the public service, as well as to better paid
posts in commercial and industrial undertakings, were frequently the cause of bitterness. Subsequently, there has been
to some extent a change of policy, particularly in regard to the
public service.
The third feature is the tendency of the different racially
demarcated groups to confine intimate social contacts to
members of the same group.
One further point in regard to race relations was stressed
by the Royal Commission—
The racial or colour problem would be completely misunderstood
if it were supposed to arise simply from the differences between a

racially homogeneous white people and a racially homogeneous
coloured people. In every West Indian colony the population
shows a wide racial heterogeneity, that is a wide range from completely white to completely coloured. Moreover, degree of wealth
and degree of colour are by no means completely associated, and
exceptions to even their general correspondence are frequent and
striking. Between racially intermediate grades and the two extremes
of racial homogeneity there are prejudice and clash of interest at
least as strong as those to be found between the two racial or colour
extremes themselves. The existence of this very marked racial
heterogeneity is, in itself, one of the most powerful reasons why
complete renunciation
of colour prejudice is fundamentally necessary
to social progress.1
Nutrition.
The relevance of some examination of standards of nutrition in a study of labour policies hardly needs emphasising.
In the West Indies a general complaint of employers is that
labour is inefficient and is prepared to work only enough hours
to earn a bare subsistence. A recent report on nutrition in the
British West Indies indicates that what has long been regarded
on a priori grounds to be a fundamental cause does satisfy
the closer scrutiny of field study—
In an interesting sociological study of an East Indian village in
Trinidad, . . . it was found that the working day was limited by
fatigue. After working all morning and into the early afternoon,
the labourer and his wife returned home so tired that, even if they
1

Report, op. cit., p. 61.

LABOUB, POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

had cultivable land, they left it almost entirely untouched because,
they said, they had no energy left to tackle it. 1
The report directly related this situation to malnutrition.
In a report published in 1939 2, the Committee of the
Economic Advisory Council on JSFutrition in the Colonial
Empire found that the general situation as to nutrition in
British dependencies was as follows. Judged by European
standards, few of the constituents considered necessary for a
nutritionally adequate diet were generally available in sufficient quantities. The effects of malnutrition were not only
revealed by the incidence of recognised deficiency diseases but
presumably were the explanation of deficiency states which,
while not resulting in manifest disease, prevented the full
enjoyment ,of health and lowered resistance to every kind of
disease. Abundant evidence was found to prove that, in some
occupations where it was not customary to provide the
employee and his family with food, the wages earned were
not sufficient to provide adequate nutrition. I t was considered that increased wages might well be justifiable as a
purely economic proposition on the ground that they would
lead to a more than proportionate increase in efficiency.
The Committee further considered that, in areas where the
labourer was expected to find his own food, the employer
would find it profitable to give appropriate assistance, for
example, by enabling workers to have their own gardens or
by the provision, either free or at reduced rates, of food of
special nutritive value.
In regard to the British West Indies in particular, the
following were the Committee's main findings. Only in the
Virgin Islands were nutritional diseases rare. Throughout the
area the problem of malnutrition was regarded as having
economic foundation. In Jamaica—
. . . the nutritional state of a distressingly large proportion of the
labouring classes and of children is considered by some observers
to be definitely bad, the chief causes being adverse economic conditions, poverty,3 low wages, unemployment, illegitimacy and overlarge families.
1
Nutrition in the British West Indies. Report by B. S. PLATT (London, H.M.
Stationery Office, 1946), Colonial No. 195, p. 2.
2
Economic Advisory Council, Committee on Nutrition in the Colonial Empire :
Nutrition in the Colonial Empire, First Report, Parts I and II (London, H.M. Stationery Office, 1939), Cmd. 6050 and 6051.
3
Ibid., Part II, p. 130.

PRE-WAR ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BACKGROUND

In Barbados the great shortage of milk, eggs and fresh
vegetables in the diets of the working classes was stressed.
The poor physique of the average labourer, the high incidence of
tuberculosis and dental caries, and the prevalence of pellagra
provide
sufficient evidence that diets are seriously deficient.1
A particularly high level of malnutrition was found among
East Indians.
A survey conducted in 1944-1945 revealed that the problem of immediate practical importance was to recommend
measures designed to bring the nutrient intake in the British
West Indies up to the level at which such evidences of malnutrition as could be detected clinically would no longer occur.
The improvement in the present situation necessary to produce
a high level of physiological efficiency was sufficiently extensive
to necessitate programmes with this objective to be regarded
as long-term in character. 2
Housing.
Housing conditions in the British West Indies have long
been regarded as highly unsatisfactory and the 1938-1939
Eoyal Commission was outspoken in its criticism of existing
conditions :
In both town and country the present housing of the large
majority of the working people in the West Indian colonies leaves
much to be desired ; in many places it is deplorable ; in some the
conditions are such that any human habitation of buildings now
occupied by large families must seem impossible to a newcomer . . .
These decrepit homes, more often than not, are seriously overcrowded, and it is not surprising that some of them are dirty and
verminous in spite of the praiseworthy efforts of the inhabitants to
keep them clean. In short, every condition 3 that tends to produce
disease is here to be found in a serious form.
In considering housing problems in these dependencies, a
clear distinction must be drawn between urban housing problems and those posed by peasant housing and company housing.
In urban areas, the problems of policy are essentially those
of slum clearance and town-planning. It is hardly to be expected
that the major improvements required can be effected by
other means than direct Government action. At the time of
the Eoyal Commission's survey, the essential basis for such
1

Ibid.,

p . 129.

P L A T T : op.

Report, op. cit., p . 174.

cit.

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

action, namely legislation affording Government the necessary
powers, was entirely lacking in some territories ; the position
in this respect is now, however, much more satisfactory.
The expenditures involved in such action are likewise a decisive
limiting factor particularly since the meagre earnings of the
presumed beneficiaries of any slum clearance schemes are
usually so inadequate as generally to necessitate the letting
of the new buildings at uneconomic rents ; otherwise it is
likely that the new occupants will not be the former slum
dwellers but an entirely different and better-off class able to
afford the economic rent.
Another problem in urban areas is that of houses in a state
of disrepair. The policy has been to aim at fixing standards
to which owners would be required to conform. This presents
comparatively slight enforcement difficulties if owners are
men of substance, but in many cases a few let tenements are
an owner's only means of subsistence and no capital is available for improvements.
Where peasants own their own houses, a different set of
problems arises. In the first place, where they do not own the
land on which the house stands and do not enjoy reasonable
security of tenure, it is not unusual to construct buildings
readily capable of demolition and re-erection elsewhere. In any
case the meagre funds available to peasant owners for construction purposes tends to make the standard of this type of
housing low.
The standards of estate housing and company housing
generally vary widely. Some workers on estates are still housed
in the objectionable barracks erected during the period when,
in some territories, the estates were required to provide housing
free of charge to indentured immigrant workers. There still
remains a resident labour force on a large number of such
estates, and the workers concerned still expect the employer
to provide them with accommodation. But, since there no
longer exists any legal obligation on the employer in this
respect, there is little inducement to improve housing conditions. Nevertheless, in a number of cases, radical improvement
has been effected. In regard to other company housing, one
statement of the Boyal Commission may be used as a general
appraisal—
In the majority of cases in which a firm of substance and repute
employing resident labour in considerable numbers is making, or

PRE-WAR ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BACKGROUND

hopes to make, a reasonable profit from its activities, a greater
realisation is now being shown
of the responsibility for seeing that
workers are properly housed.1
More precise information can be given on the situation
revealed by housing surveys in one territory. A housing
committee appointed in Barbados in 1943 prefaced its recommendations with the following comment :
The general housing situation must, in our opinion, be regarded
as unsatisfactory, to use no stronger adjective. In certain of its
aspects it is deplorable. In regard to some individual cases it is
disgraceful. There is no doubt that the bulk of the poorer classes
live in houses which are either inadequately sited or contain insufficient accommodation, or are in an indifferent state of repair, or are
grossly deficient in essential sanitary requirements.
In more than
a few cases all these defects are combined.2
The committee noted a general condition of serious overcrowding which the average of 4 1 / 3 persons per house did
not sufficiently indicate. It found that the majority of
urban houses—
. . . contain not more than two living rooms in which a family of
four or five persons . . . must eat, sleep and perform all their more
intimate bodily functions. Sometimes there is a small lean-to shed
which serves as a kitchen, but as often as not cooking is done in
the open air. Bathrooms are non-existent, and what is called " toilet "
accommodation consists of an outside open-pit closet which, in many
cases, is shared with a neighbour.
The general state of repair was described as indifferent ;
the ravages of termites made many houses which seemed to
be waterproof unfit for human habitation. Even where
houses were structurally sound, their design and lack of
ventilation might be such as to justify condemnation. Figures
quoted in the report reveal an advanced stage of urban
congestion.
Nearly all house occupiers outside the urban district owned
their own houses. In the case of peasant proprietors, overbuilding frequently resulted from the subdivision of their
small parcels of land among their heirs. Workers living on
plantations who did not own the sites on which they built
their houses lacked security of tenure and usually set up houses
1

Report, op. cit., p. 176.
Housing in Barbados. Report of a Committee appointed by His Excellency
the Governor to submit recommendations for the general improvement of housing
and domestic sanitation in Barbados, including proposals for assistance under the
Colonial Development and Welfare Act (Bridgetown, 1943), pp. 13-14.
2

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

on rented land which were easily removable but generally
unsatisfactory.
A 1944-1945 survey of eight slum tenantries in Bridgetown revealed that of 2,510 houses in the area, 1,116 or over
44 per cent, were unfit for human habitation, and the 588
families were overcrowded. 1
Health.
The Eoyal Commission of 1938-1939 found the health
of the people in the West Indies on the whole better than in
some other British colonies but nevertheless unsatisfactory.
The two most serious aspects of ill-health were a very high
infant mortality rate and a large amount of chronic sickness.
Preventive medicine received too little emphasis. Facilities for the cure of the sick were at the same time inadequate,
particularly in the rural areas. The poverty alike of the
individual, the medical departments and the local governments was an important factor in keeping health standards
low. Another was ignorance and adverse social conditions—
deplorable housing accommodation, illegitimacy coupled with
a restricted sense of parental responsibility. The training
of all classes of medical personnel in the prevention of disease
was inadequate. There was a great need for better education
of the general public and of school children in health matters.
Medical departments in the different territories had played
an important part in the lowering of the death rate, obtaining
control of several of the more serious epidemic diseases and
providing a curative medical service of a valuable standard.
Nevertheless, existing medical services suffered from serious
defects including inadequate emphasis on preventive medicine, insufficient attention to rural as compared with urban
areas, too extensive a dispersion of medical institutions, too
low a proportion of trained subordinate medical staff in
relation to fully qualified doctors and insufficient attention
to research into the causation, distribution and control of
disease. The Commission considered that expert advice and
financial assistance from outside the territories was needed
in order to reorganise medical work on a better preventive
basis and to assist in correcting adverse social conditions. 2
1
Housing Board Office, Bridgetown, Barbados : Report on a Housing Survey
of Eight Slum Tenantries in Bridgetown, June 1944-April 1945. Appendix I .
2
Cf. Report, op. cit., p p . 134 et seq.

PRE-WAR ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BACKGROUND

Education.
Educational problems in the British West Indies may be
considered for convenience under the following three heads :
elementary education, secondary and vocational education,
and post-secondary and adult education.
The table on the following page summarises the position
in 1945 in regard to attendance in elementary and secondary
schools.
In the field of elementary education, exiguous finances
may be said to constitute the crux of the problem. The means
for the payment of enough teachers to reduce classes to a
reasonable size cannot be found. But, if this is perhaps the
most significant problem, there are many others : insufficiency
and inadequacy of buildings and teaching equipment, denominational problems, and economic conditions which discourage
some parents from sending their children to school regularly.
Nor is the content of West Indian education always acceptable.
One Education Commission wrote in 1939—
Our survey shows three general characteristics common to all
the (Leeward and Windward) islands. It seemed to us (a) that
education is in the main external to the real life of the people, affecting
it from without rather than from within ; (b) that its resources are,
and will on present lines continue to be, wholly inadequate to its
task ; and (c) that even the resources it has are largely wasted.1
Whatever the defects of elementary schooling facilities
in the British West Indies, the deficiencies at other levels are
greater. The proportion of children and young persons
receiving any form of post-primary education is small as the
table indicates. The University College of the West Indies in
Jamaica is a very recent development which is not yet operating in all faculties and was only a far-off project in 1939.
Of adult education, the Royal Commission said : " Very
little is attempted at present and what is done in various
fields is unco-ordinated and of no very deep effect ". Vocational training facilities are very limited.

1
United Kingdom, Colonial Office : Education in the Windward and Leeward
Islands : Report of the Education Commission (London, H.M. Stationery Office,
1938).

EDUCATIONAL FACILITIES IN THE BRITISH WEST INDIES IN 1945
Leeward Islands

Elementary school
age limits . . .
Estimated population of elementary
school age . . .

Barbados

British
Guiana

5-14

5-16

British
Hondu- Jamaica
ras

5-16

7-15

34,281 92,641 16,974 248,880

Windward Islands

Antigua

St.
KittsNevis

Trinidad
Mont- Virgin
serrat
Is. 1

Dominica

Grenada

St.
Lucia

5-16

5-15

5-17

4-15

5-15

Turks Cayand
St.
Caicos man
Vincent l Islands Islands

'7-14

7-14

125,709 12,589 24,869

18,800 18,551 1,137

1,228

8,856 3,244 1,289

91,426

9,645

17,922

10,114 11,720

10,500 11,225 4,000 1,450

5-15

Roll, elementary
28,975 61,734 11,619 171,455

6,735

941

883

Number of elementary schools . .

126

251

112

669

292

Number of secondary schools. . .

—

Number of pupils in
secondary schools :
(a) boys . . . .
(b) girls
. . . .

1,543
878

500
303

323
404

1,837
2,160

187
193

131
105

60
56

15
35

2,428
1,565

140
233

319
468

124
133

215
213

18
18

—

Number of pupils in
secondary schools
aged 11-18 y e a r s :
(a) boys . . . .
(b) girls . . . .

1,402
729

434
262

211
307

1,629
1,915

143
146

118
78

51
44

15
35

2,107
1,357

140
183

221
341

95
80

188
187

18
18

—

Source : Communication to the I.L.O. from Colonial Development and Welfare in the West Indies.
1
Figures for 1944.

PEE-WAB ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BACKGROUND

United States Territories
Family

Relations.

The average size of Puerto Eican families is 5.4 persons.
At the time of the 1940 census, 42.4 per cent, of men were
single; 39.2 married; 14.1 consensually married ; 3.8 widowers
and 0.5 divorced; the percentages for women in the corresponding categories were respectively 31.4, 40.2, 15.1, 11.6
and 1.7. While illegitimacy rates are not as high as in
the British West Indies, they are considerable ; in 1942, 35.1
per cent, of total births were illegitimate. Census figures for
1940 in the Virgin Islands reveal that 46.2 per cent, of men
were single, 36.6 per cent, married, 12.1 per cent, consensually
married, 4.5 per cent, widowed, 0.6 per cent, divorced ; the
corresponding figures for women were 43.3, 33.3, 10.9, 12.0
and 0.5.
Race Relations.
In Puerto Eico and the Virgin Islands, the pattern of race
relations bears many points of resemblance in its broad features
to those in the British West Indies. No legal discrimination
exists; on the other hand, it was found necessary in 1943 to
enact a Civil Eights Act in Puerto Eico guaranteeing the right
of all persons irrespective of differences of race, creed or political affiliation to enjoy the facilities afforded by public places,
businesses and any agency of the Insular Government. Similar
legislation was enacted in the Virgin Islands in 1945. One
observer has thus summarised the existing situation :
The constituents of the race problem in Puerto Eico and the
Virgin Islands are, in short, a historical background that emphasises
class rather than race ; an economic setting in which the problem
of the Negro is merged in the larger problem of the community ; the
absence of legal discrimination against the black masses ; and the
pressure of
social discrimination on the lighter-skinned middle class
minority.1
Nevertheless, in this respect, conditions differ substantially
from those in the British areas. In particular, in Puerto Eico
the composition of the population does not make for the
tension in industrial relations noted above in regard to the
British dependencies.
1
Eric WILLIAMS : " Race Relations in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands ", in
Foreign Affairs, Jan. 1945, p. 316.

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

Nutrition.
A1945 study on Puerto Eico stated the nutritional problems
of the island in the following terms :
It is estimated that the diets of no less than 75 per cent, of the
Puerto Eican people are not providing the minimum daily requirements in the basic foodstuffs necessary for health and physical
efficiency. The main cause of this situation is lack of funds to purchase adequate diets, and its contributing causes are ignorance and
poor food habits . . . .
A vast majority of the Puerto Eican
families are living on incomes lower than the amount necessary for
food only, as shown by the cost of an adequate diet for an average
family in Puerto Eico
determined on several occasions on the basis
of prevailing prices.1
The consumption habits of the Puerto Eican have been
thus described :
The staple foods of the majority of the population consist of rice,
beans, codfish, bread, and black coffee, and only 50 per cent, of
the total food requirements are grown on the island. The actual
caloric intake is low, and the diet is deficient in protein, fat, mineral
and vitamin content. Among the low income families, few fresh
fruits and green vegetables are ordinarily used. Both the supply
and the distribution of the locally produced fruits and vegetables . . .
is poor. Milk is consumed by only 40 per cent, of the families and
the average amount is approximately three ounces per person per
day. The result : a state 2of general debility, malnutrition and great
susceptibility to diseases.
While recognised deficiency diseases do occur in Puerto
Eico, their incidence is not high. Clinical indications of malnutrition are, however, extensive.
Housing.
The National Resources Planning Board estimated in
1942 that some 75 per cent, of families in Puerto Eico lived
in substandard dwellings lacking the essential facilities
for health and decency. The points of similarity with conditions
in the British areas are considerable. Low income rural families
usually construct readily removable shacks on land which
they do not own ; ownership of house sites by this class is in
fact rare. Low income urban families are usually also shack
owners, but, unlike their counterparts in the country, they
usually have to pay ground rent.
1
Insular Board for Vocational Education, Home Economics Division : SocioEconomie Conditions in Pwrto Rico Affecting Family Life (San Juan, May 1945),
pp. 3-4.
2
Jacob CRANE : " Workers' Housing in Puerto Rico ", in International Labour
Review, Vol. XLIX, No. 6, June 1944, p. 610.

PBE-WAR ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BACKGROUND

The following summary of housing conditions further
illustrates the similarity :
Eighty-six per cent, of the agregado 1 families do not have piped
water available, but use supplies from streams and shallow wells ;
50 per cent, have no sanitary conveniences ; 46 per cent, have pit
privies ; and only 2 per cent, have water closet installations. Urban
shacks are usually built within short walking distance of a public
water faucet, and one third of the families have piped water available in the house ; 43 per cent, have no sanitary facilities, 50 per
cent, have pit privies, and about 5 per cent, have water closets.
Ordinarily no attempt is made to construct streets or sidewalks in
urban slums, and the arrangement of shacks in many slum areas
appears accidental, precluding decent general drainage or access for
even minimum fire protection, refuse collection, and policing services. Community parks or playgrounds are rare, inadequate, and
poorly maintained.
The enforcement of building regulations is a function of the
Department of Health and Sanitation. The Eegulations cover such
items as room size, ventilation, access, rat-proofing, etc., but little
control is exercised over structural design or safety. Shack building
can be characterised as an improvisation, and no attempt is made
to enforce compliance with the regulations. Occasionally there are
convictions for building on public lands without a permit, but the
fines imposed are nominal. No solution has been found to the
problem of the control of shack building under existing economic
conditions.
In general, the houses of the low income group, both rural and
urban, are traditionally owner-buüt, on rented or rent-free land.
The land is owned in large tracts by individuals or companies who
have little or no responsibility for improvements, or it is public
land on which there is no enforcement of such regulations as do
exist. Sanitary facilities are practically non-existent, although
usually untreated water is available to those living in urban shack
settlements. In 1940, 73 per cent, of all urban and rural renting
units had rents of between $1 and $6.99 monthly ; 76.62 per cent, of
all owner-occupied houses had tax values under $200.
In the Virgin Islands, the fact that the population is not
as high as it has once been means that cumulative overcrowding is rare. But, while no adequate housing surveys have been
undertaken, it is generally conceded that available dwelling
space requires considerable rehabilitation.
Education.
A survey in Puerto Eico by the Insular Department of
Education indicated that of over 280,000 children and young
persons aged 5-19 years not in school, some 121,000 had never
been to school and 119,000 had left before completing the sixth
1

The head of an agricultural tenant family.

GRANE, op. cit., p.

612.

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

grade. In 1940 it was found that only 48 per cent, of the
population aged 5-17 years were enrolled in public schools.
The following excerpt further illustrates the deficiencies
of educational facilities in Puerto Rico :
As of September 1, 1944, the total enrolment in the schools of
Puerto Eico amounted to 319,428 pupils. About two-thirds of
these children (69.95 per cent.) studied under the double session or
interlocking system, which offers only half a day of class. The
rural zone had at that time 154,131 pupils, 119,153 (77.31 per cent.)
of which attended half a day only, while the urban zone had 165,297
pupils of which 91,509 (55.36 per cent.) attended school on the same
basis. It has been estimated that 2,300 additional school rooms
would be necessary to furnish full-time schooling to all the children
who are at present attending school half a day only.1
The University of Puerto Rico is, however, well established
and technical and vocational education facilities are more
highly developed than in the British West Indies.
In the Virgin Islands, facilities for rudimentary schooling
are relatively good ; in 1940, literacy in Puerto Rico was 68.8
per cent., while in the Virgin Islands it was 86.6 per cent. An
extension of vocational training arrangements was, however,
strongly recommended in the Development Plan of the
National Resources Planning Board.
Netherlands

Territories

In 1882, a medical school was set up in Surinam. This
school provides training in the medical profession for residents
of Surinam. Most of the doctors graduating from the school
belong to the local population of Surinam and for this reason
are of great service in the promotion of better sanitary and
health conditions in the territory. This partly explains why
those conditions are relatively good in Surinam.
In the Netherlands Antilles, with a total population
of 148,530, there are 799 teachers of whom 352 are local and
447 from abroad. In Surinam, with a total population of
181,984, the corresponding figures are 613, 573 and 40. The
proportion of teachers to children attending school is 1 : 42.
A lack of teachers and school buildings is particularly noticeable
in the more isolated districts of Surinam. Figures regarding
literacy in the Netherlands Antilles are not available.
1

Socio-Economie Conditions in Puerto Meo Affecting

Family Life, op. eu., p . 52.

PB.E-WAR ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BACKGROUND

CONCLUSION

The above notes on social and economic problems and
policies have been necessarily limited in scope. The political
organisation of the territories has been reserved for comparative treatment in Chapter I I . Nevertheless, a number of
general comments on the pre-1939 economic and social background may be made on the basis of the facts above noted.
West Indian social and economic conditions resemble
those of a large number of other tropical underdeveloped
areas. The material content of living is of the characteristically
low level which marks most countries with as predominantly
an agricultural economy. In most of the territories the prerequisites for industrialisation on a scale commensurate with
the problems of the area are absent.
The problem of productivity must always be considered
in the light of the size and rate of increase of the communities
concerned ; in the Caribbean, the land-ratio problem and the
rate of population increase are matters for concern. Outlets
for migration for settlement are inadequate, both within and
outside the region, assuming the continuance of present policies.
Despite plans for international trade stabilisation, the precariousness of an export economy will remain. Production on an
increased scale for local markets has many limitations ; where
land areas are as limited as in the island territories, it is understandable that the tendency should be to grow the crops
producing the highest monetary returns ; this tendency is
even more clear where large-scale corporate undertakings
are involved. Clearly, more is needed than a more equitable
distribution of returns from production. While, for example,
proportional benefit undertakings or co-operative methods
may serve this more limited purpose, they do not in themselves
raise the level of productivity. Not even socially valuable
techniques designed to retain the economies of large-scale
undertakings while preventing concentration of ownership
are enough.
The period immediately before 1939 was one in which
no direct attack was made on the essentials of these problems.
The ensuing period has, by comparison, been one in which
Governments and people have made efforts in a more positive
way to alleviate conditions.

CEAPTEE I I

WARTIME AND POST-WAR TRENDS

The changes which have been effected in West Indian social
and economic policies since the outbreak of the second world
war have been extensive even if their implementation has
seemed to bear fruit somewhat slowly. This is indeed inevitable in respect of economic policies designed to broaden the
bases of support of any community ; in the present context,
wartime and post-war shortages of material and personnel
have created additional difficulties for the execution of plans
formulated just before and during the period. And expansion
of social services and most projects of social betterment, if
they are not to involve increased and continuous dependence
on external aid, need to be correlated with the pace of economic
development.
The present chapter devotes particular attention to five
characteristics of the period under consideration, characteristics which have varied widely from territory to territory in
their incidence: (a) the beginnings of regional co-operation
in the planning of economic and social policy ; (b) emphasis
on economic development planning ; (c) wartime and postwar economic changes, whether structural or temporary ;
(d) development of the social services ; and (e) increased
participation of the peoples of the area in the framing and
execution of policies affecting them.
REGIONAL CO-OPERATION—THE CARIBBEAN COMMISSION

The chief long-term instrument of co-operation between
France, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United
States in the area is the Caribbean Commission, which has
developed from the Anglo-American Caribbean Commission
created on 9 March 1942 by an exchange of notes between
the two latter Governments.

WABTIME AND POST-WAB TBENDS

The purposes of the Anglo-American Caribbean Commission
were stated as follows in the joint communiqué issued at the
time :
For the purpose of encouraging and strengthening social and
economic co-operation between the United States of America and
its possessions and bases in the area known geographically and
politically as the Caribbean and the United Kingdom and the British
colonies in the same area, and to avoid unnecessary duplication of
research in these fields, a commission, to be known as the AngloAmerican Caribbean Commission, has been jointly created by the
two Governments. The Commission will consist of six members,
three from each country, to be appointed respectively by the President of the United States and His Majesty's Government in the
United Kingdom—who will designate one member from each country
as a co-chairman.
Members of the Commission will concern themselves primarily
with matters pertaining to labor, agriculture, housing, health, education, social welfare, finance, economics and related subjects in the
territories under the British and United States flags within this
territory, and on these matters will advise their respective Governments.
The Anglo-American Caribbean Commission in its studies and
in the formulation of its recommendations will necessarily bear in
mind the desirability of close co-operation in social and
economic
matters between all regions adjacent to the Caribbean.1
I t has been pointed out that—
. . . The joint communiqué gives no indication that the Commission is to be other than a permanent agency . . . the communiqué
makes no reference of any kind to the war or to the relationship of
the new agency to war needs, with the2 sole exception of the mention
of United States bases in the region.
The American and British sections of this Commission
operated as separate entities under their respective co-chairmen ; a further dichotomy arose from the fact that the British
co-chairman was also the Comptroller for West Indian Development and Welfare and was consequently stationed in
Barbados, while the American co-chairman had his headquarters in Washington. In addition, the two sections were
not responsible to any common authority but to the relevant
executive branches of their own Governments.
Eeports on the Commission's work have been published
annually since 1943. Points of particular interest are the outline of the functions and mechanism of the Commission and the
1

The Department of State Bulletin, Vol. VI, Mar. 1942, p . 229.
Ralph J . BtTNCHB : The Anglo-American Caribbean Commission : An Experiment in Regional Co-operation, American Council Paper No. 7, 9th Conference of
the Institute of Pacific Relations (Hot Springs, Virginia, J a n . 1945).
2

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

information provided on the immediate and long-range aspects
of the Commission's programme. Pressing problems which the
Commission had to face included the questions of local food production, fisheries, sugar, transportation, the emergency landwater highway, the West Indies schooner pool and Caribbean
labour for the United States ; the long-range aspects of its
programme cover trade and communications, public works,
health, plant and animal quarantine, tourist possibilities, and
radio broadcasting.
A joint communiqué of 4 January 1944 established a West
Indian Conference system which would provide a means of
consultation between the Commission and representatives of
the territories, each of which were entitled to send two delegates to the Conference.
The first Conference was held in Barbados from 21 to
30 March 1944. The items on the agenda were (1) means for
raising the nutritional level : increased local food production ;
(2) means for raising the nutritional level, expansion of
fisheries ; (3) re-absorption into civil Ufe of persons engaged
in war employment ; (4) planning of public works for the
improvement of agriculture, education, housing and public
health ; (5) health protection and quarantine ; (6) industrial
development, and (7) the Caribbean Research Council—
possibilities for expansion. These questions were considered
by a series of committees, the recommendations of which were
endorsed by the Conference, which also adopted a resolution
urging that—
. . . the Governments of Great Britain and of the United States
and the Governments of the territories represented at the Conference
should be asked to use their utmost endeavours to give immediate
consideration and early effect to such of our recommendations as
may be transmitted to them with the support of the Anglo-American
Caribbean Commission.
The significance of the first meeting was threefold. Admittedly the Conference was of a purely advisory character,
conducted under the aegis of the Anglo-American Caribbean
Commission, itself only an advisory body. But, for the first
time in the Caribbean, representatives of a high level, both
official and unofficial, from all the territories of the AngloAmerican Caribbean area, consulted together on general
policies of common interest. The recommendations the Conference made were closely studied by the two metropolitan
Governments concerned and a joint statement of policy issued.

WARTIME AND POST-WAR TRENDS

In a broader perspective, the meeting was significant as the
first experiment of an international regional Commission
concerned with dependent territories in consulting on an
organised basis with local representatives.
Eegional co-operation in the field of research was effected
through the establishment by the Anglo-American Caribbean
Commission in August 1943 of the Caribbean Eesearch Council
as an advisory body to the Commission.
The objectives of the Eesearch Council are to survey needs,
determine what research has been done, arrange for dissemination
and exchange of the results of research, provide for conferences
between research workers or extension workers and recommend what
further research and co-operation should
be undertaken for the
benefit öf peoples of the Caribbean.1
Its function is, therefore, seen to be advisory, directive and
co-ordinating. A programme to initiate its work was contained in a retrospect of the research needs of the Caribbean
area prepared by the Commission.2
Within the Council, five Sectional Committees were
set up concerned with (a) agriculture, nutrition, fisheries
and forestry; (b) public health and medicine; (c) industry;
(d) building and engineering research, and (e) social
sciences.
Even before the Trench and Netherlands Governments
joined the Commission, participation in the work of the
Eesearch Council proved a question of real interest to Caribbean
areas other than the British or American territories ; there was
at an early date a Netherlands representative on the Provisional Committee for the Council ; and a Land Tenure Symposium was also attended by experts from Cuba, Haiti, and
the Dominican Eepublic.
With the adherence of France and the Netherlands, the
Anglo-American Caribbean Commission became from December
1945 the Caribbean Commission. An important change in the
composition of the Commission itself was also effected by the
understanding reached that Commission members should
include representatives of the peoples of the West Indian
territories.
1
Anglo-American Caribbean Commission : Caribbean Research Council (Barbados, Feb. 1944), p. 1.
2
Cf. Nutrition, Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, Report of the Meeting of
the Anglo-American Caribbean Commission, Virgin Islands of the United States
(Washington and Barbados, 17-21 Aug. 1943).

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

The second session of the West Indian Conference met from
21 February to 13 March 1946 with an extensive agenda
covering, inter alia, organisational questions, agricultural
diversification, industrial diversification, trade within the
Caribbean, transportation, health, research and the possibility
of a general sociological survey. I t was attended by Commissioners from the four metropolitan powers and consisted
of representatives from all the areas in the Caribbean under
the flags of these States. The delegates from the British
areas consisted of an equal number of official nominees
and of unofficial representatives selected by the elected
members of the legislatures of the different territories. One
interesting feature was the election of an additional British
Commissioner of West Indian origin by the unofficial representatives.
The original Commission met in Washington from 8 to
14 July 1946 to consider plans for remodelling its own organisation and on 30 October 1946 representatives of the Governments of France, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and
the United States signed a formal agreement for the establishment of the present Caribbean Commission.
The purposes for which the Commission was created were
stated in the Preamble to the Agreement as being :
(a) the desire to encourage and strengthen co-operation between
the signatory powers and their territories, with a view to improving
the economic and social well-being of the people of those territories,
and
(b) the desire to promote scientific, technological and economic
development in the Caribbean area, to facilitate the use of resources
and concerted treatment of mutual problems, to avoid duplication
in the work of existing research agencies, to survey needs, to ascertain
what research had been done, to facilitate research on a co-operative
basis and to recommend further research.
The machinery established for these purposes by the
Agreement consisted of the Caribbean Commission and two
auxiliary bodies—the Caribbean Eesearch Council and the
West Indian Conference.
The Commission consists of not more than sixteen commissioners appointed by the signatory Governments, each
Government having the right to appoint four commissioners
one of whom would be nominated as a co-chairman. The

WABTIME AND POST-WAß TRENDS

powers of the Commission are of a consultative and advisory
character. The Commission is required—
(1) To concern itself with economic and social matters of common
interest to the Caribbean area, particularly agriculture, communications, education, fisheries, health, housing, industry, labour, social
welfare and trade.
(2) To study, formulate and recommend on its own initiative,
or as may be proposed by any of the Member or Territorial Governments, by the Eesearch Council or the Conference, measures, programmes and policies with respect to social and economic problems
designed to contribute to the well-being of the Caribbean area. It
shall advise the Member and Territorial Governments on all such
matters and make recommendations for the carrying into effect of
all action necessary or desirable in this connection.
(3) To assist in co-ordinating local projects which have regional
significance and provide technical guidance from a wide field not
otherwise available.
(4) To direct and review the activities of the Eesearch Council
and formulate its rules of procedure.
(5) To provide for the convening of the sessions of the Conference, formulate its rules of procedure and to report to the Member
Governments on Conference Eesolutions and Becommendations.
The Commission is required by the terms of the Agreement
to convene at least two Commission meetings every year. I t
is empowered to determine the method of arriving at its
decisions on the understanding that no decisions other than
those relating to procedure shall be taken without the concurrence of the respective co-chairmen or their designated
alternates.
The Besearch Council serves as an auxiliary body of the
Commission with respect to scientific, technological, social
and economic research for the Caribbean area. It is to consist
of not less than seven and not more than 15 members appointed
by the Commission having special regard to their scientific
competence. The Council is empowered to elect its own
chairman. Its detailed functions are stated in the following
terms :
(a) To recommend to the Commission the number and functions
of the technical Eesearch Committees necessary to provide specialised
scientific consideration of Caribbean research problems.
(b) In the interest of the Caribbean area to ascertain what
research has been done, to survey needs, to advise concerning desirable research projects, to arrange and facilitate co-operative research,
to undertake research assignments of a special nature which no
other agency is able and willing to carry out, and to collect and
disseminate information concerning research.
4

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

(c) To recommend to the Commission the holding of Eeseareh
Council and Committee meetings and also meetings of scientific,
specialist and extension workers, and to facilitate an interchange of
experience among the research workers of the Caribbean.
The functions of the West Indian Conference under the
Agreement are to provide a regular means of consultation
with and between delegates from the territories on matters of
common interest within the terms of reference of the Commission and to afford the opportunity to present to the Commission recommendations on such matters. Each territorial
Government is entitled to send to each session of the Conference not more than two delegates and as many advisers as
it may consider necessary.
Provision is also made for the establishment of a central
secretariat at a place within the Caribbean area to be agreed
upon by the Member Governments. The structure, competence and special rights and duties of the secretariat are
outlined.
The Commission and Eeseareh Council are required in
their research projects and in the formulation of recommendations to bear in mind the desirability of co-operation in social
and economic matters with other Governments of the Caribbean
area which are not members of the Commission.
I t is provided that the Commission and its auxiliary bodies
shall co-operate as fully as possible with the United Nations
and with appropriate specialised agencies on matters of mutual
concern within the terms of reference of the Commission. The
Member Governments undertake to consult with the United
Nations and the appropriate specialised agencies at such times
and in such manner as may be considered desirable with a
view to defining the relationship which shall exist and to
ensuring effective co-operation between the Commission and
its auxiliary bodies and the appropriate organs of the United
Nations and specialised agencies, dealing with economic and
social matters.
The Agreement entered into force on 6 August 1948, having
at that date been ratified by the four signatory Governments.
The central secretariat was established in Trinidad.
The third session of the West Indian Conference, the theme
of which was industrial development, was held in Guadeloupe
in December 1948. In addition to the territorial delegations
and the Commission, the meeting was attended by observers

WABTIME AND POST-WAE TBENDS

from Canada, a number of the Caribbean independent republics, the United Nations and the International Labour Office.
The fourth session, held in Curaçao in 1950, was concerned
with various aspects of West Indian agricultural problems.
The fifth session, scheduled for 1952, will have as its main
theme, " industrialisation and vocational training ".
Since its establishment, the central secretariat has had an
active life both in relation to the organisation of the various
meetings of the Commission and its associate bodies and in
the technical work involved in the preparation for such meetings and in connection with the publications issued under the
aegis of the Commission.
While the operational problems of the Commission are still
considerable and the scope of its activities in relation to the
territorial Governments, the metropolitan Governments and
world international organisations are not yet fully defined,
the machinery established and the purposes that machinery
is designed to serve represent a positive contribution to the
detailed and empirical study of West Indian social and economic problems, a pre-requisite of social progress at a satisfactory pace in the area. The collaboration which has been
worked out between the Commission, on the one hand, and
the United Nations and the specialised agencies, on the other,
particularly in respect of the Expanded Programme of Technical Assistance 1 should be of direct value in this sense.
ALTERING PATTERNS OP ECONOMIC POLICY

As has been noted previously, the principal broad distinction in the field of West Indian economic policy as between
the period before the second world war and the subsequent
period has been the inception of economic planning based on
the premise that capital assistance from external sources was
necessary to prime the pump of economic development in
most West Indian territories if an adequate standard of
living was to be provided for their inhabitants. While this
increased sense of the urgency of raising living levels in the
territories may be regarded as a principal motive in such
planning, a number of concurrent factors have also been
involved. Development planning for the West Indies and
1

Cf. Chapter IX.

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

other non-metropolitan areas has clearly been promoted by
the post-war reconstruction difficulties of some of the metropolitan countries concerned, in particular the need for limiting
expenditures in hard currency and expanding the sources of
such currency. The long-term economic programmes of the
O.E.E.C. countries include development programmes for their
non-metropolitan territories. There is also the incentive of
securing financial and technical assistance from such sources
as the International Bank, E.O.A. and the United Nations and
specialised agencies in appropriate cases.
Regional Economic Policies
The recommendations on economic policy formulated by
the West Indian Conference at the four sessions which have
been held up to the time of writing represent agreement on a
regional basis. These recommendations are in turn studied
by the Commission which .may accept, modify or exclude
them from consideration. Recommendations for action are
then made to the metropolitan Governments concerned and
action taken is on a national basis. Only the first stage need
here be taken into account. 1
As has been noted above, the first session of the West
Indian Conference examined and made recommendations on
the following subjects, inter alia: industrial development,
re-absorption into civil life of persons engaged in war employment, means of increasing local food production, expansion of
fisheries and the planning of public works.
The recommendations of the second session covered, inter
alia, aspects of the following questions : agricultural diversification, industrial diversification, transportation and trade
within the Caribbean.
The third session's recommendations covered a wide field,
though all were related to the central theme of industrial
development. The Conference made recommendations regarding (a) study and action to promote industrial development,
paying special attention to the problems of tariff policies and
capital investment ; fb) the regional development of tourism ;
1
For an authoritative account of the action taken on recommendations of
the first two sessions of the West Indian Conference and Commission action on
the recommendations of the third session cf. Caribbean Commission, Central Secretariat : West Indian Conference, Third Session (Port of Spain, Trinidad, 1949).

WABTIME AND POST-WAB, TRENDS

(c) transport and communications; and (d) migration and
labour conditions in the area.
The fourth session has had agricultural development as its
theme. The body of recommendations on economic policy
emerging from the first four sessions of the West Indian Conference are of interest and value largely because of their origin.
The questions on which recommendations have been made have
in many cases not been clearly delimited and the same question
has been in some instances treated by different sessions with
somewhat contradictory results. It is hardly to be expected
that the Conference will be in a position to work out recommendations capable of being translated into direct and early
action until the Conference agenda is of a kind which permits
the Conference at any given session to give its views on precise
and specific delimited issues.
Provision of Financial
British

Assistance

Territories.

The pattern of United Kingdom assistance to the British
West Indian territories is best understood in the light of the
arrangements and policies worked out for the British colonial
empire as a whole. Two categories of development schemes
are to be distinguished : those connected with the Colonial
Development and Welfare Acts of 1940 and 1945 and those
connected with the Overseas Eesources Act of 1948.
The development planning connected with the Development and Welfare Acts assumes the form of ten-year development plans, prepared by the territories concerned and financed
partly from free grants or loans from the United Kingdom
Government under the Acts and partly from local resources.
Part of the financial assistance provided under the Acts is
used for central services and not allocated to particular territories. In all, 21 long-term development plans had been
drawn up for the colonies by the middle of 1949 envisaging
an expenditure of over £199 million of which £64 million
would be paid by the United Kingdom taxpayer out of the
funds set aside under the Colonial Development and WeKare
Act. Of this expenditure approximately 21 per cent, is
earmarked for economic development including agricultural
and industrial development, 17 per cent, for basic services
such as communications, and 43 per cent, for the social services

LABOTJB POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

such as better health and educational facilities which must go
hand in hand with development.
The Overseas Eesources Act of 1948 was designed more
specifically to increase production levels. I t established the
Overseas Food Corporation and the Colonial Development
Corporation. The former has borrowing powers up to £55
million and is concerned with the raising of world production
of foodstuffs. The task of the Colonial Development Corporation, with borrowing powers up to £110 million, is to study,
formulate, and execute plans for the development of the
resources of the British territories.
In the West Indies, although many projects are under
consideration or under way, the impact of the Overseas Food
Corporation and the Colonial Development Corporation is
still in its early stages. For the implementation of the Colonial
Development and Welfare Acts, however, regional machinery
for the West Indies has been established for a long time and
- action has been extensive.
An early result of the British West India Royal Commission, 1938-1939, was the appointment on 1 September 1940
of a Comptroller for Development and Welfare in the British
West Indies. The Commission had considered that there was
a pressing need for large expenditure on social welfare and
development which not even the least poor of the West Indian
colonies could hope to undertake from their own resources
and had recommended the establishment of a special organisation under the charge of a comptroller to administer any
United Kingdom funds so allocated. Such funds should be—
. . . to finance schemes for the general improvement of education,
the health services, housing and slum clearance, the creation of
labour departments, the provision of social welfare facilities,
and
land settlement, apart from the cost of purchase of land.1
Such activities were to be worked out by the Comptroller
with the aid of experts to be attached to him and in consultation with the local governments concerned. The proposed
Development and Welfare Organisation should be available
to advise colonial administrations in the West Indies and
annual reports should be prepared which would help to
focus attention in the United Kingdom on progress in the
West Indies.
Recommendations,

op. cit., p . 9.

WARTIME AND POST-WAR TRENDS

This has been the framework of policy within which
Development and Welfare in the West Indies has pursued
its function. Only one change of substance was made by the
United Kingdom Government in the Commission's original
plan in this regard. The Commission recommended the
institution of a separate West Indian Welfare Fund to be
financed by an annual grant of £1 million from the United
Kingdom for a period of twenty years. Instead, the arrangement adopted has been to deal with expenditures on schemes
of development and welfare in the West Indies under the
Colonial Development and Welfare Act. This Act, as originally enacted in 1940, was intended to provide a sum of
£5 million for development and welfare and a sum of £500,000
for research annually over a period of ten years from 1941 to
1951. There was a system of annual accounting by which
any part of the £5 million not actually spent during a given
year was returned to the British Treasury. Because of wartime developments only about £2 % million of the £20 million
provided for the first four years was actually spent and the
unspent part ceased to be available. The 1940 Act was
amended and supplemented in several important particulars
by an Act passed in 1945. Over the ten-year period from
1946 to 1956, £120 million is to be provided for development
and welfare ; the maximum annual allocation for research is
increased from £500,000 to £1 million ; the system by which
unspent balances were returned to the Treasury is terminated
and the sole limitation on expenditure is provision that not
more than £17% million may be spent on development and
welfare in any one year.
No specific proportion of the Colonial Development and
Welfare Fund was at first allocated to the West Indies.
However—
from the passing of the Colonial Development and Welfare Act in
July 1940 until 31 March 1944 the grants and loans approved under
the Act amounted . . . . to £8,019,849 . . .; more than half the
sums approved were for the Caribbean, and other grants to a larger
amount for this area have been submitted to the Secretary of State
or are under negotiation with the local Governors.1
Subsequent, however, to the 1945 amendment to the
Colonial Development and Welfare Act, the Secretary of
1
International Labour Office, Studies and Reports, Series B, No. 39 : Social
Policy in Dependent Territories (Montreal, 1944), p. 70.

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

State prepared a scheme for the division of the £120 million
made available. This step was designed to enable the various
territories to prepare comprehensive plans of development
and welfare with a general knowledge of the sums which might
be put at their disposal under the Act. The first group of
allocations covered those services which could best be provided
for centrally ; the total set aside for this purpose was £23 million,
including £4% million for higher education. The allocations
to the West Indies were as follows :
Thousands of £
800
2,500
600
6,S00
1,200
1,200
1,850
850

Barbados
British Guiana
British Honduras
Jamaica
Leeward Islands
Trinidad
Windward Islands
West Indies — General
Total . . .

15,500

The Comptroller's reports for the years 1940-1950 provide
a full account of the Organisation's activities during those
years. In addition to the work entailed in the preparation
of schemes for assistance under the Development and Welfare
Act, the experts on the Comptroller's staff have by special
studies and by participation in the work of local committees
made a real contribution to the solution of West Indian problems both of short-term urgency and of long-range fundamental importance. Thus, to cite the activity of only one
expert, the first Economic Adviser's published studies on the
national income of four territories and on intercolonial trade
as well as his participation in the work of the Trinidad Sugar
Industry Committee and of the Jamaica Economic Policy
Committee are illustrative of the contribution being made by
Development and Welfare.
French

Territories.

Guadeloupe, Martinique and Guiana participate in the
very complex arrangements established for social and economic
development funds for the overseas territories of the French
Union.
A Decree of 3 January 1946 set up a general planning
board for the modernisation and equipment of the overseas
territories of the French Union. The board was made respon-

WARTIME AND P0ST-WAK TBENDS

sible both for the task of drawing up a comprehensive development plan, embracing all French territories, and for the
execution of the plan.
The plan presupposes investment of 280,000 million metropolitan French francs over a period of ten years for development and welfare, of which 150,000 million should be expended
during the first five years, comprising approximately 100,000
million in the public sector and 50,000 million in the private
sector of the plan. The central fund for Overseas France administers a single account consolidating all financial operations in
the public sector of the plan. Metropolitan France and the overseas territories make contributions to this account, known as
the investment fund for the economic and social development
of overseas territories. The metropolitan contribution is not
laid down in advance as in the case of the British Development and Welfare Acts, but is provided for through French
budgetary machinery.
The scope of the plan extends to the entire field of economic
and social action in the territories and a number of organisations have been set up which are responsible for special branches
of activity financed from public funds or by mixed public
and private capital.
Because of the recent date at which these arrangements
were instituted, little clear information is available as to their
practical impact on the French West Indian Departments. A
difficulty common to all the territories at the outset was delay
in the delivery of materials for the execution of equipment
works, which resulted in the special 1947 budgets of the
territories being extended to 1 July 1948. The Eeport of
the General Planning Board for the first half of 1948 includes
among the developments ensuing from application of the Plan
the construction of deep-water piers at Fort-de-France, town
improvements at Fort-de-France and enlargement of the
lepers' hospital in French Guiana.
Netherlands

Territories.

No special assistance has been provided for the Netherlands
territories but in 1947 a Surinam development fund was
created by the Netherlands Government to assist the development of Surinam. 1
1

Oouvernement8blad, No. 152 of 1947.

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

The sum of 40 million Netherlands florins has been provided
to be spent in the five years 1947-1951. The purpose of the fund
is to promote economic development and a greater degree of
economic self-sufficiency.
The development of small and
medium-sized agricultural undertakings is a primary aim of
policy. Other objectives include the promotion of industrial
development, fisheries, cattle breeding, mining and forestry.
United Btates Territories.
No special funds have been created by the United States
Government for providing financial assistance to Puerto Eico
and the Virgin Islands since the constitutional relationship
existing between the United States and these areas permits
federal agencies to operate directly in them. The financial
assistance afforded by the United States to its West Indian
territories has therefore been channelled through these agencies
in accordance with varying needs and policies and has been
very substantial in volume. 1
From the date -when Puerto Eico first became an American
territory to June 30, 1945, direct financial aid from the federal
Government amounted to about $580,000,000. Of this total, 94 per
cent, was appropriated in the 1943-1944 decade. 2

Loans from federal agencies amounted to $82 million during
the period 1929 to 30 June 1944.
The general rule has been that federal appropriations for
these territories are administered by federal agencies, although,
in some instances, local agencies, for example, the Child
Bureau of the Puerto Eican Department of Health, are
beginning to administer them.
The basic approach to the problem of assistance to Puerto
Eico is well defined in the following remarks made by the
United States Secretary of the Interior in a general statement
before the House Committee on Insular Affairs regarding the
objectives of economic policy in Puerto Eico :
The federal Government should pay particular heed to the
economic program adopted by the insular Government on the theory
that local people know best how to meet local needs. The Puerto
Bicans should be expected to cope with their local issues to the
1
For a very full account of the operation of Federal Agencies in Puerto Rico,
cf. Investigation of Political, Economic and Social Conditions in Puerto Rico Pursuant
to H. Res. 159. Part 19, Federal A gencies Operating in Puerto Rico (Washington, 1944).
2
A. B. Fox : Freedom and Welfare in the Caribbean (New York, 1949)', p. 97.

WABTIME AND POST-WAB TBENDS

extent that their resources permit, but, where local resources are
not adequate, federal funds should be used to give supplementary
aid in the development of a broad-gauge, continuous, positive
program of education, health, agriculture and industry . . . .
Puerto Eico should participate in any post-war public works program
that the Congress may authorise and in this Puerto Bieo should
receive comparable treatment with mainland areas. It already has
well developed plans for a program initiated on its own account and
a federal program should supplement that.
It is believed that, whatever the federal Government does in or
for Puerto Eico, the population there will remain too large to be
entirely supported by the meager agricultural resources of the
island and that it will be necessary for the island to industrialise.
The island has a large potential labor force which should be put to
productive work. The industries that are started should be economically sound and should not be enterprises which have to rely
upon trade barriers in order to survive. The Puerto Eican Government is now pressing an industrialisation program. It is seeking to
persuade private capital to enter the field. It has established a
development company with somewhat
the same function as the
Eeconstruction Finance Corporation.1
Territorial Development

Planning

While a detailed account of the work of the local governments and the effort at the territorial level to achieve better
co-ordination of utilisation of resources and of the external
financial assistance made available is beyond the scope of the
present study, certain broad trends need to be noted.
The principal incentive for economic planning at the territorial level has been-the provision of external financial assistance for social and economic development. The terms of such
assistance have usually required the preparation of plans,
such as the ten-year development plans of the British territories, to indicate the needs of the territories and to justify
the expenditures proposed.
In general, little new permanent machinery has been
created for this purpose, though in Trinidad, British Guiana
and Jamaica, for example, special staff to deal with economic
planning questions has been introduced and Puerto Eico has
established planning arrangements which will be separately
treated. Territorial planning has been done principally
through ad hoc committees and commissions dealing with
particular aspects of economic problems and often assisted
and guided by outside experts. The number of such committees
1
General statement of the Secretary of the Interior before the House Committee
on Insular Affairs, 11 May 1944.

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

and commissions has been considerable in the West Indies
during the past decade.
Mention should also be made of the incentives offered by
a number of local governments to promote industrial development by providing tax exemptions for certain new industries.
Apart from Puerto Eico, where much concrete achievement
through such provision is already evident, similar legislation
exists, for example, in Trinidad 1 and Jamaica 2, and a Bill
for this purpose was introduced in Barbados in 1949. One
difficulty in the British territories in respect of this legislation
deserves to be noted : it offers no direct incentive to United
Kingdom capital since the United Kingdom Treasury has
not established arrangements to ensure that such tax relief
is not reabsorbed by United Kingdom taxes.
Puerto Eico has gone much further than other territories
in the area in the direction of providing machinery for planning
economic and social development.
Planning operations are centralised in the Puerto Eico
Planning, Urbanising and Zoning Board which was created
by law in May 1942 and began its work towards the end of
that year. Among its principal functions is the annual drafting
of a six-year financial programme to be laid before the insular
Legislature. The field of activity incumbent upon the board
in pursuance of this function is extensive. Its task is not in
practice confined to a consideration of projects and expenditures submitted to it by other governmental agencies ; much
of the necessary research inherent in making the decisions as
to the relative social utility of different projects and avenues
of expenditure implied by planning are undertaken under the
aegis of the board.
Two of the principal instruments of the Government of
Puerto Eico for promoting economic and industrial development are the Development Bank and the Industrial Development Company. The Bank is authorised by law to issue loans
subject to certain safeguards for the expansion of existing
undertakings and for assisting the establishment of new undertakings. The Company was created—
. . . to develop the resources of Puerto Eico and to investigate
the possibilities and effective methods of promoting their proper
utilisation through the establishment of industrial, mining, com1
2

The Income Tax (In Aid of Industry) Ordinance, 1947, No. 27 of 1947.
The Pioneer Industries (Encouragement) Law, 1949, No. 13 of 1949.

WARTIME AND POST-WAR TRENDS

merce and co-operative enterprises and educational programs, as
well as to conduct research and experimentation in the marketing,
distribution, advertising and exporting of all products of Puerto
Eico and the needs and desires of the consumers for such products.
In addition, the Company was authorised to own, establish and
operate new enterprises for the purpose of exploiting and distributing
products manufactured from raw materials available on the island.1
The Company's range of operation was subsequently enlarged
to cover undertakings utilising specified raw materials whether
or not the raw materials required were obtained in Puerto Eico.
The Company has built and operated several factories.
Its present emphasis is on encouragement of new industries
operated by private capital and it is planning to dispose of
some of the plants which have demonstrated the practicability
of the establishment in Puerto Eico of undertakings carrying
on the particular processes involved.
The Puerto Eican Development Program has also involved
the creation of a number of governmental corporations such
as the Land Authority and the Water Eesources Authority.
WARTIME AND POST-WAR ECONOMIC CHANGES

The changes which wartime problems and policies effected
in West Indian economic conditions fall principally under the
following heads : (a) effect of the war on the production and
sale of commodities normally entering in the export trade ;
(b) increase of food production and the promotion of fisheries ;
(o) industrial expansion ; (d) economic effects of the construction of United States bases ; (e) wartime migration for employment ; (f) enlistment in the armed forces ; and (g) increase
in trade within the West Indian area. In so far as these
changes concern the utilisation of manpower, they are treated
in more detail in Chapter I I I .
Shipping difficulties constituted the crux of the problems
created. The importation of foodstuffs to support life and
facilities for disposal of specialised exports to provide purchasing power are vital to the Caribbean country. A variety of
strategic materials of importance for the war effort was produced in the area. This set of circumstances underlay the
whole range of problems to which the war gave rise.
1
Anglo-American Caribbean Commission : Industrial Development of Puerto
Rico and the Virgin Islands of the United States. United States Section (Washington,
United States Government Printing Office, July 1948), pp. 29-30.

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

The Anglo-American Caribbean Commission participated
in the shaping of policy to meet wartime economic problems
in the British and American territories. The relationships
between the British Section, the Colonial Office, the British
Colonies Supply Mission in Washington and the West Indian
Development and Welfare Organisation on the one hand, and
between the American Section of the Caribbean Office in tha
Office of Lend-Lease Administration, the Department of State
and other agencies facilitated both inter-agency and international co-ordination. Of importance for meeting the shipping problem were the organisation of the West Indian schooner
pool and the inauguration of the emergency land-water highway ; the former " to operate in inter-island trade from the
Leeward Islands in the north to British Guiana in the south ",
the latter to provide a " safe transportation service from the
mainland of the United States on the west to Puerto Eico on
the east ". 1
A variety of measures were introduced in the different territories to increase local food production. Undertakings were
entered into for the purchase and storing of crops, the removal
of which was precluded by shipping shortages. Economic
controls were instituted, notably rationing, price control,
subsidisation and the regulation of imports and exports.
Since 1940, the United Kingdom Government has been
purchasing the entire British West Indies sugar crop. On
26 January 1944 the following Government statement was
made in the House of Commons :
In order to encourage sugar producers in the colonies and to
afford them security, H.M. Government authorise the Ministry of
Pood to undertake to purchase the total exportable surpluses up to
the end of 1946 in return for undertaking to make those surpluses
in their entirety available to the Ministry . . . . H.M. Government
wish to acknowledge the co-operation which they have received
throughout the war from sugar producers and they are glad, by
means of the three-year contracts, to afford the industry a considerable degree of security and thereby enable them to make their full
contribution to immediate and post-war needs.2
Subsequent undertakings have extended the arrangements
to 1952 and the entire question of long-term bulk purchasing
1
United States Section, Anglo-American Caribbean Commission : The Caribbean
Islands and the War (United States Government Printing Office, Washington, 1943),
p. 26.
8
Cf. Parliamentary Debates, House of Commons, London, 26 Jan. 1944.

WARTIME AND POST-WAR TRENDS

of the West Indian sugar crop is again under review at the
time of writing.
Since the purchase of the sugar crop has not been conditional on the availability of shipping, the British West Indian
sugar industry was not affected by the shipping shortage. Its
main difficulties were : loss of manpower to more lucrative
forms of employment such as the United States bases ; the
requirement to devote land to the growing of local foods ;
inability to obtain the necessary quantity of fertilisers, and
inability to replace machinery and rolling stock as necessary.
In Jamaica, the banana industry was seriously affected
by the decision of the British Government on 26 November
1940 to prohibit the export of bananas to the United Kingdom
because of the shortage of shipping. The British Government,
however, guaranteed annually the purchase of a limited number
of stems without regard to the availability of shipping ; surpluses entered into expanded local consumption. All cocoa
and coffee intended for shipment abroad were purchased by
the Government of Jamaica ; the citrus fruit crop was purchased by the British Government.
Under war conditions the sugar industry has continued to expand.
Not only has there been an increase in the total acreage
in cane, but
a very much higher yield per acre has been obtained.1
In Trinidad, because of the opportunities of employment
offered by the United States bases, there was a labour shortage in the sugar industry and a reduction in planting, and the
local government found it necessary to take steps to afford
the industry special assistance. Conversion of some cocoa
lands to sugar cane occurred. The citrus crop was purchased
by the United Kingdom Government as in Jamaica and
elsewhere.
In British Guiana, shipping difficulties in 1942 led the
Secretary of State to issue instructions for a " drastic and
immediate adjustment " of the sugar position—
. . . while all steps should be taken to safeguard as much as
possible the economic position of the industry by payment for such
part of the crop which may have to be sacrificed during 1943, the
imphcation was clear and definite that curtailment of production
must be envisaged and priority given 2to food production and the
employment of labour in that capacity.
1

Annual Report of the Department of Agriculture for the Year ended 31 March
1942 (Jamaica, 1943).
2
Report of the Department of Agriculture, British Chiiana (Georgetown, 1943), p. 2.

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

In the rice industry, there was an expansion of production
for export to other Caribbean areas to replace the rice previously imported from the Far East. Bauxite production
expanded greatly ; in 1943 1,901,393 tons of bauxite were
exported as compared with 476,040 tons in 1939, but during
1944 the figure dropped to 873,969 tons. By 1948 the export
level had risen again to 1,873,166 tons.
In the smaller British territories, wartime conditions had
widely varying effects on the pattern of production. I n the
Leeward Islands, the entire cotton crop as well as the sugar
crop was purchased by the British Government. In Dominica,
most export items continued to be produced at approximately
pre-war levels ; the Government of Dominica was, however,
obliged to purchase a certain quantity of unexportable bananas.
In St. Lucia, employment opportunities on the United States
bases occasioned a shortage of estate labour. In Grenada,
the banana industry suffered considerably.
Because of the shortage of shipping, the wartime exports
of Puerto Bico and the Virgin Islands to the continent of the
United States were—
. . . limited to commodities regarded as necessary by the War
Production Board and the War Food Administration . . . but,
in order to ensure the continuance of all the industries necessary
to employment in Puerto Eico, authority has been given to the
Government of Puerto Eico to designate the use to be made of
10 per cent, of the space available in vessels which are controlled
by the War Shipping Administration
and which sail between the
Caribbean and the United States.1
During the first years after 1939 Puerto Eico did not
suffer markedly from change of conditions and 1941 was even
a relatively prosperous year because of the defence programme.
Subsequently the situation deteriorated and the sugar and
needlework industries suffered a severe setback during the
war period.
Increasing local food production was essential to the
adaptation of Caribbean economies to wartime conditions. I n
Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad compulsory measures to
this end were adopted ; in other British and American territories, the same policy was forwarded by less stringent
methods. The results of some of these programmes are of
interest.
The Caribbean Islands and the War, op. cit., p. 37.

WAETIME AND POST-WAK TRENDS

. . . Puerto Eico's 23 per cent, increase in food production in
1942 as compared with the pre-war period ; the conversion of 15,000
acres to food production in Trinidad ; the abolition of the need of
Jamaica (normally a large rice-importing island) to import rice, in
view of the sufficiency of home-grown carbohydrates ; . . . in
Barbados, the planting of ground provisions on 35 per cent, of the
land of the sugar cane growers, resulting in a total production of
carbohydrates sufficient to offset all of Barbados' pre-war
import of
rice and 50 per cent, of its pre-war import of flour. 1
In British Guiana an expansion of rice production for
export and extensions of ground provisions, and an increase
in food production for export in Dominica and St. Lucia have
been noteworthy. Direct incentives to increased food production ranged from the United States Government's guarantee to purchase at fair prices the exportable surplus of
certain foods from some of the islands for distribution in others
to the municipal appropriations on the island of St. Thomas
which were used to provide a direct labour subsidy intended
to encourage increased production of vegetables and locally
grown products. 2
Salted fish has been a significant import into the Caribbean
ever since the slavery period. When shipping difficulties
precluded importation, steps were taken to investigate the
possibilities of increasing supply from local sources. Eesearch
into fishery resources by the Anglo-American Fishery Survey
—under the aegis of the Anglo-American Caribbean Commission—was undertaken in south eastern Caribbean waters.
Local governments showed considerable activity in facing
this problem : in Puerto Bico, for example, considerable funds
were appropriated for the purchase of fishing-gear replacements
for resale to fishermen at cost, the provision of refrigeration
machinery, and the construction of cold-storage depots and
docking facilities. T h e . Government of Puerto Rico also
assisted in the organisation of co-operatives in the fishing
communities. 3
In the circumstances, it was to be expected that the expansion of local food production and fisheries were among the
points examined at the 1944 West Indian Conference.
Among the measures recommended for providing for the
increased local production of foods were the encouragement
ilbid., pp. 30-31.
Of. Annual Report of the Governor of the Virgin Islands, Fiscal Year ended
30 June 1943 (Washington, 1943), p. 2.
3
Ibid., p. 54.
2

LABOUR POLICIES IIS* THE WEST INDIES

of mixed farming, the provision of land holdings for small
settlers, and facilities for processing and storing perishable
foodstuffs. Governments should be empowered to acquire
land where it was not being put to its best use, and should
consider the possibility of supplying the needs of other territories in the Caribbean area. Incentives were suggested for
increasing the production of foods having a high nutritional
value. I t should be an aim of policy to ensure that the necessary food was available at all income levels. Stress was laid
on the promotion of inter-island trade agreements and shipping
facilities, and on the inculcation of healthy food habits through
education and experience. The Caribbean Eesearch Council
should undertake research into the development and adaptation of foods of high nutritional and protective value. The
Caribbean territories should aim at achieving, during the war,
the maximum possible degree of self-sufficiency. The recommendations covered, inter alia, technical means of expansion ;
the continuation of support to the Anglo-American Fishery
Survey ; the application and extension of co-operative principles with regard to marketing, credit and savings, purchase
of gear, and insurance ; the provision of educational facilities
for fishermen ; the appointment and training of fishery officers ;
the establishment of a Fishery Eesearch Institute in the British
West Indies ; suggestions for special detailed investigations ;
and the investigation of the potentialities of freshwater
fisheries.

The industrial development which took place in the West
Indies, limited as it has been in scope, fell into three clearlydefined classes. On the one hand, industries whose products
were of marked importance to the war effort, such as the bauxite
industry in British Guiana and Surinam, developed under
war conditions. Other industries developed because of the
shipping situation and import restrictions. To this second
class belong such developments as the expansion of the cement
industry and the construction of a plant for the production
of bottles in Puerto Eico ; production of cassava flour and
increased production of soap and vegetable oils in Barbados ;
expansion of copra products 1, of production of cassava flour
and banana flour in Jamaica and increased manufacture of
matches, soap, margarine and jellies in British Guiana. Finally,
1
The export of copra products from the British West Indies was prohibited
during the war so as to promote the self-sufficiency of the area in fats and oils.

WARTIME AND POST-WAR TRENDS

in Puerto Eico, industrial development under the Development
Company was and has been essentially deliberate general
Government policy.
The construction of bases by the United States Government in British, Netherlands and American territories had
considerable effect on the economic life of the areas concerned.
In most areas these effects were limited to raising temporarily
the level of employment in a region in which unemployment
and under-employment are chronic, and in which war conditions had had a further adverse effect on employment in staple
industries. But in others these effects were of more questionable value. One report on conditions in Trinidad 1 refers
to—
. . . the artificial position created by the inflated purchasing
power of the United States personnel stationed in the heart of the
northern sugar area. This extraordinary increase in currency is
exchanged in concentrated areas for a variety of satisfactions, which
are widely demanded by United States personnel, and as widely
supplied by local residents who would otherwise be available for
work in the sugar industry. In this connection we are of the opinion
that everything we might recommend or anything which the sugar
industry might do to induce sugar workers to accept employment in
the industry, or to increase output, could not possibly compete with
such an artificial and disturbing economic feature.
In St. Lucia, the Administrator at the end of 1943 said—
Increasing numbers of labourers are now being discharged from
employment at the bases, and very large numbers of persons formerly
engaged in whole-time and part-time food production, including
fishing, and on the estates will, it is hoped and believed, return to
their former occupations.2
I t was also revealed that—
. . . peasant agriculture has suffered from considerable neglect
and most estates have
been unable to obtain sufficient labour to
carry on their work.3
A more detailed account is provided later of the migration
from the British dependencies for employment which has
occurred. But in any general picture of economic conditions
1
Trinidad and Tobago, Council Paper No. 1 of 1944, Report of the Committee
Appointed to Enquire into the Sugar Industry (Port of Spain, Government Printer,
1944), p. 39.
2
Address to the Legislative Council, 18 Dec. 1943 (Castries, Government Printing
Office, 1944), p. 2.
3
Review of the Operation of Government Departments, St. Lucia, up to 31 Oct.
1942 (Castries, Government Printing Office, 1943), p. 2.

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

reference must be made to the increased purchasing power
accruing from remittances from the employment of British
West Indian workers on the Panama Canal, on construction
work in the American Virgin Islands, as agricultural workers
in the United States, in forestry and industry in Britain. The
absorption of men into the armed forces, though on a relatively small scale, is also of relevance through its relation to
present and future employment questions. The problem which
now looms is that of the renewal of the migration movement.
Increase in trade among the West Indian territories themselves has always been limited by the shortage of transport
facilities and the fact that the products of the different territories are competitive rather than complementary ; to some
degree also by import and export restrictions. But trade with
the independent islands in the Caribbean showed a notable
increase and other developments included the increased export
of rice and matches from British Guiana to neighbouring
territories.
Less information on wartime changes in the economies of
the Netherlands and French territories is available than
for the British and American areas. In Curaçao, the refining
of petroleum products had greatly developed between 1933
and 1937, until in the latter year petroleum and products
accounted for 98.9 per cent, of the territory's exports ; agricultural production was minimal and foodstuffs were for the
most part imported from the United States. Under war
conditions, according to one account—
. . . the decrease in the output of oil following the first torpedoings has been succeeded by a new programme of modernisation
and by greatly accelerated production in the . . . refineries 1,
and Venezuela supplies a substantial part of the food consumed. In Surinam, bauxite was easily the most important
export ; sugar products, tobacco, coffee and gold were also of
some consequence ; one third of the cultivated area was in
large plantations and the rest in small holdings. War conditions did not create a serious food problem, since the territory
was virtually self-sufficient in essential foodstuffs, but—
. . . the agriculture of Surinam . . . has suffered from the loss
of its European markets, and markets in the United States could
not be developed because of the curtailment of shipping space. The
1

Hiss : op. cit., p. 171.

WARTIME AND POST-WAR TRENDS

production of bauxite also has been limited 1by the available shipping
rather than by the capacities of the plants.
As a result of the increased production of bauxite, the labour
force was concentrated on this industry and agricultural
production decreased. I n 1943, the production of bauxite
was at its maximum and after that year agricultural production increased.
SURINAM : AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION,

1939-1946

(in metric tons)
Year
1939
1940
1941
1942
1943
1944
1945
1946

. . .
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

Rice

Coffee

Sugar

40,902
32,064
50,451
40,856
32,632
33,577
37,144
51,470

4,136
877
1,283
799
660
325
414
364

11,154
9,185
15,008
14,125
7,263
3,368
4,315
4,653

Source: Economisch-Statistisch Kwartaalbericht, Mar. 1948, p. 11.

The dependence of Martinique and Guadeloupe on the
export of sugar products to metropolitan France was virtually
complete in pre-war years, and the impact of the war was
especially severe as the territories were blockaded for part of
the war. A former member of the administration of one of
the islands wrote in 1943—
The economic situation of the islands is almost desperate . . .
the sharp reduction of exports
to France since 1940 has caused
widespread unemployment.2
A high percentage of workers formerly engaged in agricultural production for export had to resort to subsistence
farming, in view of the critical food situation and the former
dependence of these territories on imported food.
The above account has been devoted primarily to wartime
conditions, though some developments have been followed
into the post-war period. A few notes on post-war trends
will serve to complete the picture.
1

Hiss : op. cit., p. 172.
J. C. de la BOCHE : " Tension in the R-ench West Indies " , in Foreign Affairs,
Apr. 1943, p. 564.
8

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

I t should be noted, in the first place, that world monetary
problems have had a very direct impact on the West Indies.
While avoiding any detailed analysis of a situation which
cannot possibly be regarded as permanent, hard currency
shortages, inconvertibility and the measures employed, for
example, in the sterling areas, to limit purchases from hardcurrency areas have done a good deal, inter alia, to alter earlier
trade patterns and to create new difficulties in the procurement
of manufactured goods in short supply. The devaluation of
a number of currencies is beginning to be reflected in price
trends, but its effect has to some extent been limited by the
import restrictions to which reference has been made above.
The difficulties of the all-important sugar industry during
the war period have to a large extent been eliminated in the
post-war period, and in many territories, for example, British
Guiana, mechanisation has made considerable progress. I n
Puerto Eico, the Land Authority has proceeded with the
reorganisation of the industry along the lines required by the
500-Acre Law and in accordance with the policies it has worked
out in regard to proportional profit-farming and resettlement.
In general, production levels in other export industries have
at least regained their post-war levels, though a few structural
changes are to be noted such as the reduction of banana
production and the increase of sugar production in Jamaica.
Difficulties remain, however, for many territories in renewing
and increasing capital equipment because of the sellers' market
existing during the immediate post-war years and shortages
of hard currency.
I t cannot be said that much progress has been made in the
development of new industry except in Puerto Bico. There
have been a number of sporadic developments in other territories, for example the building of a textile mill in Jamaica,
but it is only in Puerto Eico that fundamental developments
on a noticeable scale have taken place. The success of the
Development Company is marked not only by the plants which
it has established and operated but by the rapidly increasing
number of undertakings which have been induced to begin operations in Puerto Eico. The general Government policy of Puerto
Eico has provided in this respect valuable assistance notably
through tax exemption legislation for new industries and a largescale technical and vocational training programme to provide
the skills required for the establishment of new undertakings.

WARTIME AND POST-WAR TRENDS

Population and manpower problems are examined in
Chapter I I I . Here reference need be made only to the situation in its broadest aspects. The population in the area as a
whole continues to rise at a relatively rapid rate ; the pace of
economic development in virtually all territories is inadequate
to cope with the increase while at the same time the demand
for higher living standards becomes more insistent ; the outlets
for migration are few in present circumstanees and cannot be
regarded as offering a solution to population pressure.
One further factor of basic significance requires to be
noted—the fact that the terms of trade of most West Indian
territories have become much less favourable than before the
outbreak of the second world war. This question is dealt
with in detail in Chapter V in relation to remuneration and
the cost of living, but the following figures reveal the situation
in one territory and is indicative of a general pattern. 1 In
Trinidad in 1948, t h e price of sugar was 174 per cent, of t h e

1939 price ; corresponding indices of some items which Trinidad
imports were : rice 180 ; salt fish 338 ; cotton prints 525 ;
cotton shirtings 480 ; galvanised sheets 200 ; lumber (fir) 283
and lumber (pitch pine) 206.
EXPANSION OP SOCIAL SERVICES

I t is not proposed to examine in detail the development
of the social services in the West Indies since 1939, particularly since a number of the questions involved are dealt
with elsewhere in the study ; for example, public health facilities and social welfare organisation and activities in Chapter
VII. The limited field of reference here will be to general
trends and to certain specific developments in the fields of
housing and education.
The first point of general interest is the fact that a considerable proportion of the special funds for social' and economic development which have been made available to the
West Indian territories have been utilised in the provision of
social services. The expenditures of most territories in this
field have therefore considerably expanded during the period
studied in the present chapter.
1
Figures taken from : Report of the Commission Appointed to Enquire into the
Working of the Sugar Industry in Trinidad (Trinidad, Government Printer, 1949),
pp. 87 et seq.

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

Secondly, expert assistance for the reorganisation of the
social services and the training of the staff required to operate
these services has been a significant aspect of the help provided
by the metropolitan countries. The advisory function of
Development and Welfare in the W.est Indies is perhaps the
most striking example of this form of technical assistance, but
its counterpart is found in the operation of federal agencies
in the United States territories and the provision of experts
from the Netherlands to assist Surinam to utilise effectively
the Surinam Development Fund. Scholarships have been
provided on a much wider scale than formerly for the purpose
of training local personnel, and a number of courses designed
for this purpose have been held both in the West Indies and
in the metropolitan countries concerned.
Thirdly, it should be noted that, while there is much
concrete evidence of progress in some territories, the impact
of expanded social services on everyday Ufe in the territories
is not yet far-reaching. The different pace at which developments have taken place in different territories and the apparently slow general rate of change is partly to be explained by
difficulties in the way of carrying out planned expenditures,
either because of general wartime and post-war shortages of
equipment and personnel or because of the more specific
financial difficulty of securing the necessary exchange for
purchases from hard-currency areas.
During the period, comprehensive building programmes for
schools and teachers' houses in the British territories have
been outlined and a number of grants for this purpose approved
from Development and Welfare funds ; the amount so allocated during the period 1939-1945 was £ 1 % million. Other
grants have been made for school equipment. Funds have
been provided for Government assistance in the provision of
school meals, free where warranted by circumstances, though
extensive gaps in regard to such provision remain. The recommendations of the Eoyal Commission, 1938-1939, are being
largely followed in educational reorganisation and the revision
of curricula but, owing to the expense which otherwise would
be incurred, the pupil-teacher system has been retained.
Grants for building purposes, equipment and books have been
applicable to secondary as well as to primary schools. The
establishment of the University College of the (British)
West Indies has been one of the achievements of the period.

WAETIMB AJÍ» POST-WAE TRENDS

Benewed attention and financial assistance have been
directed to vocational and technical education, though on a
modest scale.
A Town Planning Adviser to Development and Welfare in
the West Indies was appointed in 1944 in accordance with the
Eoyal Commission's recommendations. Legislation has been
enacted or is under consideration in most territories to provide
Government with powers to control the siting of new housing
with regard to considerations of health, sanitation and water
supply, for condemning and clearing bad slum housing and
for the compulsory acquisition of land for housing. In Barbados, British Guiana and Trinidad, local Housing Committees
or Commissions have been surveying the field and have made
recommendations. The Eoyal Commission recommended that
" in the case of estate housing, estates should provide the land,
including vegetable plots, and give reasonable security of
tenure, and the houses should be built under approved schemes
financed by Government at low rates of interest, rent being
charged against a corresponding increase in wages in those
where, as is usual, rent is now only nominal ". A Development
and Welfare memorandum on housing suggests, in regard to
this type of housing, that the following methods be used :
(1) the estate might make available land for housing,
either free or on long lease or by sale to the Colonial Government ; the labourer then to be assisted by the Colonial Government to provide a house for himself on this land ;
(2) the Colonial Government might issue loans at low rates
of interest to estate owners to enable them to repair such
housing as they already provide for their workers.
Governments have been somewhat slow in implementing
their side of these proposed arrangements, even though in a
number of cases employers have provided land for carrying
out the first set of arrangements.
Expansion of educational facilities and large increases in
Government expenditure on education have marked the past
decade in Puerto Eico. The Department of Education prepared
in 1944 a six-year plan covering the years 1944-1945 to 19491950 designed to extend equal educational facilities to the
entire school population between the ages of five and seventeen
years at an estimated cost of $135 million. This emphasis in
education planning derives from the inequality of educational

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

opportunities prevailing not only between urban communities
but also within particular communities—
Of the total school population of the island, only 50.1 per cent.
attended school during the year (1943-1944). In the rural zones,
22.16 per cent, of the pupils attended only half-days under the
double enrolment plan. In the urban zones, the situation was
somewhat better, although 44.32 per cent, of the total urban enrolment attended school for only half a day or less.
More than 50 per cent, of the children who enrol in the first
grade of the urban schools complete their elementary education.
Approximately the same proportion1 of those entering rural schools
stay only through the fourth grade.
In the first six-year financial programme submitted to the
insular legislature, provision was made for a total expenditure
of $12,876,000 for the expansion of educational facilities,
exclusive of the University of Puerto Eico. Almost all of this
was to be used for the construction of 9,300 additional classrooms and the acquisition of land for school sites. In addition,
something over a million dollars was included for vocational
education.
Since the war, special attention has been given to an
educational programme for veterans. Further impetus was
given to this programme by Government allocation of $500,000
on 1 July 1948 to the Department of Education for further
expansion of educational facilities, especially as regards vocational training for veterans.
During the financial year 1947-1948, 48 school buildings
with 224 classrooms were constructed and 26 other such
buildings were under construction. During the same period,
21 school farms and 52 new school building sites were purchased and construction of three new vocational schools with
an enrolment capacity of 1,000 each was due to begin shortly,
the sites having been selected and the building materials
secured.
During the same year, 1,413 school lunchrooms were
functioning, serving free meals to an average of 158,000
children a day. 2
Both insular and federal funds have contributed to the
large-scale rehousing programme undertaken in Puerto Eico
1
Meinorandum on Item 1 on the Agenda of the Second Session, West Indian
Conference, 1946 (Washington, Anglo-American Caribbean, Jan. 1946), p. 30.
2
Forty-Eighth Annual Report of the Governor of Puerto Rico for the Fiscal Tear
1947-1948 (San Juan, P.R., 1949), pp. 20-21.

WARTIME AND POST-WAR TRENDS

during the past decade. The Public Housing Administration
represents the purely federal side of the machinery established
in Puerto Eico to administer these funds. Locally, the financial means provided by both federal and insular funds have
been channelled through the Housing Authorities set up under
the Insular Housing Act of 1938 : the Ponce Authority, the
San Juan Authority, the Mayaguez Authority, the Arecibo
Authority and the Puerto Eico Housing Authority. During
the ten years 1938-1948, the P.E.H.A.'s operations involved
the construction of 21 housing projects with 3,295 dwelling
units for over 16,000 persons and four land and utilities projects with 209 lots for over 1,000 persons. The Authority's
responsibilities involve not only the provision of housing
facilities for low income families transferred from slum areas
but also efforts to improve the social and civic standards of its
tenants by a programme of community social activities. 1
In Surinam, one of the earliest developments in connection
with the Surinam Development Fund was the construction at
Paramaribo of 700 houses in stone, subsidised by the Fund.
The information available on housing conditions in the
French territories suggests that less progress has been made
here than elsewhere in improving housing conditions during
the period under consideration. The Eeport of a Commission
of the French Council of the Eepublic which visited the territories in 1947 includes very severe strictures on existing housing
conditions and summarised the situation in the following
terms :
To state the facts with brutal frankness, the slave's hut must be
eliminated
and everyone assured the normal living quarters of free
men.2
The Commission also expressed dissatisfaction with educational facilities and noted the following illiteracy figures s :
Martinique
Guadeloupe
Guiana

per cent.
24
29
41

Cf. also CRANE : op. cit., p . 608.

Conseil de la République : Rapport d'Information Fait au Nom de la Commission du Travail et de la Sécurité Sociale sur l'Extension aux Départements d'Outre-Mer
de la Legislation de /Sécurité Sociale Applicable à la Métropole. Annexe au procèsverbal de la séance du 25 octobre 1949, p . 48.
3
Ibid., p . 146.

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES
POLITICAL ORGANISATION

During the period 1939-1949, important changes in the
political organisation of most West Indian territories took
place and further developments seem likely in the early future.
Some reference to the character of these changes is here
desirable for the purposes of (a) clarifying the position as to
the relative spheres of competence of the local governments
and metropolitan Governments respectively and (b) examining
the situation in regard to voting rights. The first question is
of direct interest to the International Labour Organisation in
view of the extent of development of local self-government in
non-metropolitan territories. The main issue is that of the
situation which arises when a metropolitan power, as a Member
State, is called upon to implement obligations in regard to
territories it administers, even when these obligations cover
issues in respect of which the local governments of these
territories are, in fact, the competent authorities, and when in
some of these territories there is a representative or a responsible form of government. 1 The relevance of the second
question is the clear relation in societies with democratic
objectives between the composition of the electorate and the
interests represented in elected councils ; in the present context,
the extent to which workers have voting rights is the pertinent
issue.
The relative degrees of internal autonomy of the British
West Indies are in part indicated by their constitutional
status. The historic form of representative government is to
be found in the Bahamas, Barbados and Bermuda—bicameral
legislatures, of which the lower Houses are composed entirely
of elected members. In these territories, except in unusual
circumstances, neither the local Governor nor the British
metropolitan authorities can require the adoption of legislation
except through persuasion of a majority of members (elected
on a limited franchise), and in two of these territories labour
legislation lags behind general standards. In Jamaica a new
Constitution came into force in 1945. Under its terms, a
bicameral legislature was set up comprising (1) a Legislative
1
The Constitution of the International Labour Organisation now makes provision both for a form of representation for the more advanced non-metropolitan
territories at the International Labour Conference and provides a more elastic
formula for the application, and reports on the application, of Conventions to such
territories.

WARTIME AND POST-WAR TRENDS

Council consisting of three ex officio members, not more than
two official members and not less than ten unofficial members,
and (2) a House of Eepresentatives of 32 members, all elected.
Of special interest is the composition of the Executive Council
which, under the British system, is the principal instrument
of policy : it consists of the Governor as chairman, three
official members, two nominated unofficial members and five
members of the House of Eepresentatives, the five last-named
being elected by the House itself. This latter arrangement in
effect sets up a quasi-ministerial system, a substantial advance.
In the other British dependencies, the legislature consists of
one House, usually termed the Legislative Council, which
includes official members, nominated unofficial members and
elected members in varying proportions. In British Guiana
and British Honduras there is a clear majority of elected
members. In the other territories (taking into account only
the federal legislatures in the Leeward and Windward Islands),
the number of unofficial members, nominated and elected
taken together, exceed the number of official members (with
the exception of the Leeward Islands), and the nominated
group (official and unofficial taken together) approximately
balances the elected group, with some provision to ensure the
passage of measures considered by the Government to be of
paramount importance.
In the American Virgin Islands there is a legislative
assembly made up of the membership of the two municipal
councils *, which also retain considerable powers. All members
of these legislatures are elected. The report of the Governor
of the Virgin Islands for 1940 2 states :
(The Organic Act) . . . conferred a large degree of local autonomy
on the inhabitants of the Virgin Islands and has introduced the
basic concepts of democratic government into the framework of
local political organisation.
In Puerto Eico there is a bicameral legislature composed of a
Senate and House of Eepresentatives. The terms of the Organic
Act of Puerto Eico provide that the Senate shall consist of
nineteen members elected for terms of four years and the
1
The Council of the Municipality of St. Thomas and St. John and the Council
of the Municipality of St. Croix.
2
Annual Report of the Governor of the Virgin Islands to the Secretary of the
Interior, for the Fiscal Year ended 30 June 1940 (Washington, U.S. Government
Printing Office, 1940), p. 48.

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

House of Eepresentatives of 39 members elected quadrennially.
The respective spheres of competence of the insular and federal
Governments are only delimited through various controls
exercised by the latter. The most relevant of these are : (a)
the authority of the United States Congress to amend any
law enacted by the Legislature of Puerto Eico, a power which
has in practice never been exercised ; (b) the ability of the
United States Congress to pass legislation binding on and
enforceable in Puerto Eico, and (c) a system of judicial review
similar to that obtaining under the United States Constitution
in accordance with the principle of the " division of powers "
and in regard to which the United States Supreme Court is
the highest authority for Puerto Eico. A number of Bills to
amend the Organic Act so as to lessen these limitations on
Puerto Bican sovereignty have been recently and are still
under consideration in the United States Congress ; a recent
advance has been the passage of legislation under which the
Governor is now elected by the people of Puerto Eico ;
formerly he was nominated by the President of the United
States.
One important difference between the British and American
systems needs to be underlined. In British territories the
executive functions of government in all cases operate through
the local authorities. The senior public officers are members
of the British Colonial Civil Service and subject to appointment,
transfer, promotion and retirement according to the instructions of the Secretary of State for the Colonies. During their
service in any territory, however, they are responsible to the
authorities in the territories up to the Governors. In the
American territories, while there are insular officers similarly
responsible to the Governors, agencies of the federal Government also operate in executive capacities.
Before the outbreak of the second world war, Martinique,
Guadeloupe and French Guiana all had direct representation
in the central French legislature ; Martinique and Guadeloupe
each sent one senator and two deputies. French Guiana had
one deputy. In both Martinique and Guadeloupe the local
legislatures, called General Councils, had an entirely elected
composition. In French Guiana, a smaller General Council
was elected by resident French citizens. On 16 March 1946,
the French legislature adopted a Decree under which the
French West Indies attained the status of Departments.

WAKTIME AND POST-WAR TRENDS

Constitutions introduced recently into the Netherlands
territories make provision for wider local powers and an
important extension of the suffrage. A system of quasiministerial responsibility has been introduced, under which
members of the Executive Council are appointed in consultation with the legislature and need to retain its confidence.
Legislation requires the signature of the responsible member
of the Executive Council. The two territories now have their
own independent budgets, which need no longer be approved
by the Netherlands Government.
The Legislative Assembly consists of 21 members, elected
by all residents who are Netherlands subjects and over 23 years
of age.
The internal and external constitutional structure of the
territories and their relations with the Netherlands Kingdom
and the Netherlands Indonesian Union are at present being
re-examined.
In the British West Indies, voting qualifications have till
recently limited the vote to a small percentage of the population. These qualifications were and in all but a few cases
still are invariably on the basis of property or income, but in
some instances possession of certain educational qualifications
confers the right to vote. Higher qualifications are necessary
for elected members of the legislatures. In 1937 it was estimated that the number of electors expressed as a percentage of
the total population was 3.4 per cent, in Barbados, 2.9 per
cent, in British Guiana, 5.5 per cent, in Jamaica, 2.2 per cent.
in St. Lucia, and 6.5 per cent, in Trinidad. These were typical
figures. Since that date, steps have been taken to broaden
the basis of political representation. Under Jamaica's new
Constitution, voting is on the basis of universal adult suffrage.
Women have been given the vote in Bermuda on the same
terms as men. In Barbados the income qualification has been
reduced from £50 to £20 per annum. Eeductions in the income
qualifications have also been made in British Honduras. In
Trinidad, after consideration of the 1944 Eeport of a local
Franchise Commission, the necessary measures were taken
for the introduction of adult suffrage and the first elections
under the new system were held in 1946. In British Guiana,
a Franchise Commission reported also in 1944. Universal
adult suffrage was opposed by both the majority Commission
Eeport and the British Guiana legislature ; instead, a reduction

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

of the qualifications for exercise of the franchise, calculated
to provide a substantial extension of the electorate, was proposed and adopted.
In Puerto Eico, citizens of the United States (in which
category the people of Puerto Eico are included) being men
of 21 years or over and women of 18 years and over, are enfranchised, subject to a residential qualification of one year.
From the above general sketch, many important considerations have been almost entirely omitted : examination of the
attitudes of the dependent peoples themselves ; the increasing
extent to which peoples of these dependent territories are
occupying the higher administrative posts in their own countries ; the details and underlying relationships which give
form to the superficial constitutional patterns. But the body
of evidence indicates a developing political situation in which
legislative institutions are becoming more representative, and
in which the local populations are participating more effectively
in government. The growth of local influence and representation in industrial relations will be examined later. Broadly
speaking, however, it requires mention here as a part of the
development of political responsibilities.
One of the problems which may become more acute with
further constitutional development is that of the relations
between the territories themselves. So long as the metropolitan power had complete responsibility for the shaping of
economic policies, a considerable degree of uniformity in this
sphere was normal. The development of local self-government
implies the progressive elimination of this centralising and coordinating authority. Opinion is awakening to the position
in which the small territories of the Caribbean may find themselves if local self-government means isolation and attempted
self-sufficiency.
This problem is significant in regard to the question of
British West Indian federation, where important advances
have been registered. A despatch of the Secretary of State
on 14 March 1945 referred to the desirability of such federation
as an aim of policy and asked the legislature of the different
units of the British West Indies to give their views on this
question. As a result of the favourable replies received, a
Conference on the closer association of the British West Indian
Colonies was held in Jamaica from 11 to 19 September 1947,
with the Secretary of State for the Colonies in the chair. The

WABTIME AND POST-WAR TRENDS

Conference adopted a number of resolutions in favour of closer
association, the form such association should take and the
steps which should be taken to promote it. As a result of its
recommendations, a Standing Closer Association Committee
was constituted, composed of delegates appointed by the
legislatures of the different units in the British West Indies,
under the chairmanship of a United Kingdom official specially
appointed for the purpose and who is also responsible for the
operation of Development and Welfare in the West Indies.
The Committee has completed its deliberations and its conclusions have been published. Examination by the Governments of these conclusions is the next stage.
There are three foundations for a certain degree of cautious
optimism as to the possibilities of progress in coming years in
the West Indies : the increased financial resources available,
the increased extent of study, research and planning in the
utilisation of available resources and the development of
regional and international machinery, a major task of which
must necessarily be an effort to improve conditions such as
exist in the West Indies. A more positive conception of the
functions of governmental and inter-governmental action in
promoting the improvement of economic and social conditions
is receiving emphasis. Further, these trends have the active
support of a body of local public opinion which is to an ever
greater extent being associated in the tasks of government
and which is clearly aware of the need for improving those
conditions.
Nevertheless, in the field of social and economic policy,
the decade under consideration was one of promise rather than
of fulfilment, of study and planning even more than of effective action. In most of the territories, the two major economic
problems remain so far substantially unaffected : population
pressure and a level and character of production inadequate
to support a satisfactory standard of living.

CHAPTEE I I I

MANPOWER

Manpower problems reflect the entire range of social and
economic problems in the territories studied in the present
report. In the area as a whole, the rate of population
increase is high ; manpower requirements in the principal form
of employment, agriculture, present wide seasonal variations ;
the level of technical skills is low; placement services have
only recently begun operating on any significant scale ; migration opportunities are extremely limited ; evidence of Government policies designed to promote actively a high level of
employment as a norm is rare. While existing statistical
evidence is inadequate for a satisfactory analysis of manpower
problems in the West Indies, sufficient is available to indicate
the extent of the problems involved and to assess the policies
utilised to deal with those problems.
The present manpower position, particularly in respect of
agriculture, has its background in the sugar plantation cultivated by slave labour. Some of the characteristics of the
existing structure are best elucidated in terms of that background.
In the British territories, two periods may be distinguished
under slavery. During the first, and by far the longer period,
up to the abolition of the slave trade, the labour force was
maintained and replenished both by importation and by
natural increase ; in the period between the abolition of the
slave trade and the abolition of slavery, only the latter means
was available. The individual plantation had a stabilised
labour force which, in general, offered few problems differing
from the problems set by any item of capital machinery ;
purchase and maintenance were in the first place necessary ;
then, according to the circumstances of the particular plantation, the labour supply could be diminished by sale or failure
to procure replacements, or increased by purchase. After the

MANPOWEE

1833 abolition measure, the former slaves were kept tied to
their respective plantations for several years under a so-called
system of " apprenticeship " designed as a technique of transition from the state of slavery to a state of complete " freedom
of labour ". This system was abandoned before the date
scheduled for its termination.
In the period that immediately followed, the plantations
lost a considerable proportion of their former labour force,
especially in territories where facilities were widely available
for ex-slaves to purchase land, to settle or to squat. It was in
any case clear that, under a wage system, and with the loss of
protection in the British market, the seasonal character of
employment in sugar production would result in a lower
level of employment in the out-of-crop season ; it could not
in those circumstances be expected that, where the possibility
of peasant farming existed, the ex-slaves would care for plantation work with its unpleasant associations. The general
outcome was that the planters were unable to get the type of
labour they wanted, at the time they wanted, in sufficient
quantity and at the rates they were prepared, or able, to pay.
Immigration seemed to them to be the only remedy, and
for this they were able to obtain Government support. At
different times and in different territories, contract labour was
imported from China, Germany, Portugal, Malta and elsewhere,
but eventually the solution was found in East Indian indentured labour. The planters thus once again secured a relatively
stabilised labour force, which could be expanded by further
importations, and which was periodically reduced by repatriations. The employer under this system provided his
workers with housing, medical care and the like, and the
plantation became again almost a self-contained social unit.
It is only from 1917, the year in which the system of Indian
indentured labour was terminated, that modern employment
problems date in those territories, in particular British Guiana
and Trinidad, in which Indian indentured labour had been a
significant element. But everywhere the depression years
from 1930 had serious repercussions ; in this period the gravity
of the problems of persistent population increase, the enforced
return of emigrant workers from other parts of the Americas,
notably Panama and Cuba, low prices for crops, the prevalence
of plant diseases in the more important agricultural crops and
the new problem of a stabilised labour force became most evident.

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

In Surinam, the partial abolition of slavery in 1863 and
its complete abolition in 1873 gave rise to similar manpower
problems. Portuguese and Chinese immigrant workers were
first tried, but, as elsewhere, recourse was had mainly to the
Indian indentured worker during the period 1873-1917.
With the end of the importation of Indian indentured labour,
Javanese immigration substantially increased ; already, in
the period 1894-1914, some 11,000 Javanese had migrated to
the territory.
In Puerto Eico, the antecedents of the present situation
have been different.
Chattel slavery, abolished in 1873,
never assumed the significance it did in the British areas, as a
comparison of population composition readily reveals ; further,
the status of slaves under the Spanish law was markedly
dissimilar. In 1898, just before the American annexation,
coffee, not sugar, was the chief crop. The shift to a predominantly sugar economy, with modern machinery and laboursaving devices, the widespread substitution of sugar cane for
subsistence crops, i.e., of a " commercial " for a " subsistence "
economy, the vicissitudes of the sugar industry, the effects of
the depression years, and, above all, rapid, continued and
cumulative population increase have been the chief influences
contributing to the present position.
In the Virgin Islands, production was by slave labour and,
after abolition in 1848, the sugar economy virtually collapsed :
For centuries the islands based their economy on specialised
commercial agriculture—the raising and processing of sugar-cane—
in exchange for which they have obtained "corn meal and rice"
from the markets of the world. Based on this economy St. Croix,
St. Thomas and St. John gave riches to a few when prices for sugar
were high and the cost of labor was merely enough food to keep a
person working. At one time nearly every tillable acre of land
was devoted to this crop and the islands were literally cultivated
from seashore to mountain top. But this economy was responsible
for the present basic dilemma which faces the islands. It encouraged
a population which could produce sugar profitably only under
conditions of slave labor. When prices fell and the former slaves
became wage earners, they could not1 produce cheaply enough to
justify the effort of growing the crop.
These antecedents of the present situation have to a
marked extent left their trace. Arising from them there
have been a succession of problems : either the local com1
National Resources Planning Board, Region XI : A Development Plan for
the Virgin Islands of the United States (San Juan, P.R., 1943), p. 17.

MANPOWER

munities have had to find immediate palliatives ; or, when
an improved price was obtained for a basic crop, the very
legacy of the past has hindered effective use of what would
later be proved to be only another breathing space. In short,
the employment problems of the West Indies as a whole
persistently reflect the gravity of social and economic problems
in general. More, it is the study of employment problems
which annotates most effectively the disparity between, on
the one hand, the needs of a rapidly expanding population,
whose standards of living present policies are designed to
raise, and, on the other, the resources available and the level
of social and economic organisation which determines the
utilisation of those resources.
GENEBAI, GOVERNMENT POLICIES

No general analysis is made of the effect of trade, fiscal
and industrialisation policies on employment opportunities
in view of the practical difficulties of determining the extent
to which the promotion of employment was an important
consideration in the framing of these policies. With this
reservation, it may be said that until recently authorities in
the British West Indies have been concerned primarily with
the immediate problems of unemployment rather than with
raising the level of productive employment. Belief works
rather than development works have been characteristic.
Longer-term proposals, such as the promotion of land settlement and of migration either for settlement or for employment
have on the whole been designed to provide livelihood for
those actually underemployed or unemployed rather than to
widen the productive capacities of the communities. Although
there can be no clear distinction between the two types of
approach, the impression given by many recent authoritative
pronouncements is that, while attention is drawn to longrange policies for the creation of employment, more limited
proposals, often for no more than the sharing of employment,
still receive the greatest practical attention.
In a 1939 report, the Labour Adviser to the Secretary of
State for the Colonies drew attention to the wider issues.
His task, however, was to advise on labour problems in the
narrower sense, and in consequence he was concerned with
discouraging the worst features of the relief systems and with

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

broadening t h e resources of individual families b y encouraging
activities s u p p l e m e n t a r y to wage earning. This emerges from
t h e following s t a t e m e n t on l a n d settlement a n d relief :
The problems of unemployment have a close connection with
land settlement, since the latter promises at least a partial solution
of the difficulty. As has already been explained, the outstanding
evil is partial employment rather than an entire lack of work ; the
utilisation of this spare time now wasted is thus an important
object. If the worker who at present depends for his living entirely
upon wage-earning can be offered the alternative of the cultivation
of a garden he will find occupation for hours at present wasted
and he will have a supplementary means of support. Furthermore,
in growing at least a proportion of his family's sustenance, he will
reduce the sum of money now sent overseas to buy food and will
keep it in the colony instead ; and additional benefit will accrue
from the improvement in health due to the use of fresh food in place
of the preserved article.
The draining of swamps or the reconditioning of derelict land
is work well suited for an unemployment relief scheme . . . .
In
the past very considerable sums of money have been spent in certain
West Indian colonies in the making of roads which were really
largely undertaken in order to provide work ; while these may
have their uses they are not directly remunerative nor do they
provide any permanent employment except for upkeep. Such
expenditure must therefore be regarded as palliative rather than
a cure and for this reason it is far less desirable than a scheme which
will provide gainful employment even if only for a limited number. 1
I n regard to t h e position on estates t h r o u g h o u t t h e area
his general view was similar—
The most promising remedy appears to be a broadening of the
basis of support ; in other words, the provision of some alternative
means of subsistence other than the plantation for the partially
employed. This can best be achieved by the establishment of these
people as independent peasant proprietors owning a few acres on
which they can build a house and grow a large part of the food
needed by their families. In such circumstances, a considerable
proportion of the time now wasted would be spent in producing
some of the provisions which at present have to be bought at the
shop ; in which case a contribution towards the use of local produce
in place of imported supplies will have been made. Six months'
wages will no longer have to afford support for a year and the worker
will have moved towards an independent self-respecting position
in place of that of a grudgingly supported retainer. Since the
produce of their land will not supply all the requirements of the
family the owner will probably be glad to earn some money as a
part-time worker ; alternatively, some cash crop could be added,
work on the plantation being correspondingly reduced. 2
1
Labour Conditions in the West Indies, Report by Major G. St. J . O R D E BROWNE,
O.B.E., J u l y 1939 (London, H.M. Stationery Office, 1939), Cmd. 6070, p . 31.
2
Ibid., p . 18.

MANPOWER

For particular territories, however, more specific recommendations were made. Major Orde Browne considered that
in the circumstances of Barbados only emigration on a large
scale could afford adequate improvement. In regard to Jamaica
he recommended that an end be put to the system of rotational
employment adopted by the Public Works Department and
the Municipality (of Kingston and St. Andrew), a system
designed to provide a modicum of employment for the largest
possible number ; instead—
. . . any important scheme of public works should be carried
out by employees who can feel reasonably assured of their future,
and who realise that good service rendered will be appreciated and
rewarded, in place of the present arrangement entailing discharge
at the end of a fortnight, whatever the deserts of a worker may be.
Beyond these, there will remain a considerable number of inferior
performers merging into the unemployable. For these, relief might
be provided at a figure which for steady employment is rather
above the minimum figure arrived at in the section on the cost of
living. Men engaged on these conditions should clearly understand that good work would
give them a claim to any vacancy for
a permanent employee.1
In Grenada, an undertaking was given to approach the
Secretary of State for the Colonies for financial aid to assist
in providing relief work in the form of productive projects,
such as reclamation of swampland for land settlement. In
British Honduras, where a rotation system was prevalent,
changes similar to those recommended for Jamaica were
advised ; in particular, it was stressed that " relief work
proper should be recognised as such rather than disguised as
normal enterprise ". 2
The West India Eoyal Commission recommended that—
The governments of the larger colonies should examine carefully
the possibility of establishing some arrangements for unemployment
insurance in the case of those undertakings which are organised
on a system of regular employment and with exemptions for those
industries where, owing to the intermittent character of employment, a scheme based on that obtaining in Great Britain would
be impracticable.3
While this was its sole specific recommendation in regard
to unemployment, the Commission's recommendation of the
need for increased employment opportunities to meet the
1

O R D E B R O W N E : op.

Ibid., p . 200.
Report, op. cit., p . 196.

cit.,

83.

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

requirements of a rapidly growing population greatly influenced
the lines of general economic and social policy it advocated.
In its report, the Commission drew particular attention
to the effects of the annual natural increase of population in
the West Indies of 1 % to 2 per cent. At a rate of 2 per cent.
a population doubles itself every 35 years.
The Conference of Labour Officers of British West Indian
Colonies held in Trinidad in April 1942 came to the following
conclusions in regard to unemployment and underemployment :
(a) The Conference considered that this would be a major problem in all the British West Indian colonies after the war and work
on the United States bases is completed, (b) It appeared that a
solution might be found in increased land settlement under proper
control, (c) The Conference considered that colonial Governments
should endeavour to evolve some schemes for spreading employment
over the West Indian area to meet the position which will arise
after the work on the United States bases is completed. In this
connection, attention was drawn to the need for precautions in those
colonies, such as Trinidad, where a temporary boom exists and
which has led to a large influx of labour from other colonies.
The different West Indian administrations were invited
to comment on these proposals. The replies from the various
Governments in substance proposed no action beyond land
settlement and relief or development works ; and two Governments stated that the lack of adequate statistics precluded
precise planning.
Later, at the end of 1943, the British advisory authorities
in the Caribbean drew attention to the employment problems
which the reabsorption of personnel, both military and civilian,
engaged in war service would create. Eeference was made to
the action being taken by the Government of Jamaica to
meet the expected situation ; more specifically to the expansion
of relief or development work schemes on a wide scale. No
more comprehensive proposal was offered.
Nevertheless, in recent years it has become clear that a
wider view is being taken in the search for policies designed to
promote productive employment by re-examining the economic
foundations of Caribbean life. The general responsibilities of
Government were in particular underlined in an address to
the Legislative Council by the Governor of British Guiana as
early as November 1942—
What has developed in these last few years is a complete
reorientation of colonial policy. The older one was that Government was mainly concerned with the elementary needs of public

MANPOWER

order and administration of the law, the prevention of abuses, and
matters of that kind, coupled with a desire to promote advance by
gradual stages in the direction of self-government. The idea of
Government responsibility in economic development or in social
services generally was at that time completely in the background.
Today, parallel with developments in the United Kingdom and
other advanced countries, a far more positive view of the functions
of the State has come into being, once looked at askance but now
almost universal, and it is now generally admitted that a primary
obligation is the extension of social services and the raising of the
general standard of living. This has brought with it the admission
that the State must assume control over organisation of industry
and the use of capital or land. There is some substantial opinion
that would say that expansion of constitutional independence
will be completely unreal unless accompanied by or even preceded
by the raising of the social and living standards generally. 1
The report of a Committee appointed b y t h e Government
of J a m a i c a in J u n e 1944—
. . .to conduct a systematic economic survey and, after examination and investigation, to report on the economic prospects of Jamaica
and, in particular, on the possibilities of ensuring full employment
without detriment to the general standard of living ; to recommend
to the Government the lines which its future economic policy should
follow ; and to consider the best ways to meet the cost of Government schemes for developing the colony and providing employment,
is also of interest. While this report cannot be regarded as a n
expression of official policy, t h e terms of reference of t h e
Committee which prepared i t represented a novel approach
on t h e p a r t of a British W e s t I n d i a n Government. The conclusions on e m p l o y m e n t policy contained in t h e report a n d
c o m m e n t on present methods of dealing with employment
problems a r e for this reason here cited :
I t is the duty of Government in our opinion to do three things :
(a) to try to create conditions under which full employment is possible ; (b) to prevent workers from being exploited ; and (c) to see
that no citizen starves. We later make recommendations to which
we may refer now in the hope of achieving these aims.
(a) The main way to do this within a social framework of private
enterprise is to see that there is a sufficient incentive for private
investment which gives employment, both directly and indirectly.
Our suggestions towards that end include machinery for regulating
trade disputes, the provision of tax-relief during the first five years
for investment in approved fields ; and actual subsidies to certain
types of capital expenditure in agriculture, such measures against
soil erosion which will maintain or increase the productivity of the
land and, at the same time, provide useful employment, (b) However, we wish wage earners to get as large a share as is possible without
1

British Guiana : Legislative Council Paper, No. 1SB/1942.

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

discouraging employers from maintaining or expanding their businesses ; therefore, we favour democratic trade unions and Wages
Boards for certain industries where the bargaining power of the
workers is weak, (c) We consider that all who need it should be
provided with a minimum for subsistence. We recommend therefore
that everybody, whether able-bodied or not, who is without means
of support and is unable to obtain work should be entitled to poor
relief. This may involve a change in the existing law. The hospital cases and the aged, however, should be taken out of the
sphere of poor relief . . . .
Persons over 70 and without adequate
means of support should receive old-age pensions.
The Committee decisively condemned existing arrangements for providing relief work—
We consider that relief works are bad in principle. In our
view, the only public works which should be undertaken are developmental works which are really worthwhile. They should be carried
out in the most efficient manner, even if this means using more
mechanical devices and less labour. Workers should be paid at
the regular rates prevailing in the district, and, where possible, by
results.
The case against relief works is as follows. In the first place,
they cost large sums of money which Jamaica cannot afford to spend
without getting value in return . . . .
In the second place, they provide no real solution to the
employment problem. On the contrary, relief works get numbers
of workers attached to them who look upon them as their means
of livelihood and who make therefore no serious attempt to find
employment elsewhere.
In the third place, they may actually diminish the total output
of the country by drawing workers away from their own little
holdings or their regular occupations. This will happen only if
rates of pay and conditions of employment on relief works are
relatively attractive. This has, in fact, been the case in Jamaica.
As a rule, those in charge have been more anxious to keep the workers
relatively quiet and contented than to make sure that they gave
a fair return for their pay . . . .
The argument for relief work
rests on the assumption that it is the duty of Government to provide
work for all who need it. The Government of Jamaica has always
denied any such obligation, and, indeed, it is an obligation which
no Government could possibly accept.
An important development in respect to manpower
problems in the British territories was the appointment in
1947 of the Evans Settlement Commission with the following
terms of reference :
1. Having regard to the recommendations made by the West
Indian Conference in 1944 and 1946 regarding the need for study
of the Guianas and British Honduras as an aid to the solution of
the problem of over-population in the West Indian island territories,
and further to the need to assist in solving the problem of persons
displaced as a result of the world war, to investigate and report
to the Secretary of State for the Colonies upon the possibilities of

MANPOWER

settlement in British Guiana and British Honduras, with the following considerations in mind :
(a) the future needs of the population of those territories,
(b) the need to provide outlets for the surplus populations in the
British West Indies,
(c) the needs of surplus populations in other West Indian islands,
(d) the need to provide for the resettlement and rehabilitation of
persons displaced from their homes in European countries as
a result of the war.
2. In the case of British Guiana, the Commission will have
regard especially to the area of the Kanuku and other mountain
ranges bordering the interior savannahs and to the points indicated
as requiring clarification in the Summary of the Eeport of the British
Guiana Eefugee Commission, May, 1939 (Cmd. 6014).
The Commission's report* was issued in September 1948
and contained a very large number of recommendations of
detail in regard to the way in which settlement problems
might be approached. In the present context, the point of
particular interest is the extent to which the Commission
envisaged that the population pressure in the island territories
might be reduced if their recommendations were adopted—•
We can make no precise estimate of the number of people who
might be enabled to migrate to the two colonies (of British Guiana
and British Honduras) for employment on the schemes which we
propose, but we believe that if our plans can be accepted it should
be possible over a period of some ten years for the two colonies to
absorb about 100,000 2men, women and children, including about
25,000 adult workers.
While it is clear that arrangements on this scale are not
adequate to provide a full solution, they clearly represent
one outlet and preliminary steps to implement the Commission's
recommendations are being taken by the United Kingdom
Government.
A more complex constitutional relationship renders the
task of summarising Government policy more difficult for the
American territories than for the British West Indies. Nevertheless, in Puerto Eico, for example, a fairly clear pattern
can be traced of Government policy affecting employment
problems as a particular manifestation of a maladjustment
between population and productive capacity, while, in the
programmes designed to remedy this maladjustment, at one
and the same time there are indications of the approach to the
1
Report of the British Guiana and British Honduras Settlement Commission
(London, H.M. Stationery Office, 1948), Cmd. 7533.
2
Ibid., p. 2.

LABOUR, POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

long-term basic problem and the short-term problem is being
alleviated by the employment afforded on development work.
The effect of federal Government action has in the main been
that of increasing the totality of jobs available through the
expenditures of its different agencies on the island.
Between 1933 and 1944, the United States spent $350
million in the attempt to make the island what has been
described as " both an impregnable fortress for national
defense and a good exhibit of American policy ". On a general
view, the trend of policy seems to be following the lines suggested by a high United States official as the most desirable
principles on which federal and insular programmes in relation
to Puerto Riean economic problems should be co-ordinated—
The federal Government should pay particular heed to the economic program adopted by the insular Government on the theory
that local people best know how to meet local needs. The Puerto
Eicans should be expected to cope with their local issues to the
extent that their resources permit. But, where local resources are not
adequate, federal funds should be used to give supplementary aid in
the development of a broad gauge, continuous, positive program.1
Some account has already been provided above of various
aspects of the economic programme of the insular Government
since 1940, of the instruments it has created for furthering
its policies, notably a number of Authorities, the Development Company and the Puerto Eico Planning, Urbanizing
and Zoning Board, of the Six-Year Financial Plan and of
federal Government action. 2 The relation of these points
to the questions at present under examination has to be
borne in mind. The basic problem which they have been
designed to meet has been emphasised in a number of official
or semi-official studies and surveys on population from which
the following general conclusions are cited 3 :
The economic problem of Puerto Eico, in so far as the bulk of
its people is concerned, may be reduced to the simple terms of
progressive landlessness, chronic unemployment and implacable
growth of the population. A policy of fundamental reconstruction
should, therefore, contemplate the definite reduction of unemployment to a point, at least where it may be adequately dealt with
1
General statement of the Secretary of the Interior before the House Committee on Insular Affairs, 11 May 1944.
2
Cf. Chapters I and II above, passim.
3
Cf. also Frederick P. BARTLETT and Brandon HOWELL : The Population Problem in Puerto Rico (Puerto Rico Planning, Urbanizing and Zoning Board, Santurce,
Aug. 1944), pp. 1-3.

MANPOWER

by normal relief agencies ; the achievement of this, largely by restoration of the land to the people that cultivate it, and by the fullest
development of the industrial possibilities of the island. These
achievements will be unavailing, however, if population growth
cannot be checked, or at least reduced. This last factor is of very
great importance because, even if a parity between population
and employment—as to farming or to industrial jobs—can be
approximately achieved, it cannot be maintained unless the rate
of population growth can be kept within the scope of further economic development. I t therefore seems to be highly desirable, probably imperative, that a land restoration and industrial development programme, combined with a policy of emigration to suitable
environments, be fully worked out as soon as possible. 1
The effects of population pressure and of the lack of balance
between population and resources are observed everywhere : high
unemployment, cheap labor, low productivity per man, high morbidity and mortality rates, unsatisfactory living conditions in general. 2
The most important underlying economic factor in Puerto Eico
is the tremendous density of population. The effects of the lack
of balance between population and resources are noticeable everywhere. Labor is cheap, productivity per man is low. The margin
of cultivation has been pushed to lands of little productivity. On
good lands cultivation is very intensive. The low per capita incomes
of a large part of the population do not permit the maintenance
even in large cities of the same standards in such services as education,
sanitation, recreation, store facilities, and restaurants found in small
urban centers in the United States. 3
So long as present trends of population growth continue, there
is little or no prospect whatsoever of so increasing the supply of
available resources, or of so improving the sum total of commercial
opportunities of the island—agriculture, industry, and trade—that
a satisfactory balance between social needs and means of support
can be struck; the necessity of turning, of " bending ", these trends
becomes the most vital issue in Puerto Rico. That does not mean
that a single stone should be left unturned in the attempt to
improve and enlarge the earning power of the people of Puerto
Eico ; but it does mean that, no matter how many stones are turned,
a balance between needs and means cannot be struck without a
drastic change in present population trends . . . .*
I n t h e Virgin Islands t h e problem, numerically so m u c h
smaller b u t proportionately t o t h e islands' population a n d
resources u n d o u b t e d l y greater, has m e a n t t h a t in practice
t h e population has been largely supported b y defence construction a n d o t h e r federal expenditure.
1
Carlos E . CHABDON and Associates : Report of the Puerto Rico Policy Commission
(San J u a n , P . E . , 1939), p . 1.
2
Manuel A. PEREZ : Economic Background of Puerto Rico as an Essential Determinant in Health and Social Problems, Puerto Rico Health Bulletin, Vol. VI,
No. 12, Dec. 1942.
3
E . B . H I L L and S. L. DESCASTES : An Economic Background for Agricultural
Research in Puerto Rico (Bulletin SI, Agricultural Experiment Station, Río Piedras,
P.R., Dec. 1939), p . 13.
4

ZIMMERMAN, op, cit.,

21.

LABOTJE POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

The view put forward in a study prepared by the National
Eesources Planning Board 1 , that considerable emigration
coupled with a programme for utilising existing resources
more effectively is, taking a long-term view, a necessity for
this territory, appears to be accepted by most serious students
of the employment problems of the Virgin Islands. Homesteading is regarded as an effective means of improving the economic
situation and has been stressed in the past. In practice,
however, it seems that the immediate problem of providing
work for those actually unemployed has received most consideration.
Clearly the above description of policy in relation to employment problems applies primarily to the over-populated West
Indian islands whose economy is based almost exclusively on
agriculture. In Surinam and French Guiana, the primary
pre-occupation of policy is with increasing labour supply; in
the Netherlands Antilles, in which oil refining is the major
aspect of economic life, different factors are again involved.
The most urgent problems in regard to employment arise,
however, in the first group of territories. The details which
follow refer primarily to the British and American territories ;
they illustrate the basic character of the employment situation
before the outbreak of the second world war, the temporary
alleviation afforded by wartime conditions and the problems
which have been met in the change-over to post-war economic
conditions.
EXTENT OF THE EMPLOYMENT PROBLEM

The gravity of the problem of intermittent employment in
the years prior to the second world war led the Eoyal Commission of 1938-1939 to characterise it as " the most serious
problem in the labour situation and consequently the life of
the people of the (British) West Indies ".2 Some of the causes
and implications of this situation have been outlined in the
Commission's Beport in the following terms :
The actual wages paid may or may not be reasonably satisfactory for persons in full employment . . . but at the present time
1
Frederick P. BABTLETT and Associates : A Development Plan for the Virgin
Islands (San Juan, P.R., 1943), a mimeographed study by the National Eesources
Planning Board.
2
Beport, op. cit., p. 32.

MANPOWEB

the question does not arise for a tragically large proportion of the
labouring population : full employment and regular wages are not
available for them. I t may be possible for a Jamaican wharf
labourer, for example, to earn lOd. or l i d . per hour, but he cannot
rely on working on more than one steamer a week, and t h a t for a
period from 6 to 14 hours. Similarly, in Barbados, a stevedore
may earn from 8s. 4d. to 10s. for a 9-hour day ; but it must be
remembered that by far the greater proportion of the island's
export of sugar is snipped in a period of a few weeks, apart from
which there is little or no work for the army of labourers needed
to handle it.
This problem of intermittent labour is traditional in the towns
and ports : to it has recently been added an equally serious problem
of rural underemployment. The effects of low prices and limitation of output under the International Sugar Agreement, and of
the rise in wage rates itself, calling for economy of management
and the curtailment of activity, have restricted the volume of work
available for the estate labourer, and the difficulty of securing an
adequate cash income from the cultivation of export crops has caused
many more peasants than before to seek to supplement their incomes
by wage labour in a labour market already overcrowded. Eural
conditions of employment have thus tended to approximate more
closely to those prevailing in the towns with the important difference that, even taking into account recent wage increases, there
remains a large disparity between the town rate and the country
rate. The more regular employment which in the past tended to
equalise actual earnings as between town and country is becoming
a thing of the past.
The consequences of this depression in rural areas are obvious.
I t is next to impossible for the men to earn enough to support a
family with the result that the women have also to work and cannot
devote themselves to the maintenance of the home and the care
of their children. The children themselves may be set to work to
supplement the family's income when they should be at school,
or the older children of school age are kept at home to look after
their younger brothers and sisters. Only the prevalence of foodgardens even among estate labourers mitigates the severity of conditions in rural areas. 1
A more detailed survey a n d analysis is provided in Major
Orde Browne's report entitled Labour Conditions in the West
Indies.
The report's assessment of t h e situation in 1939 in
regard to u n e m p l o y m e n t a n d underemployment in general
m a y be t h u s summarised. Agriculture, chiefly on t h e p l a n t a t i o n
system, is t h e m a i n s t a y of t h e British W e s t Indies. The relev a n t p l a n t a t i o n s h a v e not y e t a d a p t e d themselves t o t h e
facts of a changing situation, in particular t h e end of t h e
i n d e n t u r e d labour system, increased population a n d falling
m a r k e t prices. A larger n u m b e r of persons regard t h e estates
as their h o m e a n d means of subsistence t h a n t h e estates can
1

Report, op. cit., p p . 32-33.

LABOTJB, POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

provide with full-time employment economically. The estates
h a v e a d o p t e d t h e policy of sharing t h e available work so t h a t
all these workers m a y earn some wages a t a n y r a t e . A t a
t i m e w h e n t h e changing circumstances d e m a n d e d a reduction
i n t h e labour force, t h e best organisation in m e t h o d , t h e
greatest efficiency a n d restriction of cultivation, m o d e r n
appliances were being deliberately ignored in favour of oldfashioned m e t h o d s which would employ larger n u m b e r s a n d
t h e limited a m o u n t of work available was being shared o u t as
p a r t i a l employment.
The existing situation may thus be described as an attempt
to make the various industries carry a population appreciably
larger than the economic situation warrants.
This p o i n t is amplified as follows :
If the labour force of the average plantation be analysed it will
be found to consist of three parts ; the first is the permanent establishment, including most of the skilled and semi-skilled employees,
who are in steady employment throughout the year ; secondly,
there is the main body of labourers who cannot expect to be earning
wages for more than half the year ; and thirdly, there is a body of
workers required only during the peak season of production probably
not more than six weeks or two months. Of these, the second is
considerably larger than the other two. I n existing circumstances,
it will generally be found that both the first and second groups
look to the industry for their entire support, while possibly the
majority of them are housed on the estate ; of necessity therefore
there must be during several months of every year a considerable
proportion of the labour force only partially employed and thus
underpaid and miserable. The small section of workers required
only for the peak period will prove on examination to be people
normally earning a living in some other fashion, who take advantage
of the opportunity to make a little extra cash ; in other words, they
are not really dependent on the plantation.
The plight of the second section—the partially employed—must
be obvious. Whatever the actual figure of their wage may be,
intermittent employment probably halves it, if average earnings
throughout the year are considered ; such allotments as they may
have probably furnish only a meagre amount of employment or
produce and they are therefore compelled to spend a proportion
of every year idle, underfed, and naturally discontented. The
quarters in which they live are the property of the estate and they
are therefore to that degree dependent on it ; any attempt to find
work elsewhere entails the loss of a home.
From the point of view of the estate these superfluous numbers
constitute a heavy burden. As already mentioned, they constantly
militate against the introduction of up-to-date methods, while modern
opinion demands an increasingly high standard of accommodation
and amenities entailing considerable expenditure. 1
1

O B D E B R O W N E : op.

cit.,

17.

MANPOWEE

Comment in the report on particular territories throws
further light on the situation. Total unemployment was rare
in Barbados but " insufficient employment is rife ". In Jamaica
the unemployment situation had become sufficiently grave by
1935 to necessitate the appointment of a local Unemployment
Commission. From 1883 to 1935, an average net emigration
of 10,000 persons was recorded, a source of relief of the employment situation which at the time of Major Orde Browne's investigation had dried up. During the years 1935-1939, action
taken by Government involved inter alia the following measures,
in financial terms : authorisation of a development loan of
£2 million ; a public works extraordinary programme of
£129,000 ; and recurrent expenditure on the Public Works
Department of the order of £300,000 in the financial year
1937-1938 and £320,000 in 1938-1939. The dominant influences
in the situation are summarised as (a) an enormous adverse
trade balance, (b) an unduly large urban population, and (e)
the superfluous labourers dependent upon most estates. No
precise figures were given but the extreme gravity of the situation was implied in no uncertain terms. In Antigua there was
a " serious amount of partial employment ". In Trinidad, the
situation was less acute than in other parts of the British
West Indies, but there was a " considerable amount of parttime employment ".
In Grenada, " at the best of times, employment was only
intermittent " ; in St. Lucia, it was estimated that there were
some 8,000 people in the island in need of employment, " but
the problem is one rather of intermittent employment than of
entire absence " ; in St. Vincent, " complete lack of employment is probably rare, but a very large number of people are
compelled to subsist on intermittent earnings ".
Of British Honduras, it is said : " A considerable number
of people in the colony are at any given time out of work ;
this is partly due to the seasonal nature of most of the principal
forms of occupation ". Throughout, stress is laid on underemployment rather than on unemployment, with Jamaica as
a partial exception.
Wartime conditions brought about major changes in the
employment structure. As is mentioned above 1 , the relative
employing capacity of the different industries and forms of
1

Cf. above, Chapters I a n d I I .

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

occupation were markedly affected by shipment problems,
Government aid, the existence of alternative forms of employment (for example, the effect on the Trinidad sugar industry
of employment opportunities on the United States bases), loss
of markets, the expansion of industries vital to the war effort
and various forms of control. Wartime migration for employment assumed considerable proportions. Land settlement
schemes decidedly progressed. Development grants under the
Colonial Development and Welfare Act, though restricted by
wartime shortages of technical personnel and materials, have
had some effect. " Grow More Food " campaigns helped in
some instances to palliate underemployment and may have
had some permanent influence in modifying emphasis on export
crops.
The employment directly and indirectly afforded through
the construction of United States bases was perhaps the most
important single factor contributing to raise the level of
employment during the war.
Several of these factors have lost significance with the
cessation of war effort requirements. Employment afforded
by the United States authorities is now on a very much lower
level than when construction was at its peak. Workers who
had migrated for employment are for the most part either
returning home or preparing to return. The patterns of
Government control and assistance have altered with the return
to peacetime conditions. On the other hand, it will now be
possible for development work under the Colonial Development and Welfare Act, 1945, to proceed with increased resources
and without wartime shortages ; much the same will apply to
the local development plans formulated by the different
territories ; public construction and land settlement should
further help to ease the position.
A brief survey of the employment situation in a few parts
of the West Indies illustrates the characteristics of the problem
in more detail. 1

1
The summary given is for the most part based on the Department of Labour
Reports of the dependencies concerned.

MANPOWER

Barbados
The following estimates of occupational distribution in
1942 were made by the Economic Adviser to the Comptroller
for Development and Welfare in a national income survey 1 :

Agricultural labourers (nearly all sugar workers) .
Fishermen
Sugar factories
Other factories and public utilities
Dock workers and porters
Transport (including taxis)
Artisans (carpenters, masons, coopers, etc.) . . .
Shop assistants
Government and other clerks
Dressmaking, etc
Police
Assistant teachers
Road works, etc
Government and parochial employees not elsewhere
included
Domestic servants
Hucksters, etc
All other (say)
Total . . .

21,000
1,500
5,000
2,000
2,000
2,000
5,000
5,000
5,000
4,000
600
700
600
1,000
20,000
6,000
1,500
82,900

These figures can be taken at the most to indicate the
relative importance as employment markets of the different
occupations listed. The numerical preponderance of two
categories—agricultural labourers (25 per cent.) and domestic
servants (24 per cent.) is manifest ; a large number of workers
classified under other heads are engaged in occupations ancillary to the agricultural industry. 2 An abstract of relevant
returns from the 1946 Census is included in Appendix I I .
The records of the public employment agency throw some
light on the incidence of unemployment. The total number
of persons registered as unemployed during the years 1941
and 1942 was 10,114 ; at the end of 1942, 2,683 persons were
on the lists as having either applied or renewed their application within the immediately preceding three months. I n
September 1944 the number of unemployed listed was 5,862
and, at the end of the year, 5,394. These figures cannot be
1
Frederic BBNHAM : The National Income of Barbados, 1942 (Development and
Welfare Organisation, Bulletin No. 9, Advocate Company Limited, Bridgetown,
Barbados), p. 18. Figures are rounded estimates.
2
The 1921 Census classified 34 per cent, of wage earners as directly engaged
in agriculture and 25 per cent, as being domestic servants.

LABOTJE POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

used, as a precise or even approximate index of unemployment
in Barbados. Begistration is not compulsory, nor does it
necessarily imply that the registrant is not already either
wholly or partially employed; when, for example, opportunities for overseas employment are available, employed workers
wishing to migrate often register themselves. Again, when
registrants have obtained work, they do not always take steps
to ensure that their names are removed from the list.
Further, to attach too much significance to Barbados
unemployment figures would in any case imply failure to
recognise the magnitude of the more vital question of underemployment ; while this latter problem is not, in the circumstances of Barbados, amenable to statistical illustration, its
characteristics are clear. Most labour in Barbados is casual ;
employment opportunities are insufficient to allow the majority
of workers to work full time ; operations in the sugar industry
—the foundation of the island's economic life and the main
source of employment—involve, with the present organisation
of the industry, serious seasonal unemployment which, in
this highly populated territory, cannot be as frequently offset
by work on small-holdings as elsewhere. Eapid population
increase and limitation in opportunities for emigration have
been the basic contributory factors. 1
The impact of war conditions varied in its effects on employment. On the one hand, there were opportunities for emigration and Barbadian workers migrated for employment to
Trinidad, St. Lucia, Bermuda, Curaçao and the United States
for temporary work ; there was an extensive " Grow More
Food " campaign and some expansion of local production of such
items as soap and vegetable oils. On the other hand, wartime
conditions in some instances restricted output. For example,
an important dislocation in the employment structure was
caused in 1943 by the decision to discontinue the production
of fancy molasses owing to shipping difficulties. Some 1,700
to 2,000 persons were employed directly in this industry and
its cessation also affected (a) coopers making puncheons, (b)
molasses porters and carters, (e) lightermen, and (d) stevedore
labourers.
With the end of the war, unemployment problems came
again to the fore, in particular because of the limitation on
1

Cf. below, Chapters V and I X .

MANPOWER

migration brought about by the reversion to peacetime
conditions. During 1947, the Barbados Government voted
£75,000 to finance public works to relieve the situation.
At the end of 1948, the Government estimated t h a t the
number of able-bodied unskilled men who could not be fully
absorbed in local occupations was about 5,000 and that the
number of women in excess of local requirements was approximately the same. Some recruiting for employment in the
United States began again in 1948, after an interruption of
two years or so ,• at the end of 1948, about 450 workers were
employed in the United States under this arrangement and
during the year 623 workers migrated for employment to
other areas.
During 1948 the Governor appointed a Committee to
examine and make recommendations on the best means of
promoting full employment in rural areas throughout the year.
The Committee recommended, inter alia, increased production
of local foodstuffs, the promotion of industrialisation and the
spacing between reaping seasons of construction and other
schemes under consideration.
British

Guiana

At the time of the 1931 census the categories of wage
earners numerically most important were as follows :
Occupation
Sugar : field labour . . . .
factory hands . . .
Gold and diamonds . . . .
Timber
Municipal and public works
Dock labourers

Number
employed
57,000-60,000
4,500-5,000
6,000-9,000
3,500
2,830
1,160

The total number of wage earners was given as some
113,000. The predominance of the sugar industry, no less
than the existence of more varied employment opportunities
than in most British Caribbean dependencies, is reflected in
these figures. Some relevant figures from the 1946 Census are
given in Appendix I to the present chapter.
During the war, employment opportunities were undoubtedly increased ; the Comptroller for Development and Welfare
has even stated that in British Guiana more employment was

LABOUR POLICEES IN THE WEST INDIES

available than labour, although the demand could have
been met by an increased work effort by the labourers
employed. 1 The chief factors contributing to this end were :
(a) construction of two United States bases which were
employing some 4,000 workers in 1941 ; (b) increased production of commodities specially needed for the war effort—the
bauxite industry gave employment in 1942 to the unusually
high number of over 3,600 workers—and (c) increased local
production of foodstuffs. Some contraction in employment in
the sugar industry took place ; the average number of workers
employed weekly in the field fell from 26,677 in 1941 to 22,416
in 1942 and 20,801 in 1943 ; the corresponding figures for
sugar factories were 4,446, 4,729 and 4,255. The explanation
offered was that workers were " finding more remunerative
employment elsewhere, principally in the cultivation of rice
and ground provisions ". 2
Underemployment none the less remained ; during 1943,
for example, resident piece workers on sugar estates worked
on an average 3.58 days a week. The extent of seasonal
fluctuations in employment is indicated by the fact that, in
the same year, the average number of field workers employed
in the sugar industry during any one week ranged from
24,966 to 16,322. In both instances, however, allowances
must be made ; these figures represent the effect both of
genuine intermittent or underemployment and of time taken
off by some workers to cultivate their holdings.
Conditions have since considerably altered. By March
1945, employment on construction work by the United States
authorities had declined to the level of 1,500. During 1943,
the number of workers engaged in the bauxite industry
declined from 3,600 to 2,950 ; during the last six months
of 1944, the larger company engaged in the production of
bauxite discharged some 1,700 workers. In the sugar industry, the weekly average of field workers employed during the
last quarter of 1944 and the first quarter of 1945 was about
21,100, a figure indicating that the industry has regained
ground. The corresponding numbeTS in 1947 and 1948 were
22,553 and 21,149.
1
Development and Welfare in the West Indies, 1943-1944, Keport by Sir
Frank STOCKDALE (London, H.M. Stationery Office, 1945), p . 69.
2
British Guiana : Report of the Department of Labour for the Year 1943, p. 1.

MANPOWEE

British

Honduras

The following figures in regard to the occupational distribution of wage earners in British Honduras are provided
in the Labour Department report for the year 1946 :
Occupation

Mahogany
Pine
Chicle
Agriculture
Sawmills
Factories
Public Works Department
Transport and distributive trades

Number employed

1,350
212
1,881
834
416
374
560
695

An abstract of relevant information from the 1946 Census
is given in Appendix I.
The most important aspects of the employment problems
of this territory are discussed below under the headings of
migration and relief work. The two main industries—mahogany and chicle—afford only seasonal employment. Stabilised agriculture is relatively unimportant. Even at the
best of times, labour demand would seem to be far smaller
than labour supply. Belief work has been the stock remedy
persistently applied for many years.
During the war, migration of forest workers to the United
Kingdom and the United States helped to alleviate this
situation. War conditions also created an increased demand
for some commodities, e.g., chicle, produced in British Honduras. On the other hand, there were unfavourable circumstances ; for example, shipping difficulties virtually eliminated
in 1943 employment in the growing of grapefruit.
Until 1944, the effects of the war on the economic situation had been favourable, but, with the disbandment of the
British Honduranian Forestry Units in the United Kingdom,
a serious problem was posed. The Governor, in an address
to the Legislative Council on 10 March 1944, said—
I may shortly have to approach the Council with a request for
substantial sums for unemployment relief. It is hoped that this
necessity will be avoided ; but we have to face the fact that within
the last three months nearly fifteen hundred men, who until recently
were remitting large sums of money to this colony from Scotland
or Panama, have returned to seek work here.
7

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

Subsequent recruitment of forest workers for temporary
employment in the United. States temporarily assisted in
solving the immediate problems.
The majority of workers who had migrated for employment in the forest industry had returned by the end of 1946 ;
in all, less than 200 remained in the United States at that
date. The report of the Labour Department for the year
1945 noted that during the year the return of workers from
the United States resulted in an increase in unemployment,
which was increased by the suspension of operations in the
mahogany industry in the Peten District of Guatemala.
A survey held in Belize during four weeks in November
1948 provided the following information :
The survey disclosed that of the 713 non-ex-servicemen registered
as unemployed 22 had left Belize ; 75 could not be found at' the
addresses given and 73 others were in regular employment ; leaving
a balance of 543 who were either wholly unemployed or did not
receive sufficient casual employment to enable them to provide
for themselves and their families. Of the 178 ex-servicemen registered, 61 had either left Belize or could not be found at their
addresses ; 15 were in employment and the total names remaining
open in the unemployment register at the end of November was
therefore 102. The names of 20 juvenile males and 10 adult females
also appeared as unemployed in the records of the Labour Department.
The unemployment and underemployed in the capital city are
made up mainly of unskilled workers who have had no experience
in forest or agricultural work and have always existed by casual
labour in and around the town.
Such unemployment as existed amongst carpenters and others
in the building trades was largely caused by the shortage of pine
lumber and other essential material as Government and private
projects arranged for were well able to provide employment for all
tradesmen.
Unemployment may be attributed principally to the lack of
agricultural and industrial development to keep pace with normal
population growth and1 to the gradual drift of the population from
rural to urban areas.
Jamaica
The Jamaica Economic Policy Committee considered that
the 1943 Census figures regarding unemployment and underemployment needed, in the circumstances of Jamaica 2 , to
be treated with reserve—
1
British Honduras, Annual Be-port on the Working of the Labour Department
for the Year ended 31st December, 1948, pp. 4-5.
2
Cf. Appendix IV.

MANPOWEB

These figures appear to show a very serious amount of unemployment and underemployment—only a third of all wage earners were
fully employed. There undoubtedly is an employment problem,
but the situation is much less serious than these figures suggest.
In the first place, any census in any country will record a number
of unemployables, beggars, criminals, prostitutes and so forth who
will class themselves as wage earners seeking employment ; and
in Jamaica a census of unemployed is interpreted by many to mean
that there is the possibility of a job going, so they put their names
down as unemployed. In the second place, much of the apparent
underemployment was voluntary, in the sense that many wage
earners would not put in a full working
week all the year round
even if they had the opportunity.1
According to these returns, 44 per cent, of the gainfully
occupied population of Jamaica in 1943 were engaged in
agriculture, 16 per cent, in personal service (domestic service
14 per cent.), 12 per cent., in manufacturing and 8 per cent.
in trade (retail trade 7 per cent.). Gainfully occupied persons constituted some 54 per cent, of the total number of
persons aged ten years and over.
The data regarding underemployment indicate a serious
situation even after all the necessary caution in interpretation
is exercised. Of the wage earners supplying information
on the number of weeks employment they had had during
the twelve preceding months, about 46 per cent, had been
employed for less than 30 weeks ; further, some 34 per cent.
worked on an average less than five days a week. This
general conclusion is strongly reinforced by the figures given
relating to the range of days worked in the sugar industry.
The various factors in the wartime situation which altered
the employment structure in the West Indies had a distinctive
effect in Jamaica. Wartime migration for employment
and progress in the development of land settlement schemes
were relatively more important here than elsewhere. But
the construction of United States bases had a negligible
effect on the over-all employment problem. At its peak,
employment on the naval and air bases was only of the order
of 9,000 workers : 7,000 of these were discharged as early as
the first half of 1942 and even employment for maintenance
purposes was never considerable.
The effect of war conditions on the employing capacity
of different occupations was perhaps the most significant
feature. Before the war, the banana industry was easily
1

BENHAM : op. cit., p. 14.

LABOUR POLICEES IN THE WEST INDIES

the most important source of employment ; the estimate in
the Orde Browne report of wage earners in that industry
in 1939 was 100,000 as compared with 41,000 in the sugar
industry, the next most important source of employment. 1
The results of the ban on shipment to the United Kingdom
and of a destructive 1944 hurricane, added to the problems
which the industry faced even before the war, were farreaching. The 1942 report of the Department of Labour
refers to the fact that—
. . . the depreciating banana industry continued to throw several
thousands of small peasant proprietors and farm hands into the
unemployment pool. The food production campaign and the
increased employment in the sugar industry were not sufficient to
affect the situation appreciably.
Financial aid has, however, been forthcoming and the future
prospects of the industry were not viewed too pessimistically
by the Economic Policy Committee.
The effects of the developments which helped to ease
the employment situation during the war years have begun
to recede. In particular, Jamaican migrant workers have
been for the most part repatriated. On the basis of the 1943
census, and taking account of the developments since then,
the Statistical Officer of the Jamaica Labour Department
estimated that, in the absence of substantial industrial expansion, some 108,000 workers would be unemployed in the
immediate post-war period. This estimate, however, was
only an approximation at the time, and it remains difficult
to assess the extent of unemployment even at any particular
period. Present problems of unemployment in Jamaica are,
however, admitted to be grave ; one index is the influx of
Jamaicans into the United Kingdom during the past few years
to seek work, usually in the absence of any guarantee that
employment would be obtained.
The report of the Department of Labour for the year
1948 in particular stressed that the unemployment situation
had deteriorated during the year and had obliged the Government to provide large sums for relief work. During the
year, 45,714 persons were employed in the parishes on relief
work, 1,300 by the Western Kingston Relief Works and
7,000 by the Kingston and St. Andrew Corporation.
1

O R D E B B O W H E : op. cit.,

98.

MANPOWER

Trinidad
Even in pre-war years the comparatively varied character
of the economy of this dependency implied wider employment
opportunities than in most other British Caribbean dependencies. Major Orde Browne stated in 1939—
The unemployment problem in Trinidad is less aeute than in
the remainder of the West Indies ; in fact, it is possible to find a
local shortage of labour in certain industries. This, however, can
probably be largely explained by the difference in the nature of the
work, since the local labourer is conservative in his attachment
to the particular form of labour to which he is accustomed.1
Nevertheless, underemployment was widely prevalent. Wartime conditions brought about a greatly increased demand
for labour which was met in part by the migration of workers
from other British Caribbean areas to Trinidad and in part
by the movement of local workers from less to more attractive
avenues of employment. Although post-war employment
prospects were viewed with concern, the early stages of
transition have not brought serious difficulties, but there
are signs that unemployment may become a more serious
problem in the near future.
The following table provides estimates of employment in
different industries in Trinidad :
Occupation

N«gg>«

Oü industry
14,000
Sugar industry
24,000
Cocoa industry
17,500
Coconut plantations
2,750
Port transport
—
Minor industries
—
Distributive trades and domestic service
—
Public works
—

» c ^ /

14,000
22,210
16,000
5,000
4,200
—
26,000
9,000

Source : Reports of the Industrial Adviser, Trinidad, (or the years in question.

An abstract of relevant information from the 1946 Census
is also provided in Appendix I I .
The most important factor in the wartime employment
situation was unquestionably the construction of United
States bases. The multiplier effect of this development
and some of its wider implications have been well brought
out in the Report of the Sugar Industry Committee, 1943.
1

OEDE BROWNE : op. cit., p. 120.

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

In analysing the effect of this construction work on the labour
problems of the sugar industry, the report stated—
We are unable to attribute the loss of labourers which the sugar
industry experienced up to the 1943 reaping season solely to the
increased employment offered by the United States Navy Department. We believe that the real explanation lies in . . . the
artificial position created by the inflated purchasing power of the
United States personnel stationed in the heart of the northern
sugar area . . . This increase in currency is exchanged in
concentrated areas for a variety of satisfactions . . . widely
demanded by United States personnel and as widely supplied by
local residents who
would otherwise be available for work in the
sugar industry.1
In 1941, some 20,000 workers were employed on the bases ;
in the peak year, 1942, this figure rose to 28,000 ; at the end
of 1943 it was 19,000, and at the end of 1944, 9,400. I t was
expected that the number of local workers who would be
employed when work on the bases was reduced to strictly
maintenance level would be of the order of 6,000, and that
adaptation of the bases for commercial use might involve
further construction. In point of fact, however, the number
of local civilians so employed was 3,500 at the end of 1947
and 2,994 at the end of 1948.
As early as 1941, the Industrial Adviser, Trinidad, was
able to state—
In 1941 the colony had the unique experience of an unfulfilled
demand for almost an classes of labour . . . Any unemployment
there may have been at the end of 1940 among able-bodied workers
and those genuinely seeking employment was minimised considerably during the first three months of 1941, and by June of that
year, save in remote rural districts, the demand for labour became
greater than the supply.
I n 1942—
. . . the demand for all grades of workers . . . exceeded the
supply and unemployment of able-bodied men was practically
non-existent . . . .
In varying degrees, most industries experienced some difficulty in meeting demands on production.
While work on the bases contributed most to this situation,
there were other factors ; inter alia, the development of war
work, especially in engineering and ship repairing and the
expansion of miscellaneous trades and services because of the
community's increased spending power.
1
Report of the Committee Appointed to Enquire into the Sugar Industry, Council
Paper No. 1 of 1944 (Trinidad and Tobago,. 1944), Part I.

MANPOWER

The extent of migration from other parts of the Caribbean
to Trinidad is discussed below, but its effect on the island
deserves some notice here. A large part of this migration
involved illegal entry and even contracted workers absconded
from the industries which they were engaged to take up for
more remunerative employment elsewhere. Legislative and
executive action was taken to meet this situation. Under
the Immigration (Special Provisions) Ordinance, 1942, the
Governor-in-Council was empowered to prohibit by proclamation the entry into the colony of immigrant manual labourers.
By a proclamation dated 11 July 1944, the entry, from 1 August
1944 until further notice, of any immigrant manual labourer
other than a native of the colony or a person in possession of
a valid written contract of employment in the agricultural
industry was prohibited. 1
The agricultural and, in particular, the sugar industry
was hardest hit by the intra-island movement of labour.
Although efforts were made to recruit workers under contract
from overseas for employment in agriculture, it was found
difficult to ensure that such workers abided by the terms of
their contract and did not abscond.
An illustration alike of the decline of the sugar industry
as a source of employment and of seasonal fluctuation in
employment is provided by the following figures (estimates
by the Industrial Adviser) :
Numbers employed
Crop season Out-oi-crop season
(Maximum in any fortnight)
1940
30,000
20,000
1941
27,300
17,500
1942
25,600
14,000
1943
20,778
12,570
1944
18,615
12,970
1945
20,300
10,824
1946
22,442
12,228
1947
22,200
15,000
1949
21,764
14,152
Source : Reports of the Industrial Adviser, Trinidad, for the years 1940-1949.
Year

By July 1943, the labour supply position in the sugar
industry and its repercussions had become sufficiently grave
to necessitate the appointment by the Governor of a Committee " to recommend to Government what measures, if any,
1
Proclamation No. 34 of 1944 (Gazette Extraordinary), Port of Spain, 18 July
1944. •

100

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

should be taken in view of the present position and future
prospects of the sugar industry ". The Committee included
in its proposals for the rehabilitation of the industry measures
designed to offset absenteeism by rendering working conditions
more attractive. These measures included an output bonus to
be paid in housing certificates and an output bonus payable
in cash, for which workers would qualify by performing a
stipulated number of tasks within a given period, and seven
days' annual leave with pay for all field workers with twelve
months' continuous service with any one employer in the sugar
industry, provided they worked at least 260 days in the year.
That these recommendations were proposed as practicable and
have in part been implemented is in itself, in the circumstances,
an index of the gravity of the situation.
Soon after the United States bases had begun to utilise a
large local labour force, fears began to be expressed that the
cessation of construction work would involve the island in
serious employment problems. Arrangements were therefore
made with the United States authorities that the release of
labour should be gradual. This process began as early as
1943 and the policy was on the whole successful in achieving
the purpose sought. Although the number of workers returning
to other forms of employment was not equal to the number of
workers discharged from the bases, absorption continued.
Further, a substantial proportion of the workers from neighbouring British West Indian colonies returned to their homes.
On 21 June 1944 the British Secretary of State for the Colonies made the following statement in the House of Commons :
The Government of Trinidad is fully aware of the need to deal
by all available means with the situation resulting from the release
of labour from the United States bases. Over 3,000 workers have
been absorbed by local food production alone and the process
continues. Agriculture generally, and the sugar industry in particular, are still in a position to offer employment. The number
of workers who have so far registered as unemployed has been small.
The Government has a considerable works programme in hand
which should meet demands for employment which are expected
later. That programme depends on supplies of material and equipment which
the Trinidad Government is making every effort to
obtain.1
The indications are that the employment problems involved
in transition to a peacetime economy, whilst presenting
1

House of Commons, Parliamentary Debates, London, 21 June 1944, col. 183¡

MANPOWER

101

numerous difficulties, are less acute in Trinidad than in some
other British West Indian territories. This is due not only
to the varied character of the economy of the island but to
the fact that Trinidad did not have to attempt to reabsorb
into local employment a large army of repatriated migrants,
a problem which assumed major proportions in other parts
of the British West Indies.
Puerto Rico
The impact of the war on the Puerto Eican employment
situation was complex in character. An employment survey
undertaken by the insular Department of Labor reveals that
from July 1942 to January 1943 there was a reduction in
employment of 31.8 per cent, but a rise of 35.3 per cent, in
June 1943 over the figures for January. The following points
are, however, clear : on the one hand, employment on military
installations at certain stages afforded considerable employment, a number of workers were employed under contract in
the United States, and a considerable number of Puerto
Eicans were absorbed in the United States forces ; on the
other hand, there have been serious shipping difficulties which,
despite United States aid, have affected the sugar industry,
the needlework industry and the building trade, war has not
led to the growth of defence industries and emigration for
employment has been negligible. Government policy, initiated
and originally financed by the insular Government and later
aided by federal funds, was based on the institution of an
extensive emergency works programme.
In territories in which seasonal unemployment and over-all
underemployment are strongly marked, the season at which
the figures are compiled, no less than the actual figures, is of
importance. The fact that at the time of the 1940 census
89,776 persons were either seeking work or on public emergency work while the registrants in the 1943 employment
survey numbered 206,371 is partly to be explained in this way,
since the 1940 figures refer to March, when employment in
occupations of seasonal character is relatively high, and the
1943 figures to November, when such employment is relatively
low ; for example, 25 per cent, of the registrants (50,805) in
the 1943 survey were classified as usually working in the sugar
industry, and most of these would probably have been so

102

LABOUR POLICEES IN THE WEST INDIES

engaged in the crop season. The fact that so much labour in
Puerto Eico is casual and the fact that figures available on
unemployment are merely a reflection of workers' self-classification add to the number of problems of interpretation
involved. The statistics given, despite their appearance of
exactness, must be regarded as indices and no more.
After all due allowance is made, the seriousness of the
problems of unemployment and underemployment in the
Puerto Biean economy cannot be gainsaid ; it is the most
significant feature the figures reveal. In 1939, less than 50
per cent, of the experienced workers in occupations listed in
the 1940 census worked during all 12 months of 1939 ; the
significance of this is underlined when it is realised t h a t
unemployed workers, those on public emergency work and
inexperienced workers are excluded and that the occupations
were selected with a view to assessing the position in the
leading forms of occupation, and not to prove the seriousness
of unemployment or underemployment in particularly unfortunate occupations. The special stresses created by wartime
conditions have in general terms been described above ; here,
taking a longer view, it is more significant to note that the
position since 1930, as indicated by the figures given, has
consistently been one in which the jobs available have nevereven approached the level necessary to provide productive
full-time employment for Puerto Eican workers.
Appendix I I I summarises recent data on the employment
situation in Puerto Eico.
In a statement recently made by the Commissioner of Labor
of Puerto Eico before the Labor and Education and Ways
and Means Subcommittees of the United States House of
Eepresentatives on extension of a 75-cent minimum wage
to Puerto Bico, it is noted that, though the potential labour
force has increased by an average of 22,000 per year for the
last three years and the latest available estimate for unemployment is 70,000, the increase in employment over the past
decade has been 130,000. Consideration of this achievement
in the light of the active measures being taken to facilitate
migration and to broaden the community's basis of support
suggests that very real progress has been made in this
territory.

103

MANPOWER

Virgin

Islands

In the 1940 census, 10,504 persons were enumerated as
being in the labour force ; 2,000 of these were employed on
public emergency work, 7,133 were otherwise employed and
1,371 were seeking work. The following table classifies those
employed other than by emergency work according to occupational group :
Pupation
Professional workers
Semi-professional workers
Farmers and farm managers
Proprietors, managers and officials, except farm. .
Clerical, sales, and kindred workers
Operatives and kindred workers
Domestic service workers
Service workers, except domestic
F a r m labourers (wage workers and farm foremen).
F a r m labourers, unpaid family workers
Labourers, except farm
Occupation not reported

403
35
629
489
596
687
1,402
510
587
101
826
18

The war situation has had a varying effect on the level
of employment, but on the whole provided temporary relief.
I t was even reported that in St. Croix " many small farms
were abandoned or neglected in favour of wage work made
available at the new Army Air base." 1 In St. Thomas, during
the fiscal year 1941-1942, " extensive military preparations
gave remunerative employment to every employable male " 2 ;
in St. Croix, however, because of five years of drought on
agriculture, work had to be provided through Federal Agencies
to counteract a high incidence of unemployment. In the following year—
. . . defence construction operations gave employment on the
island of St. Thomas to every employable male worker, and the
shortage of native labor to meet the abnormal demands resulted
in a heavy importation of labor from neighbouring British islands.
With the reduction of defence installations as the year drew3 to a
close a great many of the imported aliens were repatriated.
1
Annual Repon of the Governor of the Virgin Islands to the Secretary of the
Interior, Fiscal Year ended June 30,1941 (Washington, U.S. Government Printing
Office, 1941), p . 1.
2
Governor's Report, Fiscal Year ended June 30,1942 (Washington, 1942), p . 2.
3
Governor's Report, Fiscal Year ended June 30,1943 (Washington, 1943), p . 1.

104

LABOUR POLICEES IN THE WEST INDIES

Federal work programmes were found necessary for
St. Croix during wartime. It was at the same time considered
that " unemployment undoubtedly will be the most serious
consideration in the Virgin Islands in the immediate future." *
In 1949, in a report to the United Nations, it was estimated
that there were some 1,000 employable persons unemployed
in the territory.
Surinam
The employment problem in Surinam (181,984) is characterised by the fact that the labour supply is far smaller than
labour demand. There is a serious shortage of agricultural
labourers and skilled industrial workers. The effects of the
war aggravated this situation in the agricultural field, as wages
in defence works, as in the bauxite industry, were higher
than in agriculture, and agricultural labourers on the plantations and the owners of small holdings entered these industries.
A few thousand men were absorbed in the armed forces.
Netherlands

Territories

There is no endemic unemployment in these territories.
Since the establishment in 1914 of the petrol companies there
has always been a shortage of labour. Thousands of labourers
have emigrated to these territories. Underemployment is only
found among dock labourers.
To supervise the employment situation in the harbour,
a Dock Labour Board was set up in 1946, which consists of
an inspector, who is the head of the Board, and who is assisted
by a committee of three employers and three workers. This
Labour Board provides the only labour pool for all stevedoring
concerns. Every dock worker and stevedoring concern must
be registered with the Board before being allowed to work
in the docks or carry on stevedoring work. The engagement
of unregistered dock workers is prohibited. The workers
are in the employment of, and are paid by, the Board, which
recovers from the stevedoring establishments the wages paid.
The workers are classified into regular staff, reserve workers
and casual workers, each class having different rights and
duties.
1

Ibid.

105

MANPOWER

Guadeloupe and Martinique
The following information has been provided by the Government of France on occupational distribution in Guadeloupe
and Martinique.
Occupation

Numbers^mployed

Agriculture
Sugar factories and distilleries
Manufacture of preserves
Port and dock labour
Building and public works
Commercial establishments

35,000
5,000
1,500
1,200
3,000
2,000
Total . . .

47,700

For Martinique, the following estimates were provided :
Occupation

™

Pood industries
Other industries
Workers in the agricultural phase of the sugar
industry
Banana industry
Commercial workers
Total . . .

10,000
8,000
15,000
10,000
10,000
53,000

ACTION AGAINST UNEMPLOYMENT

Belief and Emergency Work
A programme of public relief work is the traditional means
by which British West Indian administrations seek to
alleviate employment crises. During the depression period
of the 1930's relief work was made widely available. Some
criticisms of this system, in particular those offered by Major
Orde Browne and by the Jamaica Economic Policy Committee,
have been noted earlier in this chapter.
In the present context, however, it is difficult to distinguish
clearly between relief work, often uneconomic 1 , designed
primarily to offset unemployment and public works designed
primarily for development purposes which have a similar
effect on the employment position. As Major Orde Browne
1

For instance the Economic Policy Committee report of 1945 (Kingston,
Jamaica, Government Printer), reveals that the filling in of a swamp in Jamaica
by the relief work system cost over £2,000 an acre.

106

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

points out in a comment earlier cited, the administrations
concerned sometimes attempt to disguise the existence of
relief work, pure and simple. The distinction, in so far as
it can be made, is nevertheless one of primary importance.
The lines along which post-war unemployment relief
planning was being done during the war further illustrates
this emphasis. In Trinidad, the policy of the Government—
. . . is to prepare Public Works programmes so that these can
be proceeded with as work on the bases diminishes and other industries have their labour supplies replenished. Any such plans are
of course dependent on the supply of materials to a very considerable extent.
In pursuance of this policy the Legislative Council approved
a $7 million loan for financing public works in December 1945.
In St. Lucia—
. . . a number of schemes have been prepared and forwarded
asking that grants should be made from Development and Welfare
funds of sums necessary to enable important road and other works
to be undertaken ; although these works are not proposed to relieve
unemployment, they should, if approved, provide employment
in this colony for many years for those needing work. Further,
a number of schemes have already been approved which will provide a considerable amount of employment for skilled and unskilled
labour.
In St. Vincent, along with extension of land settlement
schemes, " the undertaking of special public work during
periods of severe unemployment " is regarded as offering a
partial solution of unemployment problems. 1
In British Honduras, the provision of relief work progressively declined from 1939 to 1943 with the improvement
in the employment situation. In 1939, there were two
important road construction schemes in operation for the
provision of relief work, one of which had to be begun to
offset the unemployment resulting from the termination of
a similar project. The other and more important, the
Belize-Cayo Eoad, employed monthly an average varying
from 761 to 900 men. On one part of this road, the relief
work needs of 158 men were met by the employment of
25 men at a time on a fortnightly shift basis. A number
of young men aged 17-19 were given fortnightly work every
three months on proof of need. In 1940, about $200,000
1
Statements in this paragraph are taken mainly from Governments' comments on recommendations of the Labour Officers' Conference, 1942.

107

MANPOWER

was expended specifically on a number of unemployment
relief works, all either road construction or river improvement
projects. In view of the numbers involved, the rotational
system of employment was continued. From 1941, relief
work was confined to the Belize-Cayo Eoad. In that year
about $176,000 was expended for this purpose and 75,450 mandays of employment afforded. In 1942 the average number of
relief workers on this project had declined to 134 and in 1943
the improved employment position permitted the abandonment
of this last scheme. But, with post-war prospects in view, the
following statement on the unemployment problem was made
by the Government of British Honduras early in 1944 :
This is a perennial problem here, temporarily in abeyance, but
likely once more to grow acute even before the end of the war.
The only immediate remedy is a programme of development works
for the post-war years. The Governor has already obtained approval
for two large measures
of development which should meet the most
1
immediate needs.

Belief work programmes in Jamaica were, as has been
indicated above, extensive in the pre-war years of grave
unemployment and underemployment. Even though war
conditions improved the employment situation, the census
data provided in Appendix I I indicate the significance of
relief work as a source of employment.
The following table helps to fill in the picture. Eoadbuilding, swamp reclamation and food production schemes
have been the chief directions of expenditure.
JAMAICA : ALLOCATIONS FROM BELIEF WOKK FUNDS,

1940-1941 TO 1943-1944
Financial year

1940-1941
1941-1942
1942-1943
1943-1944

Imperial grant *

Local grant

Total

£
182,500
125,007
342,670
187,687

£
86,300
28,858
149,135
169,840

£
268,800
153,365
986,822 2
658,214 a

Source : Reports of the Department of Labour, Jamaica, for the years mentioned.
1
From Development and Welfare Funds.
* £495,017 and £300,787 respectively from a £1 million loan were allocated to relief
funds in these years.
1
From Governments' comments on recommendations of the Labour Officers'
Conference, 1942 (communicated to the I.L.O. by Development and Welfare in
the West indies, Barbados).

108

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

Between 1939 and 1945, over £1 million was spent on relief.
During 1943, the average number employed each week on
such work was 11,330. The Economic Policy Committee,
reporting in 1945, considered that, since rates of pay and
conditions of employment on relief works were relatively
attractive, workers had been drawn away from other occupations and the total output of the island consequently
diminished. Belief work still continues, but no new commitments are being entered into under this head.
During 1948, grants for unemployment relief in the parishes
were approved for £205,377 and the relief work provided by
the Kingston and St. Andrew Corporation involved the
expenditure of £320,000.
It is even more difficult to demarcate the spheres of development and relief work for Puerto Eico than for the British
areas. While Government statements imply that all work
of this character undertaken should fall primarily into the
former category, even when it is specifically designed to
relieve unemployment, the practical dilemma remains. The
Puerto Eico Eeconstruction Administration, originally set
up in 1933 to meet an unemployment crisis, has stated it as
follows :
The tremendous amount of unemployment which principally
motivated the establishment of the Puerto Eico Eeconstruction
Administration does not appear in as bold outline as it did seven
years ago, but the problems of a dense and ever-increasing population forced to wrest a livelihood, mainly by agriculture, from
exceedingly limited resources, still remains. . . . When the war
is over, or sooner if Army and ÍTavy projects now under way are
completed, the unemployment problem, somewhat alleviated by
those activities, will again become acute. Inevitably then by
reason of the insufficiency of the island's peculiar economy, consideration again will have to be given as to whether mere palliative
relief should be afforded, or whether, in the Mght of the Puerto Eico
Eeconstruction Administration's experience, relief or other federal
expenditures should not be devoted to projects with long-range
reconstruction possibilities.1
Federal as well as insular action against unemployment
was notable in the years following 1933. Among the agencies
which contributed to provide temporary employment while
seeking to build up the permanent resources of Puerto Eico
1
Annual Report, Puerto Rico Reconstruction Administration, San Juan, Puerto
Rico, as of 30 June 1942. Reproduced in Headings on Puerto Rico before the
Senate Subcommittee (Chaves Committee) (Washington, U.S. Government Printing
Office, 1943) S. Res. 26, Part I, pp. 536-537.

MANPOWER

109

were the Puerto Eico Eeconstruction Administration, the Works
Projects Administration, the Federal Works Agency, the Agricultural Adjustment Administration, the Farm Security Administration and the Federal Public Housing Authority. The W.P.A.
alone at its peak was employing more than 42,000 persons. x
Because of the special unemployment problems which
beset Puerto Eico at certain stages of the war, an extensive
programme of direct and work relief, recognisably such, was
inaugurated, designated the War Emergency Program. In
1943, the insular legislature appropriated $16 million for this
programme, $2 million of which was to be expended on
direct relief through the Public Welfare Division of the
Department of Health. Most of the remainder was intended
for use on work projects, but, up to June 1943, only a small
proportion had been so utilised. Nevertheless, at that date
33,274 persons were working on projects of the War Emergency Program. The character of work undertaken is thus
outlined in the Governor's Eeport :
Projects for street improvement, public clean-up work, repairs
to public buildings, and improvements to water supply systems,
head the list of approved urban projects. Among rural projects
approved, the most important are those for food production, the
construction of municipal and intra-farm roads, forestry, and soil
conservation. Of the total allotment for approved projects, 73.32 per2
cent, went to the rural zone and 26.68 per cent, to the urban zone.
During the fiscal year 1943-1944, the scope of the War Emergency
Program was further extended. Up to November 1943, the Federal
Works Agency was providing employment for some 40,000 workers,
but its programme terminated at the end of that month. The War
Emergency Program then assumed full responsibility for relief, of
which relief work was only a part. In December 1943 . . . all
projects operating under the direction of the various departments
and agencies of the insular Government were transferred to the
control of the War Emergency Program, as were also some Federal
Works Agency projects. 3
The major part that Government expenditures, especially
federal expenditures, have played in maintaining the economy
of the Virgin Islands has been earlier remarked. 4 By increas1
For a detailed account of federal expenditure in Puerto Rico since 1938,
cf. United States Tariff Commission : The Economy of Puerto Rico (Washington,
1946), -passim.
2
Forty-Third Annual Report of the Governor of Puerto Rico for the Fiscal Year
ended 30 June 1943 (San Juan, P.R., 1944), p. 38.
3
Forty-Fourth Annual Report of the Governor of Puerto Rico for the Fiscal Year
ended 30 June 1944 (San Juan, P.R., 1945), p. 54.
4
See Chapters I and II above.

110

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

ing total outlay, these expenditures have had both a direct
and indirect influence in raising the employment level.
Apart from persons engaged in various regular Government
establishments, employment has been directly afforded by
extensive work projects, notably under the aegis of the W.P.A.
The Virgin Islands Company is estimated to employ some 2,000
persons. The Company is officially regarded as " a great
relief project affording the employment and facilities and
public services which private enterprises were unable to
continue and which no one would undertake." 1
Land Settlement
Ever since the report of the West India Eoyal Commission, 1897-1898, authoritative opinion has recognised in
land settlement projects an important means of alleviating
the economic maladjustments of British West Indian communities. Agrarian discontent and " land hunger " in these
territories, particularly in recent years, have led to extensive
exploration of the possibilities of such schemes. Experience
with them has, however, indicated the many safeguards
necessary to ensure their successful development. 2 But the
necessity for safeguards does not affect the undoubted value
both of part-time and full-time work on land settlements
for the much needed expansion of employment opportunities.
The considerations of policy which govern recent land
settlement programmes are important as being among the
limiting factors on the extension of land settlement and
consequent employment opportunities. The recommendations of the West India Eoyal Commission, 1938-1939, on this
question have influenced the guiding principles of policy in
all the British territories concerned. A basic premise of the
Commission's report was that land settlement should be
regarded as part of the wider question of increasing- the number
of small-holders, the productivity of their land and their returns
therefrom—
A substantial increase in peasant farming throughout these
colonies is necessary to ensure the larger production of food for
local consumption and is one way of tackling the problem of under1

Annual Report of the Governor of the Virgin Islands to the Secretary of the
Interior for the Fiscal Year ended 30 June 1945, p. 3.
2
Cf. also above, Chapters I and II.

MANPOWER

111

employment.... The method of land settlement is, however, only
one of several ways by which the number of peasant holdings could
be increased and their yield improved.... Land settlement schemes
in the West Indies are expensive . . . in relation to the number of
persons settled.
The Commission therefore considered that plans to improve
the husbandry of existing small-holders and to provide
additional land for their sons should receive as much encouragement from Government as was given large, formal land
settlement projects and that " for some time to come the betterment of existing peasant agriculture (would be) far more
practicable and fruitful than the undertaking of new schemes
of settlement." 1
The 1943 report of the Agricultural Policy Committee,
Trinidad, emphasised some of the more detailed requirements for successful land settlement. The Committee considered that a policy of land settlement merely aimed at
the relief of unemployment or introduced in response to
popular or sectional demand would lead to failure especially
where land was transferred from large to small-scale farming units without providing services for the guidance of
small-holders. General policy was elaborated in the following
terms :
The first essentials for successful land settlement are a fertile
soil and good water supplies. A good site for the settlement is
therefore of primary importance and its selection should be undertaken, as at present, by a central executive authority in collaboration with the Department of Agriculture, the Forestry Department
and the Medical Services. Care should be taken to avoid disturbing
the existing efficient agricultural units ; the requirements of the
different types of potential settlers should be considered ; and all
interests affected should be consulted. The layout of the settlement
should be designed to facilitate the economical provision of the
necessary community and social services.
The most urgent need in planning a land settlement is determination, by experiment and investigation, of sound farming systems
suited to the varying conditions. The ideal, of course, would be tö
obtain the necessary data before embarking upon any land settlement but in practice circumstances may render this impossible ;
for example it would be unreasonable to withhold the use of available land from people who have no other means of livelihood,
simply because the type of farming best suited to it had not yet
been decided.
The size of the holdings must be regulated in relation to the
physical and economic conditions of different parts of the country,
and to the type of farming undertaken. Different sized units should
1

Report, op. cit., p. 323.

112

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

be provided at each type of settlement to accommodate the
requirements of the individual concerned. 1
The Committee iurther recommended that in Trinidad
most attention should be paid at first to " part-time " settlements, which should be adjacent to centres of employment.
The greatest care should be taken in the selection and training
of settlers and in selecting suitable lands.
In reviewing the impact of land settlement on employment problems in the British West Indies, considerable
caution must be observed in interpreting data. Haphazard
selection of settlers in the past meant both that unsuitables
soon quit and that new settlers might or might not have
previously been unemployed or underemployed. On the
other hand, extension of land settlement has both a direct
and an indirect effect on employment. The earlier prevalence
of freehold tenure meant that the number of settlers was
subject to frequent and sometimes unrecorded change.
In Jamaica, the Department of Lands between 1919 and
1942 placed more than 16,100 persons on the land as smallholders, cultivating 75,600 acres. In addition, during the
same period, some 2,000 ex-servicemen of the first world war
were settled with 7,760 acres of land under cultivation.
Activity during recent years is reflected by the fact that,
in the twelve months ending March 1942, nearly 1,550 settlers
were put in possession of land totalling 6,570 acres and that,
in the twelve months ending March 1944, four additional
estates were acquired for land settlement purposes, bringing
the number of estates being operated as land settlements
up to 156. Up to 1942, Jamaica had expended some £800,000
on its land settlement programme.
The Department defined its policy in 1944 as one of
extensive land redistribution rather than a smaller programme
of assisted and planned land settlement in which all the
requirements of the settler would be provided for. At that
time the only enforceable provisions for the control of agricultural development on settlements was that at least one
acre of the holding should be cultivated to the satisfaction
of the Commissioner of Lands in the first year of occupation
and two acres in the second.
1
Beport of the Agricultural Policy Committee of Trinidad and Tobago (Part
(Port of Spain, Government Printer, 1943), pp. 16-17.

MANPOWER

113

The Jamaica Agricultural Policy Committee in a 1945
report made the following observations :
. . . The whole policy of land settlement requires reconsideration
and review.... World-wide experience proves that the cutting
up of land into independent holdings below a certain size is wasteful
and uneconomic, tending as well to preserve faulty agricultural
practice ; in this respect the minimum economic unit of land, for
the various farming systems, has yet to be determined for Jamaican
conditions.... Various forms of settlement have been tried with
success in many parts of the world. What is needed in Jamaica is
opportunity for large-scale and long-term experiments with a view of
adapting some of those forms to local conditions and to the outlook
of the people. Co-operative and community settlements have yet to
be tried on a sufficiently large and well-planned basis to enable
their
real future in our agricultural economy to be determined.1
In other British Caribbean territories the land settlement
position varies widely. Most Governments now have powers
for the compulsory acquisition, when necessary, of land
needed for land settlement. In Barbados, where no underdeveloped land is available for settlement, emphasis has
been laid down on improving standards of husbandry and
developing mixed farming and not on the purchase of estates
for redistribution purposes. Difficulties arise in British
Guiana when land settlements on the basis of individual
holdings are planned, since large-scale drainage operations
are involved. Settlement along communal lines has been
proposed as a solution, but on the whole little tangible progress seems to have been made. In British Honduras, recent
policy has been directed towards improving the husbandry
of existing small-holders, and extension of land settlements
has not advanced beyond the planning stage. In the Leeward
Islands, land settlements are being organised with a view,
inter alia, to enforcing desirable standards and methods
of husbandry. In Trinidad, there is well-developed machinery
for supervising husbandry on settlements ; since 1939 ten new
settlements have been established and six further settlements
extended, involving the provision of 980 allotments covering
some 1,050 acres ; six further estates comprising nearly
2,000 acres have also been acquired by the Government for
land settlement purposes. In the Windward Islands, where
a substantial proportion of the land is already distributed
among small-holders, further action is planned.
1

Report of the Agricultural Policy Committee (Kingston, Jamaica, 1945), pp. 15-16.

114

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

The importance of the land question in Puerto Eico
and the controversy with which it has been surrounded have
been referred to above. Here only a few aspects are touched
upon.
In relation to employment problems, the emphases of
land settlement or resettlement policy in Puerto Eico are
significantly different from those obtaining in the British
areas. In the latter, land settlement projects are officially
regarded primarily as a technique for alleviating underemployment, even though a considerable body of local opinion
does not assent to this limited view ; the desirability or otherwise of the social changes involved in redistribution or new
settlement has been a question less stressed. I n Puerto
Eico, on the other hand, recent insular Government policy
has been guided more by consideration of the social effect
of the concentration of land ownership in relatively few hands.
The following statement by the Land Authority, the insular
Government's instrument of policy in this field, underlines
this appraisal :
It is the policy of the Land Authority of Puerto Rico to make
the best use of the land for the benefit of the community as a whole.
This policy will be served best by a system of land tenure which
will enhance the highest productivity and employment and the
most equitable distribution of land wealth as are consistent with
efficiency and low cost.
The proportional profit farms, as established under the provisions
of the Land Law of Puerto Eico, accomplish these purposes. Hence,

lands acquired by the Land Authority which are best suited for
production in a commercial scale will be organized as proportional
profit farms. Other lands not well adapted to
large-scale production
will be divided into individual holdings... 1
The endeavours of the Land Authority are not an entirely
new departure in this regard. Eelated activities of the
Puerto Eico Eeconstruction Administration have been thus
summarised :
(1) Demonstration project designed to decentralise land-holding
in the sugar cane area through federal loans to land co-operatives,
as at Lafayette.
(2) Demonstration project encouraging the investment of private
capital in less than 500-acre holdings implemented by federal loan
to a mill co-operative, as at Los Caños.
1
Annual Report of the Land Authority of Puerto Rico for the Fiscal Year
1942-1943 (San Juan, P.R., 1944), p. 3.

MANPOWER

115

(3) Demonstration projects in decentralisation of land ownership
in sugar, coffee, tobacco, and citrus areas through federal resettlement projects on an ultimately reimbursable basis for landless
agricultural workers and insolvent small farmers.
(4) Demonstration projects in co-operation with federal and
insular forest service in resettling indigent farmers on parceleros
located in federal and insular forestry lands.
During the fiscal year 1943-1944, 38 rural communities
were established, involving the distribution of land to
5,100 agregado families, comprising some 25,000 persons.
Up to 30 June 1944, 9,021 parcels of land had been distributed, the number of persons resettled being of the order of
45,000.
The following account of the concrete results of the various
rural resettlement programmes undertaken in Puerto Eico
is summarised from a recent study. 1 An independent Homestead Commission was created in 1921 for the purpose of
establishing urban workers' housing and small farms for
rural labourers ; this Commission later became the Homestead Division of the insular Department of Labor. Up to
June 1944, 2,046 small farms of an average size of the
cuerdas had been established through this programme.
Under the P.E.E.A. programme, between 1935 and June
1944—
. . . nearly 10,000 families had been established in P.B.B.A.
plots, about three quarters of whom were settled in the coffee,
tobacco and fruit regions. The land occupied by the program
amounted to about 28,000 cuerdas. A sugar mill, Central Lafayette,
and 10,000 cuerdas of land were acquired and 4,500 cuerdas were
used to organize a crop of twelve land co-operatives to be eventually
owned and managed by the laborers.
In 1938, the Farm Ownership Program of the Farm Security
Administration was initiated in Puerto Eico ; up to June 1944
it had established 542 small farms totalling about 19,890
cuerdas. This agency does not directly purchase land but
advances loans for this purpose at 3 per cent, repayable over
a period of 40 years ; the selection of borrowers is made with
great care.

University of Puerto Rico : Planning for Puerto Rico. A collection of papers
prepared for the Seminar on Economic Planning, 1944-1945. Paper No. 5, Patterns
of Sural Resettlement in Puerto Rico, by Brandon HOWELL (San Juan, P.R., 1945).

116

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

BUBAL B E S E T T L E M E N T I N P U E B T O BICO B Y A G E N C I E S ,
FISCAL T E A B S ,

1935-1944

Families resettled, by agencies
Fiscal year

Homestead
P.R.R.A.*
division l

F.S.A. 3

Land
authority*

Total

Prior to June 1934 . .
1934-1935
1935-1936
1936-1937
1937-1938
1938-1939
1939-1940
1940-1941
1941-1942
1942-1943
1943-1944

1,081
111
180
126
137
122
90
93
62
42
2

6,063
406
1,555
502
830
390
211

32
65
132
178
82
53

657
2,927
5,127

1,081
111
180
126
6,200
560
1,710
727
1,727
3,441
5,393

Total . . .

2,046

9,957

542

8,711

21,256

Now incorporated in the Land Authority.
2
Includes farms, subsistence plots, and agregado resettlement, with a range of
% cuerda to 139 cuerdas. A majority are from 1 to 3 cuerdas.
' Individual family farms averaging about 37 cuerdas.
* Does not include proportional profit farms. The figure for 1943-1944 includes 72
individual farms. The rest are agregado plots in rural communities.
Note : source of information from the agencies concerned. Wherever possible the
figures given are for families actually settled and not simply plots made available but
not occupied.

Migration
Migration from the British West Indies to Cuba, the
United States, Panama, South America and elsewhere has in
the past been considerable. A few figures provided by the
Unemployment Bureau, Jamaica, offer an illustration. From
1883 to 1935 the average annual exodus was about 10,000,
being as high as 24,000 in 1919 ; the estimated average value
of total annual remittances during these years was some
£125,000 a year. 1 In the depression and post-depression
years, up to the outbreak of the second world war, the migration trend was reversed and workers who had emigrated were
returning home because of the decline in employment opportunities overseas.
During the war, migration for employment overseas again
became feasible and was of decided assistance in meeting
employment problems. Some migration was inter-island ;
O E D B B R O W N E : op. cit., p . 28.

MANPOWEE

117

Trinidad in particular attracted labour from neighbouring
dependencies. Munition and forestry workers were sent to
the United Kingdom, as well as skilled tradesmen for the
British Army. 1 Extension work on the Panama Canal has
absorbed others, and also the refineries in the Netherlands
territories of Curaçao and Aruba. Quantitatively, migration for employment to the United States, separately treated
below, was of most importance.
Illustration from a few territories clarifies these generalisations. The following table summarises the position in
Barbados during the period June 1941-December 1945. 2
Number of emigrants
June
Destination
1941 1943 1944
to Dec.
1942

1945

Bermuda . . 219 59
21
St. Lucia . . 162
Trinidad . . 2,167 116
50
Curaçao. . . 786
137
United States
3,605 4,385

Number returned
June
Total 1941 1943
to Dec.
1942

1944

1945

Total

299
32
66 47
145
162
5
5
2,333 1,669
5
1,674
923 150 292
24
466
7,990
1,869 5,373 7,242

T o t a l . . . 3,334 175 3,813 4,385 11,707 1,890 344 1,925 5,373 9,532

I n St. Lucia and St. Vincent emigration was mainly to
Curaçao, Aruba and Trinidad. Apart from migration to the
United States, British Honduras sent two forestry units
comprising about 1,000 men to the United Kingdom, a number
of workers to Panama, and several hundred mahogany workers
to Guatemala.
British West Indian workers in the United States, were
at first utilised entirely in agriculture, but later some were
recruited for, or transferred to, industry. In 1943, 4,285
Bahamians and about 11,300 Jamaicans were recruited.
Employment data for 1944 are summarised in the following
table :

1
Over-all figures for the number of men from the British West Indies in t h e
armed forces overseas are not available. The Benham Report sets the Jamaican
figure a t 8,000.
2
Barbados Department of Labour, Report for the Period 1st January 1941 to
31st December 1942 (Bridgetown, Advocate Company Limited), p. 12.

118

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

MAXIMUM TOTAL OP W O R K E R S R E C R U I T E D B Y WAR F O O D
ADMINISTRATION

Territory

Barbados

AND W A B M A N P O W E R

W.F.A.
6,000
(approx.)
908
17,822

COMMISSION

W.M.C.

Total
6,000

2,751
1,243
972

3,659
1,243
18,794
29,696
1—

In July 1945, 32,482 Jamaican workers were employed
in the United States. This number had decreased to 28,710
by September. A substantial proportion of the Jamaicans
were engaged in manufacturing work ; the figure in March
was 10,400. In September of the same year, there were
over 800 British Honduran workers under contract in the
United States.
The purchasing power derived from remittances from
migrant workers is one index of the practical consequences
of wartime migration for employment to the United States.
In 1944, £1,600,000 was remitted by Jamaican workers in
voluntary and compulsory savings or brought home ; the
corresponding figure for the year 1945 was £3,770,000.
During 1945, Barbadian workers remitted some £582,000.
Since the war, there has been a much smaller volume of
migration for employment from the British West Indies to
the United States ; one factor influencing this decrease has been
the classification of Puerto Eican migrant workers to the
United States as domestic workers.
The relationship of emigration to the population problems
of Puerto Eico has been summarised in the following terms :
It would (not) be realistic to trust that during the next ten to
twenty years productivity in Puerto Bico can be increased sufficiently to maintain current living standards for the present annual
net increment to the population. This has averaged 30,000 a year
with a working population increment of perhaps 9,000. . . . Under
such circumstances it would appear that the population-resources
spiral must be broken by a conscious policy of emigration and birth
control. Whatever the theoretical advantages in emigration there
has actually been a net emigration of only 60,000 persons from the
island during the 30-year period between 1910 and 1940. . . .
Mass emigration of Puerto Bicans has been attempted several

MANPOWER

119

times in the past, but generally has turned out so badly that it
could only be contemplated again under the most careful recruitment, placement, and supervision. Mass emigrations to new
territories, in addition, require a great amount of capital and initiative. In view of this it might be better to concentrate on preparing
selected Puerto Bicans for individual emigration into 1higher skilled
positions in the States or elsewhere in the Caribbean.
A relatively small number of Puerto Eican workers have
migrated in groups under contract for time specified to
Hawaii, Cuba, other Caribbean Islands and the United
States since the turn of the century. The only experiment
of this kind which would appear to have met with a large
measure of success was the migration of some 5,000 to Hawaii
in 1900 ; in 1940, some 2,000 of these, with their descendants,
still remained in that territory ; their adjustment had proved
satisfactory. Individual and family migration has mainly
been in the direction of the continental United States ; since
Puerto Pico is an American territory, there are few difficulties in the way of such migration. Most Puerto Eicans falling
within this latter category have been city-dwellers and some
85 per cent, of them have settled in New York City. Such
migration was particularly well-marked during the first world
war and the prosperity years (1923-1929) ; in the depression
years the number of repatriates exceeded the number of
migrants. Authorities agree that this individual and family
migration has been conspicuously unsuccessful ; language
difficulties, the place of colour in American culture-patterns,
the change of climate and their heritage of malnutrition
have militated against their successful adjustment and made
their economic and social status low. The Zimmerman report,
considering the unemployment problems of the United States
in peacetime, further questioned the advisability of attempting
to solve Puerto Eican population problems by large-scale
migrations ; at least 50,000 Puerto Eicans, according to the
report's calculations, would have to migrate every year to
achieve this end. 8
Wartime migration for employment of Puerto Eicans to
the United States was on a small scale. Up to August 1943,
at which date the War Manpower Commission took over the
responsibility for placing them, 256 industrial workers had been
sent by the insular Government to the mainland and placed
1
2

B A B T L B T T and

H O W E I A , op.

Of. ZIMMERMAN, op.

cit.,

pp.

p p . 52 a n d

17-18.
56.

120

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

in industrial employment there 1 ; in all, 1,030 Puerto Eicans,
the majority of whom were skilled workmen, were so engaged
during 1943. In April 1944, it was announced that 2,000
unskilled workers for railroad maintenance work would be
imported within the succeeding two months 2 , and that
several thousand more were being recruited in Puerto Eico
to relieve the manpower shortage in food processing plants
in the United States. 3
Since the end of the second world war, there has been a
strong wave of migration from Puerto Eico to the United
States mainland. The Government of Puerto Eico has taken
legislative action to provide assistance and guidance for
migrant workers 4, and has created a more effective employment service in this connection.
During the war years up to 1943, defence construction
work in the American Virgin Islands attracted some 2,000
workers from neighbouring British islands. While the majority of these were repatriated, a number became absorbed in
the local population.
Employment

Exchanges

In all but a few British West Indian territories, legislation
of a general character exists, assigning to the Labour Departments duties which include employment service activity.
To give one example, the Leeward Islands Federal Department of Labour is recuired, inter alia—
(i) to keep Government informed of the labour situation
generally through permanent contact with industry by means
of regular inspections and the analysis of statistics ;
(ii) to prepare and maintain statistics of wages, employment, etc. ;
(ili) to regulate the movements of labour so far as is practicable and desirable.
Legislation establishing employment exchanges has been
enacted in Trinidad and British Guiana.
1

U.S. Labor Press Servies, 16 Aug. 1943.
War Manpower Commission, Press Release dated 14 Apr. 1944.
3
War Manpower Commission, Press Release dated 19 Apr. 1944.
* Cf. below, Chapter VIII.
2

121

MANPOWEB

Although an attempt has been made to use British West
Indian employment exchanges to provide indices of employment and unemployment, the absence of any requirement
or particular inducement to register with the exchanges
has meant that any statistics that the exchanges can provide
cannot be adequate for this purpose. îio fee-charging private
employment agencies are known to exist.
Specialised placement facilities are provided in five
territories: Barbados, British Guiana, Jamaica, St. Vincent
and Trinidad. There is no compulsory registration of
workers or job vacancies, and direct engagement remains
the rule.
In Barbados, there is a single public central employment
agency in the capital, Bridgetown. This agency existed
before the establishment of the Department of Labour in
1940, but was brought under the direct control of the latter
in 1944. Apart from its normal placement functions, the
agency was used during the second world war as a selecting
organisation for the emigration-for-employment programme
adopted to recruit workers for temporary employment in the
United States. The data collected by the agency is one
basis for the work of the Barbados Standing Committee on
Unemployment which advises the Government of Barbados
on measures for unemployment relief. Eegistration with
the agency is voluntary except that, during the war and up
to the present, workers wishing to migrate for employment
under Government schemes have been required to be registered.
During 1941 and 1942, 10,114 applicants for work were
registered ; 3,751 were placed, including emigrants, and
at the end of 1942, 2,683 names remained on the live register
as having applied or renewed their application within the
previous three months. The following table illustrates the
work of the agency in the first half of 1946 :

Quarter ending
Applicants for work

Number placed in local employment
Number unfit for work (for health or other reasons) .
Total registration . . .

31 March
1946

30 June
1946

23
11
3,998
4,032

25
9
3,353
3,387

122

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

The Department of Labour has emphasised that " most
labour (in Barbados) is casual and the fact that a man is
registered at the employment agency does not mean that
he is wholly unemployed ".
In British Guiana, placement facilities were provided by
a Government employment bureau in Georgetown until an
employment exchange system was set up in 1944. One of
its main objectives has been the collection of adequate unemployment statistics, but placement activity has also been
stressed. The Employment Exchange Service is an integral
part of the Labour Department.
The headquarters office was opened in Georgetown in
October 1944 and four branch offices between April 1945
and February 1946. Applications for registration from areas
other than these centres may be made by post. Up to June
1946, the exchanges provided for men only, but since that
date, the placement of women has been begun in two centres.
The placement of returned servicemen has also been organised.
The following table summarises the activity of the Service
from its inception to 30 March 1946 :

Boys

Notified
found
work

Number registered
Area
Men

Vacancies
notified

Number
submitted

N u m - Number of
ber
vacancies
placed cancelled

4,585
448

470
43

609
25

3,019
46

2,133
46

866
30

1,101

Other areas .

Total . . .

5,033

513

634

3,065

2,179

896

1,101

Georgetown .

The dock labour industry has an employment service
arrangement of its own. In October 1943 a Port Labour
Registration Scheme came into operation under an agreement
signed by the waterfront employers and the British Guiana
Labour Union, representing the waterfront workers. The
objects of the scheme are to decasualise port labour in the port
of Georgetown and to provide an adequate and efficient
labour force for waterfront work in the port. The scheme
is operated by a joint committee of representatives of employers
and workers in equal numbers, with the Commissioner of
Labour as chairman during the early stages. At the end of
December 1945, there were 370 stevedores and 506 wharf
workers registered.

MANPOWER

123

Jamaica has a single public employment office, the Kingston
Employment Bureau. The annual report of the Jamaica
Department of Labour for the year 1940 gives the following
account of its establishment and functions :
The Kingston Employment Bureau was established at the
commencement of the financial year (April 1940) for the purpose
of registering unemployed persons, and finding employment for
them where possible. During the year, 13,381 persons registered
at the bureau as having little or no employment. Of this number,
approximately 3,800 have been placed. . . Government required
all public as well as parochial departments to draw their labour
supply from the bureau, and the demand from these sources, together
with the recruitment of workers for the Canal Zone, comprise to a
large extent the number of positions that have been filled.
As in other British Caribbean areas, registration is voluntary. The bureau is largely autonomous as regards its internal
administration, but policy is directed by the Labour Department. In addition to local placement work, the recruitment of Jamaican workers for employment overseas during
the war years and the screening of armed forces volunteers
was undertaken. 1 An analysis of registration with the bureau
to the end of 1943 revealed that since its inception over
60,500 persons had used its placement services, of whom
approximately 10,000 were placed in employment either in
Jamaica or overseas. In January 1944, over 17,000 applicants
were on the live register, but in December of the same year
the number was under 13,000. During 1944 the bureau
secured employment for over 2,400 workers on Government
and quasi-Government undertakings ; only 330 were placed
in private employment. With the end of the war, emphasis
has shifted to the resettlement of ex-servicemen. In placing
them, the bureau works in collaboration with a newly
appointed Eeabsorption Officer and a Central Ex-Servicemen's
Assistance Board which is authorised to supervise and direct
the execution of all approved Government resettlement
schemes.
In St. Vincent, sixteen unemployment registration centres
are in operation. These centres are operated on a part-time
basis through the elementary schools and teachers under the
direction of the Commissioner of Labour. I t is claimed
1
Up to the end of 1944, over 25,000 workers had migrated to the United States
for employment on farms or in industry ; over 4,000 to Britain for munitions work
or war service ; and nearly 6,000 for employment in Panama and other areas.

124

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

that, whatever the administrative defects of this arrangement,
a useful function is performed on a largely voluntary basis
by persons who know the community well, and that the
finances of the territory do not permit the adoption of any
other placement scheme at present. At the end of March 1946,
persons on the registers of these centres numbered 1,112, of
whom 596 were known to be in employment. The centres
have been used in placing a small number of ex-servicemen.
I n Trinidad, a public employment exchange was set up
in the capital, Port of Spain, in 1935 under the Labour
Exchanges Ordinance of 1919. A few branch exchanges
have subsequently been established and efforts are being
made to establish a juvenile registration and placement
section in Port of Spain. The exchanges are under the
administrative control of the Industrial Adviser's Department. A Eesettlement Office was set up in 1945 to assist,
inter alia, in the placement of ex-servicemen ; and a Resettlement Advisory Committee helps to frame policy in this respect.
Registration is voluntary, though an attempt has been made
to arrange that Government departments fill their labour
supply requirements exclusively from the exchanges. During
the years 1938-1940, the exchanges placed 3,810 workers.
The following are the most recent figures available :
Registrations
Quarter ended
Male Female
31
30
30
31
31
30
30

Mar. 1947
J u n e 1947
Sept. 1947
Dee. 1947
Mar. 1948
J u n e 1948
Sept. 1948

.
.
.
.
.
.
.

. 1,360
704
.
.
670
. 1,243
. 1,055
400
.
355
.

175
206
209
311
261
225
266

Vacancies
filled

Live register
on last day
ol quarter

Male Female Male

Female

50
44
69
82
69
99
133

29
53
66
18
47
52
73

208
42
60
110
60
68
70

200
220
223
145
226
170
133

In the American Virgin Islands, no specialised labour supervision services exist, such services being provided as part of
the general duties of the Department of Public Welfare.
During the second world war, this department acted as a
simple placement service in connection with the defence projects undertaken in the islands ; in peacetime, it is questioned
whether the very small area of the territory necessitates any
more specialised arrangements.

125

MANPOWEB

The increased activity of the employment exchange services
of Puerto Rico, which include branches in New York and
Chicago to deal with Puerto Eican migrant workers, is indicated
by the fact that while the service in Puerto Rico placed 5,574
registrants during the three years 1940-1944, and the New
York branch 3,751 during the two years 1940-1942 the
Employment and Migration Bureau, as it is now termed under
recent legislation, placed in all 11,128 during the year 1947-1948
and 11,820 in the year 1948-1949.
The legislative provisions in regard to employment
exchanges in the French and Netherlands territories are
described in Chapter VIII.
In Surinam during the years 1946, 1947 and 1948, the
employment exchange office placed 1,769 workers. The
following are the most recent figures available for Surinam :

Applicants registered . .
Number placed . . . .

1946

1947

1948

2,065
485

1,757
614

1,747
670

Registration is voluntary. Employers have sought to fill
their labour supply requirements exclusively from the exchange,
which has consequently been able to operate effectively.
Among the applicants registered, as shown in the table, a
number were only seeking a change of employment. To
check on applicants, 500 undertakings were visited during
1948 by the employment service. Although the number of
applicants registered with the employment exchange office at
31 December 1948 numbered 2,367 (including 133 women and
74 juveniles), it was estimated that at that date the number
genuinely unemployed was approximately 1,700.
In the Netherlands Antilles, the employment office
administers and controls the registration of workers, issues
work books, and registers and places the unemployed. As
involuntary unemployment is of very slight incidence in the
territory, the main task of the office at present is the registration of workers in regard to which much progress has been
made. At the beginning of 1949, nearly all labourers in Curaçao,
Aruba and Bonaire were registered and in possession of a
work book.
9

126

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

While the problems of unemployment and underemployment, consequent on a rapid growth of population in an area
in which, in general, economic activity is expanding at a rate
much lower than the increase of available manpower, constitute
the very heart of West Indian labour problems, in very few
territories does the evidence available suggest the existence
of adequate remedial policies based on adequate manpower
information and employment organisation machinery. I t is,
therefore, of particular interest that the fifth session of the
West Indian Conference, to be held in 1952, will examine, inter
alia, the problems of vocational training in the region ; such
examination will necessarily include a number of related
aspects of the manpower situation.

CHAPTEE IV
THE MACHINERY OF INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS
The term " machinery of industrial relations ", in the
present context, covers principally three distinct types of
organisation : (a) Government labour administration services
in so far as these are concerned with the problems of industrial
relations, (b) workers' and employers' organisations, and (c)
special boards and committees of a bipartite or tripartite
character concerned with industrial relations and general
labour policy. Because of the intimate relationship between
this machinery and the labour supervision services generally,
the chapter also includes an account of the latter.
Notwithstanding a diversity in patterns, the background
to industrial relations presents certain common features
throughout the area. Almost everywhere agricultural workers
are a marked majority of the wage-earning population, and
experience has indicated the difficulty of effectively unionising
such workers. Workers in domestic service, in regard to
whom a similar difficulty exists, form also a prominent
employed group. The normally high incidence of unemployment or underemployment has made the organisation of
workers difficult and the organisation of employers for industrial relations is apt to be neglected as unnecessary. The
self-organisation of skilled workers has in more industrialised
communities often been the point of departure and working
core of a trade union structure ; in the West Indies employment
in skilled occupations is relatively insignificant. In general,
the unionisation of the resident worker x is comparatively
difficult ; in the West Indies resident labour is important both
on plantations and in extractive industries such as oil and
bauxite. Unemployment and intermittent employment, no
less than low-wage levels, militate against the formation of
The worker whose housing is provided by the employer.

128

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

strong trade unions. In an environment in which such conditions are prevalent, the tasks of the labour administration
services and of special boards and committees extend to
spheres of action with regard to which, in more highly organised communities, employers' and workers' organisations have
a more immediate responsibility.
I t is hardly more than a decade since any specialised
governmental machinery has been created in the field of
industrial relations in any part of the area ; in a few territories
it does not yet exist. The development of adequately representative organisations for collective bargaining is an even more
recent trend, which is only gradually becoming the normal
pattern.
The increased concern of the local administrations with
the field of industrial relations has found expression in the
creation or extension of conciliation and arbitration services
and the enactment of legislation providing added protection
for trade union activities and designed generally to facilitate
collective bargaining as well as by more direct action in prescribing minimum standards in regard to wages, hours and
conditions of work, the subject matter of collective bargaining.
This increased sense of responsibility on the part of the Governments has been largely a function of the altered relationship
between employer and worker. The number of trade unions
and employers' organisations as well as their membership and
representative status have notably increased. The quality of
leadership that has emerged in some cases is of a very high
order. The scope of recent major collective agreements and
the part played in their negotiation by officials of the Labour
Departments concerned indicate the improved atmosphere of
government-worker-employer collaboration. Such collaboration has begun to be fruitful both in the shaping of labour
policies and the solution of specific problems. In addition,
trade union policy has become a vital part of local politics,
and this indicates that the Governments, old and new, will
increasingly be judged by their results in the field of social
relations.

THE MACHINERY OF INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS

129

BRITISH TERRITORIES

General Government Policy and Machinery
Since 1939, Government policy in the British areas has
substantially followed the recommendations of Major Orde
Browne and of the West India Eoyal Commission of 1938-1939
in regard to labour supervision and industrial relations.
Notable results of this policy have included the enactment of
improved trade union legislation, the encouragement of trade
union development by the appointment of former British
trade unionists to Caribbean labour supervision staffs, the
extension of labour supervision services, the establishment of
labour advisory boards, improved conciliation and arbitration
machinery and wage-fixing machinery on a tripartite basis.
One recommendation of the West India Eoyal Commission
was the establishment of more specialised machinery in London
to assist in the shaping of labour policy in the colonial empire.
The Commission recommended " that a Labour Department
should be established within the Colonial Office, and a Labour
Advisory Committee appointed composed of persons with
expert knowledge of labour and colonial questions V
No
Labour Department has yet been established in the Colonial
Office, but a Social Services Department within the Colonial
Office dealing, inter alia, with labour questions relating to the
colonial empire generally, has been operating since 1938. In
May 1938, Major Orde Browne was appointed to the newly
created post of Labour Adviser to the Secretary of State. In
1942, a Colonial Labour Advisory Committee was established
" to consider and advise upon any questions concerning the
employment of labour in the colonies which the Secretary of
State may decide to refer to it ". 2 Among its members were
the three British representatives on the Governing Body of the
International Labour Office ( Government, employer and worker).
The Advisory Committee has since been reorganised. The Labour
Adviser is now assisted by two Assistant Labour Advisers.
The staff of the Comptroller for Development and Welfare
in the (British) West Indies includes a Labour Adviser, as
1

ßecommendations, op. cit., p. 15.
Cf. Labour Supervision in the Colonial Empire, 1937-1943, (London, H.M.
Stationery Office, 1943) Colonial No. 185, pp. 2 et seq.
2

130

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

recommended by the West India Eoyal Commission. As is
the case with other advisers on the Comptroller's staff, this
officer has a wide range of duties with regard to the development of policy, maintaining liaison with the relevant staffs
of the different territories, and on request investigating and
advising on local problems of particular importance or immediacy, but his contribution largely depends on the extent to
which the territories wish to avail themselves of his services.
Both the Eoyal Commission and the first Labour Adviser
to the Secretary of State related the need for improved labour
administrative machinery to the problems of industrial relations. This was to be expected, since the immediate background for the Commission's enquiries was the series of labour
disturbances from Kay 1934 to February 1939 in Trinidad,
St. Kitts, Jamaica, British Guiana, St. Vincent and Barbados.
The Commission recommended—
. . . to cover the period before trade unions are developed to
the point at which they can play a decisive part in the regulation
of wages and conditions of employment, action by Governments
in this direction through the medium of Labour Departments or
officers. These organisations should be assisted by advisory boards
representative of employers and employed with an impartial
Chairman.
Labour Departments or special staff to deal with labour
problems, i.e., labour supervision services, exist in the following twelve territories : Antigua, Bahamas, Barbados, British
Guiana, British Honduras, Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica,
St. Kitts-ïfevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and Trinidad ; there
is also a Leeward Islands Federal Department of Labour
and a Labour Adviser to the Windward Islands.
The precise responsibilities assigned to these services
vary from territory to territory, and the extent to which
these responsibilities can be discharged adequately depends
also on the personnel available. 1 In the territories with
small populations, such as the individual Windward Islands,
the Labour Department staff includes only one senior official.
In the larger territories, the size of the staffs permits specialisation on the part of the senior officers. The pattern of activities of the Departments is not uniform. In some territories
no provision yet exists to provide the Labour Department
with inspection powsrs ; in some territories, employment
Cf. also Chapter VIII for an account of labour supervision legislation.

THE MACHINERY OF INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS

131

services are autonomous, in others within the Department.
But, notwithstanding these variations, the essential function
of all the services has been thus summarised by a West Indian
Governor :
The business of the local Labour Department is to supply the
Government with an information service of such accuracy that
causes of discontent may be diagnosed before they develop into
grievances and to inspire such confidence between employer and
employee that these, in the majority of cases, may be xwilling to
settle their differences in reasonable conference together.
Labour advisory boards or committees have been or are
in existence in the following eleven territories : Antigua,
Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, British Honduras, Dominica,
Grenada, Jamaica, St. Christopher and ÎTevis, St. Lucia and
St. Vincent. In 1944 the Secretary 01 State for the Colonies
summarised the functions and composition of such boards
in the British Colonial Empire as a whole in the following
terms :
Workers are directly represented on a number of these boards,
but, in territories where it is found impossible to find qualified
workers' representatives, the interests of such are entrusted to
officials and others nominated by the Governor to represent them.
The boards are set up to advise Governors on labour questions
generally, and their decisions are not mandatory. The matters so
far reviewed by them have covered a wide field, including fundamental labour legislation, wage rates, cost of living, unemployment,
relief to workers, recruitment, employment of women and children
and the abolition of penal sanctions for breaches of contract of
employment. In many instances legislation has been passed on the
lines advised by these boards and I am satisfied that their activities
have been and will prove 2to be useful in advising the Governors on
these important matters.
All such boards in the British Caribbean have been set
up since 1939. In Barbados and Jamaica they now no longer
exist.
Minimum wage fixing machinery, considered in more detail
elsewhere 3 , requires some mention here for two reasons. Minimum wage fixing machinery and collective bargaining represent two alternative or complementary procedures through
which are set standards for the conditions of work which
1
Speech of Governor of the Windward Islands to the Legislative Council of
Grenada, Voice of St. Lucia, 3 Aug. 1944.
2
Parliamentary Debates, House of Commons, London, 1 Feb. 1944.
3
Cf. Chapters V and VIII.

132

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

are the basis of industrial disputes. The United Kingdom
Government has indicated that its policy in the colonies is to
have recourse to the powers conferred by minimum wage
legislation only when circumstances do not permit collective
bargaining to obtain results desired. 1 The extent to which
minimum wage fixing machinery has been utilised in the British
West Indies is therefore of interest. The following occupations were covered by Minimum Wage Orders up to 1946 :
Bahamas . . . .
British Guiana .
British Honduras
Dominica. . . .
Grenada . . . .
Jamaica . . . .

Building, lumbering, sponge-fishing, gardening, stevedoring.
Waterfront workers, bakeries.
River crews, mahogany workers, chicle workers.
Shop assistants, agricultural workers.
Agricultural workers.
Sugar industry, printing trade, catering trade (Kingston
and St. Andrew), bread and cake bakery trade (Kingston
and St. Andrew), biscuit trade (Kingston and St.
Andrew).
St. Christopher . Sugar cane harvesting.
St. L u c i a . . . . Agricultural workers, shop assistants, coaling industry,
sugar industry.
St. Vincent. . . Agricultural workers.

Employers'' and Workers'1 Organisations
According to available information, there are at the present
time some 120 organisations registered under the trade union
legislation of the British territories, most of which have
come into being over the past ten years. With the exception
of a few trade protection societies and employers' organisations, they are trade unions of wage earners. Most of the
unions are small and in all the territories the proportion of
organised trade unionists among the wage earners is low.
In Jamaica, Trinidad, and British Guiana, in each of which
there are several unions, there are bodies of the Trade Union
Council type, designed to afford some territorial centralisation
of the trade union movement. In Jamaica, however, where
there is a deep-seated jurisdictional conflict, the unions associated in the Trade Union Council constitute only a small
percentage of organised workers. In British Guiana, only
since a reorganisation of the Council in 1943 has it been based
on the effective support of a major part of the local movement.
In Trinidad, a split between the unions in the north and south
of the island occurred in 1943 ; after it had ended, a further
1

Cf. Labour Supervision in the Colonial Empire, op. cit., p. 13.

THE MACHINERY OP INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS

133

split occurred on different lines, producing a situation in
which an enquiry into the industrial relations structure in
Trinidad was found desirable. At the time of writing the
trade union movement in Trinidad is still divided.
The British Guiana and West Indian Trade Union Congress,
which came into existence in 1926, but had held only two
meetings up to the outbreak of war, was resuscitated in 1944
at a meeting held in British Guiana. At a Conference held
in Barbados in September 1945, this body became the
Caribbean Labour Congress. The Barbados Conference was
attended by representatives from Antigua, Barbados, Bermuda,
British Guiana, Grenada, Jamaica, St. Kitts, St. Lucia,
St. Vincent, Surinam and Trinidad. A Constitution for the
Congress was formally adopted. Under its terms, the Congress is to include representatives of trade unions, co-operative
societies and socialist political organisations in politically
dependent territories in the Caribbean area ; provision is
however made for separate trade union sessions at each annual
Conference. The Barbados meeting adopted a number of
resolutions, dealing, inter alia, with economic development
and social and industrial legislation ; its primary significance
nevertheless seems to lie in the decision to establish a permanent institution. A further meeting was held in Jamaica
in 1947.
Existing trade union legislation as a whol represents a
great advance over the pre-war situation ; considerable progress has been made in the direction of enabling unions to
organise effectively and to pursue their objectives with legality
under appropriate safeguards along approved modern lines.
Much of the legislation has, however, been adopted so recently
that it has not yet had time to show its full effects. A resolution adopted by the 1945 Caribbean Labour Conference,
indicating some of the changes West Indian trade unionists
considered desirable at that date, was framed in the following
terms :
Congress desires to invite Colonial Governments in the Caribbean
area to introduce Trade Union Ordinances where such do not exist
and, in the territories where Trade Union Ordinances exist, amendments should be introduced where necessary to provide—
(1) peaceful picketing embodying the provisions of the British Acts
and that the restriction which obtains in some of the territories
limiting pickets to three persons during a trade dispute should
be immediately removed ;

134

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

(2) that trade union funds should be made immune from liability
in actions for tort arising out of a trade dispute ;
(3) that the existing sections which debar civil servants and certain
other Government employees from becoming members of trade
unions with political objects should be repealed ;
(4) that the existing sections which make it illegal for trade unions
to utilise any part of their funds for political purposes should
be repealed ;
(5) and further, Congress urges that all other restrictive sections
contained in the trade union legislations in force in the Caribbean
territories, which are based upon the British Trades Dispute
Act of 1927, should be immediately repealed.
The trade union movement in the British West Indies has
characteristics readily comprehensible in the light of its
history and present stage of development. Its fundamental
objective, the improvement by collective action of wages
and working conditions, is, as elsewhere, a matter of common
understanding ; as elsewhere, right-wing and left-wing elements
differ as to procedure and as to the economic and social framework within which most progress would be possible. But
political dependence and the fact that a large segment of the
employing class is associated in the minds of the workers
with a ruling caste, no less than the narrow range of leadership available in small communities, has led in many cases
to close relationship between the political and industrial
aspects of British West Indian labour movements.
Because trade unionism is such a recent growth, the need
for consistent financial support of their unions by workers
has not fully been realised ; the dues-paying members of unions
thus usually represent only a small proportion of those willing
to support collective action if, for example, a strike were
called. Because of the haphazard way in which unions have
sprung up, jurisdictional strife is common. In British Guiana
and to a less extent in Trinidad the mixed racial composition
of the labour force is a factor in industrial relations. I t does
not appear, however, that this has added to the inevitable
early difficulties of trade union organisation except in so far
as it is a normal tendency for persons of bike origin to associate and except where a race grievance is artificially interposed.
As part of the policy of assisting the development of industrial organisation, two of the six British trade unionists
appointed as labour officers to British dependencies in 1942
were sent to the Caribbean. The British Trade Union Congress
has provided correspondence courses for trade union leaders

THE MACHINERY OF INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS

135

and has offered to afford training for a more limited number
at Buskin College. But while the training of potential leadership will be of value, the problem of leadership is but one of
the problems of a young trade union movement.
Only in fairly recent years has the organisation of employers
assumed more than negligible proportions in most territories.
The Labour Departments have in the past generally found
difficulty in endeavouring to promote such organisation and in
persuading individual employers to agree to delegate adequate
power to their representatives where such organisations have
been established. Eecently there have been improvements in
this position with the increased importance which collective
bargaining over wide areas of industry is assuming.
Already in 1945, collective agreements had become the
procedure for fixing wages in the all-important sugar industry
in British Guiana, Jamaica, Antigua, St. Christopher and
Trinidad. These agreements reached during January 1945
were renewed and strengthened in 1946 and subsequently.
Taken together in the fight of the history of employer-worker
relationships in these areas, they indicated that a new pattern
was emerging. In British Guiana, the Sugar Producers' Association on 29 January 1945 signed two detailed Memoranda
of Agreement on questions of procedure to preclude industrial conflict, one with the Man Power Citizens' Association
and the other with the British Guiana Workers' League.
In Jamaica, the Bustamante Industrial Trade Union signed
agreements with the Sugar Manufacturers' Association and the
All-Island Cane Farmers' Association covering bargaining
rights, general procedure, wages, hours, overtime rates, holidays with pay and sick leave. The Antigua Sugar Planters'
Association and the Antigua Trades and Labour Union signed
an agreement on wage rates for the reaping of the 1945 cane
crop on 17 January 1945. In St. Christopher an agreement
of 15 January 1945 between the St. Kitts-ÏTevis Trades and
Labour Union and the St. Christopher Sugar Producers'
Association covered the questions of wages, cost-of-living
allowance and procedure in case of disputes. E epresentatives
of the sugar manufacturers and workers in Trinidad signed a
one-year agreement—the first in the industry in this territory—determining procedure, providing for holidays with pay,
establishing a joint consultative committee and providing
for 15 per cent, wage increases.

136

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

The development of collective bargaining in the sugar
industry represents but one aspect, if an important one, of
a trend becoming progressively more and more pronounced.
Specialised Industrial

Relations

Machinery

Provision for the establishment of arbitration tribunals
and for boards of enquiry in the event of apprehended or
existing trade disputes exists in the legislation of the following
territories 1 : Barbados, Bermuda, Jamaica, Trinidad and
Tobago, the Leeward Islands, the Windward Islands and
British Honduras ; under the British Guiana Labour Ordinance
of 1942 2, the Commissioner of Labour is empowered in such
circumstances to institute enquiries, attempt conciliation and
in the last resort recommend the formation of an arbitration
board. Arbitration tribunals are to consist of one or more
arbitrators with or without equal numbers of assessors representative of employers and workers. Under recent legislation,
labour boards have been set up in the Bahamas and Bermuda
to act as conciliation machinery.
Since their establishment, the Labour Departments in the
British West Indies have in general been valuable agents in
promoting collective bargaining. The work of these Departments in bringing together parties to disputes or apprehended
disputes has been extensive ; it is evidenced both by the
number of collective agreements in the negotiation of which
the Departments have played an essential part, and by the
assistance they have provided, where trade unionism was
absent, in promoting the settlement of grievances in industry.
The West India Eoyal Commission recommended " that
West Indian Governments should set an example in labour
matters by forming Whitley {i.e., joint advisory) Councils for
civil services, and (that) the principle should be extended to
subordinate staff and teachers ". Whitley Councils have up
to the present time been established in Antigua, Barbados,
British Guiana, Grenada, Jamaica, St. Kitts, St. Vincent and
Trinidad. A further recommendation, the establishment of
an Industrial Court for the (British) West Indies as a whole
has not so far been implemented. One reason is the fear
1
2

For details of the relevant legislation, cf. Chapter VIII.
No. 2 of 1942.

THE MACHINERY OF INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS

137

expressed that there might be a tendency to refer even minor
disputes to it in the first instance, a difficulty which it should
not be beyond the range of suitable arrangements to overcome.
A more substantial argument is that such a step may impede
the development of collective bargaining.
Eecent events would seem to indicate that the machinery
described above still requires development, at least in the
larger territories. A Committee on Industrial Eelations was
appointed in Jamaica on 5 April 1943 to consider and make
recommendations on—
(a) means for securing a permanent improvement in the relations
between employers and workers ;
(b) methods and machinery for securing that, in future, wages and
working conditions in agriculture, industry and commerce
should be systematically reviewed by those concerned ;
(c) machinery for the speedy settlement of trade disputes and
strikes ; and
(d) the position with regard to trade unions, employers and the
non-unionist worker ; and present trends in trade union legislation and organisation.
The recommendations contained in an interim report of
this Committee, dated October 1943, are noteworthy. If
adopted, they would introduce a pattern of industrial relations
machinery based on principles markedly different from those
which have to an increasing extent informed law and practice
in British Caribbean territories in recent years. So far the
emphasis has been on voluntary conciliation ; provision has
been made for governmental minimum wage-fixing where no
alternative existed ; but it seems to have been presumed that
in most cases organisations of employers and workers would
thrive on the responsibilities of finding their own solutions to
disagreements.
The Committee's decision to present an interim report was
based on the following stated reasons :
(a) the prevalence of fairly widespread labour unrest, particularly
in agriculture ;
(b) the imminent danger of complete breakdown of such loose
forms of voluntary bargaining as existed ; and
(c) the necessity of immediate assurance that Government, in
consultation with representatives of employers and workers,
would examine the general position and take early steps to
ensure the setting up of agreed machinery for the systematic
review of wages and working conditions, and for the settlement
of strikes and disputes.
For the systematic and continuous review of wages and
working conditions the Committee recommended the establish-

138

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

ment of central trade boards and a central agricultural board
with local advisory committees. The considerations underlying
this proposal were stated in the following terms :
Voluntary organisations operating voluntary bargaining machinery is recognised as an ideal. This system has been tried in Jamaica
since 1938, in accordance with the principle advocated by the board
of conciliation appointed in that year b u t . . . it is out of touch
with the realities of the situation in this island and is an unsuccessful
attempt to apply methods, successful in England, but entirely
unsuitable to the far different circumstances existing in Jamaica,
chief among them being, the absence, in many instances, of an
enlightened policy on the part of both workers' and employers'
organisations in matters affecting industrial relations.
There is hope for improvement in this direction, but, at the
present stage,
there is urgent need for the establishment of statutory
machinery x on which employers and workers will be fairly represented. The educational experience and training which would be afforded
to these representatives should be of considerable benefit in their2
organisation towards the development of well-balanced bargaining.
I t was also recommended that a single arbitration court
should be set up for the whole of Jamaica to deal with the
settlement of disputes that have outlasted negotiation and
conciliation processes 5 this board should have as its chairman
a Judge of the Supreme Court and be empowered at his
discretion to adopt methods of mediation, voluntary arbitration or compulsory arbitration. On notification of a dispute,
or if a dispute is apprehended, it was proposed that the Labour
Adviser should take the following steps, in succession, in
attempting to facilitate a settlement : (1) endeavour to bring
the parties together in conformity with the terms of any
existing collective agreement ; (2) endeavour to secure agreement to have the matter considered and settled by discussion
either directly between the parties or by the central trade
boards or the central agricultural board ; (3) refer to the
arbitration court within ten clear working days after the date
of receipt by the Labour Department of particulars from either
party setting out the matters in dispute. Other recommendations include the establishment of Departmental Councils,
similar in constitution to the Whitley Council for the Civil
Service of Jamaica, covering such employees of Government,
quasi-Government, municipal and parochial authorities as do
not belong to the Civil Service; the enactment of a single
1
2

Machinery, the decisions of which would have statutory effect.
Interim Report of the Commutée on Industrial Relations (Jamaica, 1944).

THE MACHINERY OF INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS

139

comprehensive Industrial Eelations Law and inviting the
co-operation of the parties to ensure recognition of trade
unions' rights to peaceful picketing.
Finally the committee recommended the acceptance of a
Fair Labour Code, the text of which is appended to the interim
report, for the guidance of employers and employees and their
representatives in matters affecting industrial relations. This
code was formulated and accepted by representatives of the
four chief employers' associations, representatives of the two
leading trade union groups, the Chairman of the Committee
on Industrial Eelations, and the Labour Adviser, and approved
by the Committee. Tnter alia, the code defines unfair labour
practices ; the rights, duties and responsibilities of employers
and employers' associations in regard to self organisation and
conditions of employment and of employees and trade unions
in regard to self organisation, application to duty, protection
of the property and interests of employers, and picketing and
of both groups in negotiations and disputes. 1
There is little to show that the policy advocated by the
Jamaica Committee on Industrial Eelations will displace the
policy of voluntary conciliation, which has in general met with
success in the British West Indies. The policy represents,
however, an alternative which may gain more support should
the difficulties of post-war adjustment not be overcome by
present methods.
I n practice, the operation of all this machinery of industrial
relations in the British territories presents a series of varied
patterns, dependent on the factors noted above. This complexity may perhaps best be analysed by brief notes summarising available information on trends during the past few
years. Some attention will also be paid to those historical
developments which help to explain these trends.
Bahamas and Bermuda
Until the formation very recently of the Bahamas Trades
and Labour Union the organisation of employers and workers
on modern lines was non-existent in these territories. This
situation is partly to be explained by the character of their
economy. 2
1
2

Ibid.
Cf. above, Chapter I.

140

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

Trade union legislation in the Bahamas was first enacted
in 1943, but excludes agricultural and domestic workers from
its scope. Legislation was enacted in Bermuda in 1946 after
the failure of earlier attempts to secure suitable provision.
Legislation was also enacted in 1946 setting up'conciliation
and trade disputes machinery in both territories.
I n both territories there are labour advisory boards ; there
is a Labour Commissioner in the Bahamas and recent legislation has empowered the Governor to appoint a Labour Officer.
I n view of the important segment of workers -who were at one
time employed on the United States bases, there have been
United States military representatives on both advisory
boards ; the board in the Bahamas was in point of fact first
constituted as a Committee to advise on questions relating to
the employment of labour on these bases.
Serious labour disturbances occurred in the Bahamas in
1942. The general finding of a commission, appointed on
2 October 1942 " to make a diligent and full enquiry into and
report upon the recent disturbances which took place in June
1942 ", and to make recommendations, was " that these
disturbances were due to questions as to labour and wages
and to the economic causes of depression ". The inequality
of wages in an American undertaking between workers who
«ame from the United States and Bahamian workers was, on
t h e finding of the Commission, the immediate cause of unrest.
The Commission recommended, inter alia, that legislation
should be enacted dealing with trade unions and industrial
conciliation machinery in order that labour legislation in the
Bahamas might be brought up to reasonable modern standards. 1
The framework of the machinery of industrial relations in
these two territories was thus until recently less advanced
than that of most other parts of the West Indies. A Bermuda
Workers' Association, formed in 1945, claimed at that time a
membership of some 1,200, but, until the enactment of the
1946 Trade Union and Trade Disputes Act, could not have
the facilities for its functioning generally regarded as necessary.
1
" The Beport of the Commissionerà appointed to enquire into Disturbances
in the Bahamas which took place in June 1942 " in Official Gazette Bxtraordinari/,
19 Jan. 1943. Cf. also : International Labour Review, Vol. XLVIII, No. 5, Nov.
1943, p. 637.

THE MACHINERY OF INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS

141

Barbados
The development of industrial relations machinery in
Barbados since 1939 epitomises the change in the pattern of
labour relations which has taken place in the British West
Indies as a whole over that period. In 1939 there were no
employers' or workers' organisations and no Department of
Labour ; collective bargaining and conciliation and arbitration
machinery were non-existent. In all these respects the changes
which have since been effected are impressive.
The Labour Department was established in 1940. Its
present staff includes a Labour Commissioner, a Labour
Inspector and a senior clerk. The Department has also
been responsible, since 1944, for the administration of the
public Employment Agency, which was an independent entity
up to that date.
One of the Department's early tasks was fostering the
establishment of a system of voluntary conciliation boards
which have subsequently proved of great value in resolving
and preventing industrial disputes. These boards consist
of workers' and employers' representatives and representation
from the Department of Labour and began to be utilised
even before formal organisation of employers and workers
existed. Five agricultural conciliation boards were formed
in the latter part of 1940 and reached agreements in 1941
covering, inter alia, hours of work, wages, time, piece and canecutting rates, inspection by the Labour Commissioner and
avoidance of disputes. Prom 1942, however, the boards
ceased to function because of governmental control of production, supplies and price ; in particular, the fact that
the Ministry of Food was purchasing the entire sugar crop
at a fixed price decisively limited the area of collective
bargaining. But the initial success of this machinery showed
the practicability of the policy recommended by the Royal
Commission—
. . . to cover the period before trade unions are developed to
the point at which they can play a decisive part in the regulation
of wages and conditions of employment, action by Government in
this direction through the medium of Labour Departments or
Officers. 1
1

Recommendations, op. cit., p. 15.
10

142

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

A central labour advisory board was also created in 1940.
The principal subject matter of this board's deliberations
was the review of agreements arrived at through the voluntary
joint negotiations of the industry conciliation boards. With
the adoption of the Wages Boards Act of 1943, the board was
dissolved as the Act transferred these functions to the
Governor-in-Executive Committee.
The voluntary conciliation board system has gone on from
strength to strength, a process to which the progressive
development of representative employers' and workers' organisations has contributed. In 1942 a conciliation board was
established as a continuing body for the foundries ; earlier
in the same year an ad hoc board had met consisting of representatives of the foundries and of the Engineers Division of
the Barbados Workers' Union and had reached agreement
in regard to grading, hourly rates of pay and a promotion
system. In 1943 the board reached agreement on the granting
of holidays with pay. An ad hoc board for the bakery trade
increased by 40 per cent, in 1943 the rates agreed on by the
bakers' conciliation board in 1940. During 1944 conciliation
boards dealt with the affairs of the following categories of
workers : coopers, produce porters, ships' carpenters, foundry
engineers, lightermen and stevedore labourers.
The first trade union in Barbados, the Barbados Workers'
Union, was registered in 1941. In 1943 the union had approximately 350 dues-paying members, although its actual following
was much larger. At first concentrating on securing adherents
in urban districts, the union has since extended the scope of
its activities. At the end of 1944 the 22 divisions of the union
had a financial membership of nearly 3,700 ; in March 1946,
the union claimed a membership of some 8,500, a large proportion of them non-urban agricultural workers. The achievements of the union have been concrete and substantial.
Between July 1947 and July 1948, it entered into agreements
on behalf of its divisions with eight groups of employers in
the shipping, bakery, transportation, telephone, electricity
and tobacco industries.
îfo further organisations were registered under trade union
legislation until 1945. In that year were registered three
more unions : the Barbados Clerks Union, the Barbados Overseers Association and the Congress Trade Union ; and two
employers' associations, the Shipping and Mercantile Associ-

THE MACHINERY OP INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS

143

ation and the Sugar Producers' Association. This development bears witness to the inception of a new period in the
history of industrial relations in Barbados, a period in which
collective bargaining is becoming the norm of accepted procedure.
The arbitration machinery established by law in Barbados
has also been utilised. In 1942, the then Labour Adviser
to the Comptroller for Development and Welfare in the West
Indies was appointed sole arbitrator under the Trade Disputes
(Arbitration and Enquiry) Act, 1939, " to determine by award
what are fit and equitable wages to be paid to ships' carpenters " and issued an award which proved acceptable
to the parties concerned. In 1944, this award was reviewed
by means of the same machinery. In the same year, under
the Defence (Trade Disputes) Begulations, 1943, an arbitration tribunal was appointed
(1) to enquire into the dispute between the stevedores and the
stevedore labourers with regard to wages and conditions of
work and to make such decision or award in this connection as
may be considered proper ;
(2) to advise the Governor in connection with wages and conditions
of work of lightermen, steamer-warehouse porters and produce
porters and on any matter or matters arising out of the dispute
referred to in paragraph (1).
The tribunal awarded a war bonus increase and advised
a similar increase for other categories of port workers, but
rejected the request for an eight-hour day.
British

Guiana

Trade union organisation of some effectiveness came into
being in British Guiana shortly after the first world war,
but did not maintain its early promise in the depression
years that followed. The British Guiana Labour Union,
formed in 1919 and registered in 1922, had in its early years
a membership reaching the 12,000 mark. Serious labour
disturbances occurred in 1935, 1938 and 1948.
The British Guiana Department of Labour began its
existence as a separate entity in 1942, having previously
been a joint Department with the Department of Local Government. Its present senior staff includes a Commissioner of
Labour, a Deputy Commissioner, three Labour Inspectors

144

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

and three Assistant Inspectors. The public Employment
Exchange Service is also administered by the Department.
The powers accorded the Department by law are summarised
in Chapter VIII.
At the end of 1946, there were 38 organisations registered
under the Trades Union Ordinance ; four were employers'
organisations, 28 workers' organisations and six trade protection associations. Of the 28 workers' organisations, 15 were
affiliated to the British Guiana Trade Union Council.
The following table provides details of dues-paying membership between 1941 and 1946.
Unions

Affiliated to the
Guiana Trades
Council
Not affiliated to the
Guiana Trades
Council

1941

1942

1943

1944

1945

1946

3,611

4,593

6,770

7,177

1,745

1,405

703

2,799

1,288

5,656

5,132

3,705

5,296

9,569

8,465

7,401

6,537

British
Union
British
Union

Total membership. . .

Source : Report of the Department of Labour for the Year 1946 (Georgetown, 1947), p. 7.

Existing weaknesses in the trade union movement in this
territory reflect its present early stage of development. The
fundamental factor in the situation is the small number of
dues-paying union members. The need for building up
strong institutions for their own protection is a conception
whose financial implications are not widely accepted. Union
organisation tends rather to be primarily based on personal
loyalties to individuals whom workers regard as being in a
position to assist them. Because of lack of funds, administration of trade unions in British Guiana is, for the most part,
undertaken on a voluntary basis ; officers discharge their
duties in their spare time. Only two workers' organisations
—the Man Power Citizens' Association and the British Guiana
Labour Union—have full-time ofiicers and staff and ofiices
of their own.
Some of the difficulties to which this situation gives rise
are readily comprehensible. With part-time officers, recruiting activity is limited, dues collecting becomes irregular and
ill-controlled, constant contact with employers and between

THE MACHINERY OF INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS

145

union officials and the rank and file of union members becomes
impossible. As there is much jurisdictional strife, employers
can legitimately claim that they do not know with what
union they should enter into negotiations and workers are
discouraged from joining unions because of the ineffectiveness
of trade union action.
During 1946, the number of registered organisations of
workers was 26 ; the membership of the 21 unions for which
figures were available totalled 14,531. Of these, 12, with a
membership of 7,679, were affiliated to the British Guiana
Trade Union Council.
The strength of the Trade Union Council has been diminished by the general situation depicted above. The Council,
which had previously had the support of only three unions,
was reconstituted in 1943 and attained almost immediately a
representative basis of 14 unions. Its efforts to promote
workers' education on trade union principles and practice,
the settlement of jurisdictional disputes and the amalgamation
of the existing small unions on an industry basis indicate
that its leadership is aware of the weaknesses that exist.
The development of representative employers' organisations
has also been slow* The 1942 report of the Department
of Labour stated—
There is an almost complete absence of organisation among
employers. . . . The principles of collective bargaining presuppose
some degree of cohesion on the part of the bargainers, but, with
one notable exception such cohesion (on the part of the employers)
is entirely lacking. Even in the case of that exception it was not
always evident that members of the organisation and their executives
are regarded as bound or capable of being bound by the decisions
of the Association.1
Because of the lack of organisation among employers
and workers in large sectors of employment as well as the
paucity of regular union members, the general atmosphere
of industrial relations is particularly unsettled. While it is
the policy of the Department of Labour to use its good offices
as frequently and as early as appropriate to facilitate the
settlement of disputes, " the policy of allowing the parties to
endeavour to settle their own differences has . . . been
maintained ".2 In practice, situations arise in which the
1

Report of the Department of Labour for the Year 1942 (Georgetown, 1943),
p. 7. The reference is to the British Guiana Sugar Producers' Association.
2
Report of the Department of Labour for the Year 1944 (Georgetown, 1945), p. 9.

146

LABOXIB POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

Department has to assume a considerable share of responsibility. In many cases, disputes arise from relatively trivial
issues which could be settled within the particular undertaking concerned, if some procedure for joint negotiation
within the undertaking existed, as part of a procedural agreement between the management and the union whose members
were engaged in the undertaking. In the circumstances, it
very often occurs that there is no union membership in an
undertaking where a dispute occurs ; the workers concerned
may then invite a union to which none of them are members
to represent them and/or the Department of Labour is invited
to intervene. It is most unusual to find a situation in which
the majority of the workers concerned are regular members
of a union which they can call upon to represent them. Port
workers and workers on some sugar estates are virtually the
only exceptions.
The Labour Ordinance of 1942, in addition to defining
the powers of the Commissioner of Labour in case of trade
disputes existing or apprehended, makes provision for advisory
committees in like circumstances to make enquiries and recommendations. The Governor may refer to such a Committee
any matters relevant to the dispute. One advisory committee was set up in 1942 as a result of the strike of waterfront
workers and made recommendations for minimum wage rates
which were accepted and applied by Government. In 1943,
an advisory committee for the sugar industry was appointed
with the following terms of reference :
(a) the extent to which work, especially piece work, is normally
available to workers on sugar estates and in sugar factories ;
(b) the extent to which workers, especially piece workers, normally
engage in work on sugar estates and in sugar factories ;
(e) if available work is not fully taken up the reason why this is so.
The Committee reported on its findings in 1946. The
advisory committee system is essentially designed to be a
fact-finding board system.
Despite the difficulties which have been noted, there has
been a progressive improvement in the direction of direct
employer-worker negotiations. A few developments may
be cited. In December 1943, a joint conference, under the
auspices of the Labour Department, was held between the
Sugar Producers' Association and the Man Power Citizens'
Association to consider several items of general interest in

THE MACHINERY OF INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS

147

the sugar industry. The more important items concerned
hospitalisation ; conditions of employment of women ; allocation of padi and provision plots ; and an eight-hour day for
field workers. In 1944, three further such conferences were
held to discuss conditions of employment on the sugar estates.
In February 1944, the employers concerned and the British
Guiana Labour Union reached agreement in regard to improved
conditions for stevedores loading ships out of Georgetown.
In January 1945 agreements were reached between the British
Guiana Sugar Producers' Association on the one hand and the
Man Power Citizens' Association and the British Guiana Workers' League on the other (a) regarding the avoidance and
settlement of disputes and (b) regarding workers' representatives, trade union district secretaries and estate joint committees. Election of workers' representatives on estate joint
committees is conducted under arrangements worked out and
informally supervised by the Labour Department ; schools
adjoining the estates are used as polling stations and the
school teachers act as returning officers. In February 1946,
a new agreement was reached between the Sugar Producers'
Association and the Man Power Citizens' Association in
regard to wages and cost-of-living bonuses.
The present position is illustrated by the following summary of the account given by the Department of Labour of
collective bargaining during 1948 and is illustrative of the
progress made.
Joint conferences were held between the employers'
association and the two recognised unions, under the auspices
of the Department of Labour, with the following results :
1. Two increases in basic rates for cutting and loading cane, one
from the pay week ending 1 May and the other from the pay
week ending 18 September.
2. The cost-of-living bonus to all workers earning
up to $40 a month
was increased from 30 per cent, to 33x/3 per cent, as from the
pay week ending 1 May.
3. As from 1 May new overtime rates were established for factory
workers on the basis of time-and-a-half rates for hours worked
in excess of eight a day and double time on Sundays and certain
scheduled public holidays.
4. Procedural arrangements were established in regard to meetings
of and representation on estate joint committees.
Following representations made by the M.P.C.A., agreement was reached between the Board of Control of the Mahai-

148

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

cony/Abary Eice Development Scheme and the Union providing for—
1.
2.
3.
4.

An increase of 2 cents an hour to all daily paid workers.
An increase of $1.50 a week to all weekly paid workers.
An increase of $5 a month to all monthly paid workers.
A harvesting bonus of $2 a week to workers working at least
48 hours a week who were not entitled to overtime pay under
the Factories Ordinance of 1947.
5. Payment of overtime to workers so entitled.
The Board also undertook that wages should be at least as
high as those paid for similar work in other Government Departments and to improve housing conditions and water supply.
Two agreements, which were signed on 7 September, between the Board and the Union, provided for the avoidance
and settlement of disputes and for the setting up of a works
joint committee to give effect to the arrangements for the
settlement of disputes.
During August 1948 agreements were drawn up between
employers in the timber industry and the Sawmill Workers'
Union covering (a) minimum wages, (b) conditions of
employment, and (c) machinery for the avoidance and settlement of disputes.
In the bauxite industry an agreement was signed on
20 December between the company and the recognised union
making provision for a cost-of-living bonus on a sliding scale.
The agreement also established a new schedule of wage rates
and dealt with the following questions : observance of certain
conditions by the union in its relations with the company ;
employment, promotion, retrenchment and length of service ;
holidays with pay ; general working conditions, overtime,
and the procedure fcr the settlement of complaints ; establishment of a joint production consultative and advisory
committee, the objects of which would be to establish
machinery for the regular exchange of views between management and employees on matters relating to the improvement
of production and efficiency.
In the gold industry, an agreement of 11 November between
the British Guiana Consolidated Goldfields Limited and the
Guianese Workers' Federation made the following provision :
1. Incorporation in the basic wage of the war bonus paid to all
daily paid employees and the payment of wages on an hourly
instead of a daily basis.

THE MACHINERY OF INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS

149

2. An increase of $1.50 in all weekly rates.
3. Adjustment, on a basis of merit, of all monthly rates.
4. Eemoval of the company's subsidy on foodstuffs previously
sold below landed cost.
5. The qualifications to be fulfilled by union representatives appointed to meet the company.
As from 1 May the company, on representations from the
union, had introduced an eight-hour working day.
Negotiations between the Transport and Harbours Department and the Transport Workers' Union resulted in agreement on new scales of salaries for monthly paid employees.
On the waterfront there was a general increase of wage
rates after representations of the recognised union.
In the shipping industry, a conference on 3 April between
representatives of the British Guiana and West India Federated Seamen's Union and the Pure Cane Molasses Company
Limited resulted in agreement on the following bases :
1. An eight-hour day.
2. Overtime at time-and-a-half rates with double time on recognised
public holidays.
3. Increase in supplies of bedding.
4. Issue of rubber boots, coats, hats and gloves.
In the printing industry, the principal establishments
in Georgetown agreed on a schedule of classification of workers
and on overtime rates and holidays with pay. Workers
were to be entitled to two weeks' holiday with pay after one
year of continuous service, but had the option of taking one
week's pay in lieu of a week's leave.
In the building trade, an agreement between the principal
building contractors and the British Guiana Congress of General
Workers provided for : minimum rates of 29 cents an hour
for tradesmen and 16.8 cents an hour for general workers ;
overtime at time-and-a-half rates, with double time on
Sundays and scheduled public holidays ; four hours pay
where rain prevents work if the worker attends and is prepared and available to work.
British

Honduras

Because of the economic and other local conditions of
British Honduras, its industrial relations machinery is relatively
simple. The most important sphere of employment is in

150

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

the mahogany and chicle industries and employment in these
industries has always in recent years been on the basis of legally
controlled recruitment, by which wages and conditions of
work were decided upon over the period of contract before
work was actually undertaken. Belevant recent legislation x
has been essentially directed towards providing safeguards
for the observance of the conditions contained in contracts
and ensuring that these conditions do not fall below certain
minima. In addition, minimum wage stipulations are in
force for the leading forest industry. Under the present
legal provisions, the interests of workers are in large measure
defined and the rights and obligations of both employers and
workers clarified.
The senior labour supervision staff consists of a Labour
Officer and a Labour Inspector. A labour advisory board
was established in November 1944, consisting of the Attorney
General as Chairman, two other Government officers, two
employers' representatives and two workers' representatives.
Since 1943, five workers' organisations have been established. While the financial membership of these unions is
small, they have exercised influence both through the labour
advisory board and by negotiation. Before the formation
of these unions the scope of industrial relations work of the
Department of Labour was all-embracing. " In the absence
of labour organisations the Labour Department must necessarily undertake the settlement of individual disputes which
would normally be adjusted by unions 2 ," and the reports
from 1939 to 1943 note the frequency of such complaints.
From 1940 to 1944, however, there were only five minor,
and no major, industrial disputes. In 1947, 3,214 man-days
of employment were lost as a result of industrial disputes.
In 1948, the nominal membership of the unions was over
4,000. Up to that date, no employers' organisations had been
established.
Jamaica
The machinery of industrial relations in Jamaica is more
highly developed than in other British West Indian areas.
Workers' and employers' associations are more highly orga1

Employers and Workers Ordinance and Regulations, 1943, cf. Chapter VIII.
Report on the Labour Department of British Honduras for the Year 1940
(Belize, 1941), p. 5.
2

THE MACHINERY OF INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS

151

nised, the Labour Department is a more complex organism,
and the whole range of industrial relations is on a different
level. Trade unionism represents a powerful influence in the
community.
Before 1938, the organisation of trade unions had been
on a small scale. x In June 1938, 12 unions existed, mainly
very small organisations on a craft basis. Very serious labour
disturbances occurred in May and June of 1938, and form the
background of the comparative success in occupational
organisation which has followed since that date. The prominent
figures in the present Jamaica labour movement, in both its
political and trade union aspects, began at that time to assume
their role as leaders.
The Labour Department in Jamaica had, up to the end
of March 1945, a much larger and specialised staff than any
other Labour Department in the British Caribbean. The
Department, however, suffered a 50 per cent, reduction of
its entire staff in the 1945-1946 financial year, as a result of
which the number of its senior officials, as distinct from its
clerical staff, was reduced, and two area and four branch
offices closed. At the end of 1946, there were in Jamaica
14 employers' organisations and 24 active trade unions with
a paying membership of approximately 34,270, or approximately 12 per cent, of the island's wage earners. Easily the most
important of the unions is the Bustamante Industrial Trade
Union. 2 There is a Jamaica Trades Union Council to which
are affiliated 22 organisations with a membership in 1946, of
approximately 3,600 members, in which the B.I.T.U. does not
participate. Under the existing minimum wage legislation, the
first minimum wage advisory board was appointed in 1941 for
the sugar industry and similar boards have since been set
up for other industries.
Eesort has been had on several
occasions to the arbitration tribunals provided for by Law
ÍTo. 16 of 1939.
The senior staff of the Labour Department consisted in
1946 of a Labour Adviser, two Assistant Labour Advisers
and eight Labour Officers. A statistical service was formerly
1
For a useful short account of the issues touched on in this paragraph, cf.
W. Arthur LEWIS : Labour in the West Indies, the Birth of a Workers' Movement
(Fabian Society, Research Series, No. 44, London, 1939), pp. 26 et seq.
2
The B.I.T.U. had a dues-paying membership of 30,658 and a non-paying
membership of 17,013 on 31 March 1946.

152

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

included in the Department but was transferred to the Central
Bureau of Statistics. The Kingston Employment Bureau is
responsible for placement and registration duties in the
Corporate Area and has a certain degree of administrative
authority. The activities of the Department in connection
with such developments as the migration of Jamaicans for
employment in the Canal Zone, the United States and elsewhere, as well as employment on the United States bases,
assisted in its development.
The existence of ten recognised employers' organisations
creates in Jamaica greater opportunities for collective bargaining than the circumstances of other British West Indian
areas permit. But while, on the one hand, the Sugar Manufacturers' Association and others are truly representative
organisations there is a complete absence of organisation in
certain other industries. In 1940—
. . . the Labour Adviser circularised many of the employers in
the distributive trades in the Corporate Area, suggesting the formation of an Employers' Association. It was pointed out to these
employers that it was unfortunate that there was no Employers'
Organisation, with the necessary authority to decide wage policy,
or negotiate wage agreements. The Labour Adviser expressed the
¿ope that some interest among the employers concerned would be
aroused, which should lead to at least a nucleus of employers who
were prepared to co-operate in forming such an Association. The
response to the memorandum was not xencouraging, as many employers were adverse to the suggestion.
Compromise machinery provided in this instance was " not
entirely satisfactory ". The position since 1940 has already
improved.
The achievements and improved status of trade unionism
in Jamaica since 1938 are unquestionable, in spite of the
split in the trade union movement. Dues-paying trade union
members represent over 10 per cent, of the island's workers
and constitute only a fraction of those who support union
activities. Collective bargaining has so developed that, should
effect be given to the policy advocated by the Committee
on Industrial Relations, it will probably be rather to provide
a structure through which the unions wish to operate than
to compensate for any of their alleged weaknesses. Some
of the earliest agreements may be cited. Up to December
1
Annual
1941), p . 4.

Report

of the Labour Department

for the Year 1940

(Kingston,

THE MACHINERY OF INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS

153

1942, three collective agreements of wide application had been
arrived at between the Sugar Manufacturers' Association
and the Bustamante Industrial Trade Union in respect of basic
wage rates, war allowances or cost-of-living allowances, working hours and labour relations. These were : (1) an agreement of 19 March 1941, linking the cost-of-living index with
wages ; (2) an agreement of 22 December 1941, implementing
the first agreement in consequence of the revision of the cost-ofliving index figure as at the end of November 1941 ; (3) Labour
Eelations—a procedure agreement of 8 January 1942.
On 27 February 1943, an agreement signed between the
St. Thomas Farmers' Association, Limited, and the Bustamante Industrial Trade Union, to last up to 31 December 1943,
covered rates of pay and other matters affecting agricultural
workers on banana, coconut and sugar cane properties in the
parish of St. Thomas. In 1945, as noted above, the Bustamante Industrial Trade Union reached agreement with the
Sugar Manufacturers' Association and the All-Island Cane
Farmers' Association, and this agreement has annually been
renewed subsequently.
A labour advisory board consisting of four Government
officials, four employers' representatives and four workers'
representatives was appointed in 1942, in succession to the
Trade Union Consultative Committee " to enable Government
to ascertain the opinion of employers and workers on controversial matters, and for the discussion of proposed legislation
affecting labour, and generally to act in an advisory and consultative capacity "-1 This board had only a short span of life.
Because of the strength of trade unionism in Jamaica,
direct negotiation between employers and workers has been
a more pronounced trend than in other parts of the British
West Indies. The collective agreements cited above constitute but a small sample of the results of such negotiation.
Eesort to arbitration machinery has, nevertheless, been found
necessary from time to time.
Arbitration boards set up under the provisions of the
Trade Disputes (Arbitration and Enquiry) Law of 1939
numbered one in 1941, five in 1942, two in 1943, three in 1945,
and three in 1946. Four Defence Tribunals under the Defence
Projects and Essential Services (Trade Disputes) Orders were
1
Annual
1943), p . 3.

Report

of the Labour

Department

for the Year

1942

(Kingston,

154

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

appointed during 1943 to deal with four disputes certified
by the Labour Adviser as falling under their provisions.
In 1944, the Industrial (Defence) Tribunal operating under
the terms of these orders held ten sittings during the year
to issue and clarify Awards made in settlement of disputes
occurring in essential services as defined by law. It is to be
noted that awards of this Tribunal were subject to judicial
review ; in one instance, its ruling that a company should
re-employ workers who had come out on strike because of
dismissals was reversed by the Supreme Court.
The extent of industrial unrest in Jamaica, particularly
in 1945 and 1946, has given rise to considerable questioning
of the efficacy of the existing machinery of industrial relations.
In the first half of 1946, particularly, unrest became more
pronounced than at any other period since the 1938 riots.
One proposal which appears to have received some support
is the establishment of an Industrial Court or Courts. During
1946, 238,540 man-days were lost to industry during strike
action.
The reports of the Jamaica Department of Labour indicate
in considerable detail the pattern of industrial conflict since
the Department was set up. The following table, based on
these reports, illustrates several features of interest. 1
INDUSTRIAL DISPUTES IN JAMAICA
1943

Number of disputes
Number of disputes settled by—
independent negotiation
official conciliation
arbitration
industrial (defence) tribunals or boards
of enquiry
other terminations
Number of disputes involving stoppages of
work
Number of man-days lost
Number of stoppages caused by disputes as to
wages, hours, conditions of employment
Sympathy strikes
Union organisation (recognition, closed shop)
Other causes

1944

1946

109

3
46
2

6
61
—

33
54
2

4
32

7
6

12
8

77,253

65,238

238,540

19
5
1
4

32
2
—
9

34
16
8
18

Annual Report of the Labour Department, for the years 1943, 1944 and 1946
(Kingston, 1944, 1946 and 1947).

THE MACHINERY OP INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS

155

Leeward Islands
The present labour supervision service of the Leeward
Islands includes two responsible officials: a Federal Labour
Officer, stationed in Antigua, and an Assistant Federal Officer,
stationed in St. Kitts.
In the inter-war period a number of working class societies
existed at different times in St. Kitts, which was the scene
of the earliest of the series of notable labour disturbances
in the period 1935-1938.x There are three registered trade
unions—two in St. Kitts, one in Antigua. Both employers'
organisations, the St. Christopher Sugar Producers' Association and the Antigua Sugar Planters' Association, are effective agencies for collective bargaining purposes though the
former is a much more closely knit organisation.
Details of several collective agreements of some import
are available in regard to the Leeward Islands. In 1943,
a procedure agreement was arrived at between the St. Christopher (St. Kitts) Sugar Producers' Association and the
St. Kitts-ÏJevis Trades and Labour Union, and the indications
that collective bargaining is developing here are supported
by the utilisation of a Board consisting of five representatives
of the planters, seven representatives of the union and two
independent witnesses to enquire into a bonus payment
dispute, 3-5 May 1943. On 14 April 1944, an agreement
was signed between the Antigua Sugar Factory, Limited,
and the Antigua Trades and Labour Union dealing with
questions of the war bonus, overtime rates and the number
of holidays with pay. Further agreements reached in 1945
and 1946 have been noted above.
In April 1943, a board of enquiry was appointed in St.Kitts
under the Trade Disputes (Arbitration and Enquiry) Act,
1939, and a similar board of enquiry in Antigua under the
Minimum Wage Act in February 1944.
Arbitration machinery under the Trade Disputes Act was
utilised in February 1946 to settle a dispute arising from the
dismissal of a worker in Antigua.
Three agreements signed on 12 January 1946 by the
Antigua Trades and Labour Union illustrate effectively the
important role which collective bargaining has assumed
1

Cf. LEWIS, op. cit., p. 12.

156

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

in t h e Leeward Islands. Two of these agreements were
concluded with t h e Antigua Sugar P l a n t e r s ' Association a n d
covered wage rates, conditions for farming, weekly rest, o u t p u t
bonuses, a n d a 74 per cent, war bonus on basic earnings. T h e
t e r m s of t h e t h i r d agreement, concluded with t h e Antigua Sugar
F a c t o r y Limited, are cited below. I t was agreed as follows :
(1) That from the commencement of grinding operations in the
year 1946, the following conditions shall be observed :
(a) The basic rates of wages shall be increased by 7 % per cent.
(b) The cost-of-living war bonus shall be 52 y2 per cent, of actual
earnings.
(c) The bonus will be paid on all hourly, daily and weekly wages.
(d) The bonus shall not be paid on overtime earnings.
(e) The bonus shall be paid weekly on the day when wages are
normally paid.
(f) Overtime shall be paid in respect of all work performed outside
the normal day or shift and shall be at the rate of time and one
half of the rates paid for normal working time.
(g) Overtime rates shall be payable for work performed on the following days: New Year's Day, Good Friday, Easter Monday, Whit
Monday, August Monday, Christmas Day, Boxing Day, Sundays.
(2) At the end of the 1946 crop, a period of six days' holiday with
full pay shall be granted to all workers who have worked satisfactorily throughout the crop. An extra two days on full pay will be
granted to headmen who qualify as above.
(3) As from the start of the crop in 1946, all workers other than
those employed on shifts shall receive one half-holiday every week.
(4) One shilling per ton of all sugar produced in 1946 shall be
paid by the Factory to a Welfare Fund for the benefit of the workers
in the sugar industry. This fund shall be administered by a committee
representative of the employers, the workers and the Government.
Since 1948, industrial relations h a v e deteriorated, n o t a b l y
in t h e sugar i n d u s t r y .
Trinidad

and

Tobago

S t e a d y progress h a d been m a d e in t h e development of
t h e machinery of industrial relations in Trinidad.
Working class activity in this colony has a long history. The
Trinidad Working Men's Association was formed in the early 'nineties
of the last century. . . (and revived in 1919). . . . The Association
grew steadily throughout the 'twenties and was able in the early
'thirties to claim a membership of 120,000, out of a total population
of 450,000. I t never functioned as a union 1 , but devoted its attention to legislative reforms. 2
1
The Association, however, organised two sections which, registered under
the Companies Ordinance in 1907, operated as labour unions, a stevedores' section
and a railwaymen's section.
2

L E W I S , op. cit.,

p . 8.

•

THE MACHINEBY OP INDTJSTBIAL BELATIONS

157

Trinidad was the scene of serious labour disturbances in
1937 and the development of a modern pattern of industrial
relations dates from the period immediately following.
The senior staff of the Trinidad Labour Department
comprised in 1946 an Industrial Adviser, a Deputy Industrial
Adviser, a Senior Labour Officer, a Labour Bureau Manager
and a Labour Officer in training. A Senior Inspector of
Factories is at present attached to another Government
Department. Conciliation work, on which most emphasis
was laid by this Department in its early years, has on the
whole had conspicuous success ; the number of disputes
involving stoppages of work consistently fell up to 1945,
though subsequently the situation has been less calm. Attention has latterly also been given to the development of more
elaborate administrative machinery, particularly for labour
inspection purposes.
There were, at the end of 1946, 28 organisations registered
under the Trade Union Ordinance of 1932 ; four were producers'
and commercial trade protection societies, five employers'
associations, and 18 workers' organisations. There is no
labour advisory board. On 31 December 1948, 27 workers'
unions with an estimated membership of 20,000 were
registered.
The policy of the Department has been thus summarised
by the the first Industrial Adviser :
It has been the policy of this Department to promote peace in
industry and trade by the encouragement of the organisation of
workers in responsible trade unions, the establishment of good and
human relations in industry and the regulation of wages and working
conditions by joint negotiations wherever possible. This policy has
been developed not by the establishment of elaborate and costly
industrial machinery, which more often possesses little more than
paper value, but by a close and sympathetic contact with all concerned and unobtrusively directing movements and their leaders
along rational lines into an atmosphere of understanding and a
spirit of compromise. *•
Up to the end of 1942, the Trinidad and Tobago Trade
Union Council was more unified and representative than the
corresponding organisations in Jamaica and British Guiana ;
but during 1943 the active trade unions in the north of Trinidad withdrew from the Council. Subsequently, however,
1
Trinidad and Tobago, Council Paper No. 25 of 1941 : The
Report of the Industrial Adviser for the Years 1938-1940, p. 13.

Administration
11

158

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

there has been reaffiliation of the dissident unions and the
Council once again includes all the active and influential
unions in Trinidad. The evidence suggests that, while trade
unionism in Trinidad suffers from many of the defects obtaining
in other British Caribbean territories, including instability
of membership and the dissipation of time and energy on
individual complaints rather than on questions of policy
and principle, and while the labour shortage in the war years
has made organisation less easy, the movement here has
taken deep root and existing divisions in the trade union
movement are not a source of serious weakness.
An important event in 1938 was the setting up of an
arbitration tribunal to settle a dispute in that year in the oil
industry. This was the first tribunal of its kind to operate
in the British West Indies.
The first major collective agreement completed in the
British West Indies was that between the Shipping Association of Trinidad and the Seamen and Waterfront Workers'
Trade Union which was reached in December 1938 covering
procedure and provisions for the fixing of wages and working
conditions of stevedores, launchmen, lightermen and boatmen.
This agreement was revised and strengthened in 1946, rates
of pay being considerably increased.
The following general comment of the Industrial Adviser
of the time on these first developments is enlightening :
While industrial relations in local industry and trade developed
satisfactorily during the three years 1938-1940, the new way of life
which is being freely adopted in industry is far from being consciously realised and lived with conviction, even by those who should
be conscious of the reorientation which has taken place and who are
in physical contact with it. It is most desirable that the workers
of the colony should organise in strong and responsible trade unions
and become trade unionists by conviction rather than mere paying
members and opportunists, especially as most of the large employers
in the colony are prepared to accept and encourage collective
bargaining with responsible and representative trade unions. 1
In succeeding years industrial relations have continued
to develop on the whole satisfactorily. The not uneven
balance between labour demand and supply and the existence
of the oil industry with its regular labour force provided
a favourable setting for employer-worker negotiations of a
1

Ibid.,

p . 14.

THE MACHINERY OF INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS

159

responsible character. While the pre-war labour troubles
which resulted in serious disturbances is a reminder that
peaceful industrial relations are of recent growth, some provisions may be cited from 1945 and 1946 agreements in the
sugar and shipping industries to illustrate how far conciliation has progressed even outside the oil industry.
Both of these agreements regulate wages, hours, overtime
and annual holidays with pay. The sugar agreement of
4 January 1945 between the Sugar Manufacturers' Federation
of Trinidad and the All Trinidad Sugar Estates and Factory
Workers' Trade Union provides as follows for regular relations :
With a view to the promotion of mutual understanding and
co-operative relations, a Joint Consultative Committee shall be
established to consider questions arising out of or affecting field
and factory labour employed by members of the Federation, the
Committee to consist of not more than four representatives of the
Federation and a similar number of representatives of the Trade
Union and their respective Secretaries, with the Industrial Adviser
as Chairman.
I t is in the oil industry that most progress continues to be
made in the field of industrial relations even though there
have been recent difficulties. The agreement of December
1945 in the oil industry 1 provides for what, in West Indian
conditions, are sizeable wage increases ; its other provisions
cover, inter alia, holidays with pay, the operation of a joint
conciliation board, general disputes procedure and a statement
of mutual responsibilities.
Agreements signed in 1948 between the Sugar Manufacturers' Federation of Trinidad and the All Trinidad Sugar
Estates and Factory Workers' Trade Union and between the
Oilfields Employers' Association and the Oilfield Workers'
Trade Union mark the most recent phase of an outstanding
development in industrial relations over the past decade.
Windward

Islands

Development of collective bargaining and of employers'
and workers' organisations has been slow in this group.
Employer-worker relations are still largely on an individual
basis, with Labour Departments and Labour Advisory Boards
being fully utilised, as recommended by the West India Boyal
1
Replacing the agreement of 2 February 1940, which was in effect for the
duration of the war emergency.

160

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

Commission for territories in which representative organisations were in their early stages of development.
The senior labour supervision staff consists of a Windward
Islands Labour Adviser stationed in Grenada, Labour Commissioners in St. Lucia and St. Vincent and Labour Officers
in Dominica and Grenada. There are two registered trade
unions in Grenada, two in St. Lucia, one in Dominica and one
in St. Vincent. No employers' organisations are registered,
but steps are being taken by the Planters' Association to
establish a registered employers' association. Very few trade
disputes have occurred in these islands during the past six
years ; workers' grievances have largely been treated on an
individual basis, and Labour Department officials have had
to include intervention in a large number of such cases as part
of their routine duties.
Labour advisory boards exist in all four territories. The
St. Vincent board as at present constituted consists of four
representatives of workers and four representatives of
employers with the Crown Attorney as Chairman and the
Labour Commissioner as Liaison Officer. Eeports of the
Department of Labour reveal a range of activity covering
questions of social policy such as share-tenancy as well as
questions of labour policy. The corresponding Board in St.
Lucia consists of three representatives of employers and three
representatives of workers with the Crown Attorney as Chairman and the Labour Commissioner as Secretary.
As the above account has shown, the lines of policy recommended by the Eoyal Commission have been given wide
application and considerable testing in the British Caribbean
territories. The emphasis of this policy has been on the
development of voluntary negotiating machinery ; the intervention of Labour Departments and boards in industrial
relations is relegated by that policy to a major role only in
the absence of adequate representative employers' and workers'
organisations. This policy was designed also to assist the
development of such organisations ; the use of minimum
wage fixing machinery has been limited with the explicit
purpose of avoiding action which might impede such development.
In many of the British areas, however, little progress has
been made in the development of a strong, well-rooted trade

THE MACHINERY OF INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS

161

union movement. The premise that the administrative regulation of wages, hours and conditions of work on a wide scale
is incompatible with the development of collective bargaining
may require re-examination.
U N I T E D STATES TERRITORIES

Puerto Rico
The machinery of industrial relations in Puerto Eico is
highly developed in all aspects, but also very complex. Working
class organisation has had a long and troubled history in the
island. At present, the trade unions are playing an increasingly
important role; while their regular dues-paying membership
is problematical and while there are serious clefts in the movement, the number of workers organised in trade unions is
greater than at any time in the history of Puerto Eico. They
are centres of political as well as economic agitation and
reform. With the protection of the new labour laws and
the co-operation of the administration they have grown
rapidly in recent years and were estimated to have a membership of 350,000 in 1947. Collective agreements covering a
wide sector of industry have for over a decade been part of
the industrial relations pattern. Government collaboration in
the field of industrial relations and in the provision of administrative services is more extensive in scope, involves larger
staffs and is more mandatory than in the British territories ;
the machinery of the Insular Department of Labor includes
an Insular Board of Labor Eelations, designed, mutatis mutandis,
to perform for Puerto Eico the functions which the National
Labor Eelations Board performs for the United States and a
Mediation and Conciliation Service. There are also federal
agencies in the industrial relations field whose competence
extends to workers covered by such federal legislation as the
National Labor Eelations Act. The Minimum Wage Board is
the most significant illustration of Government action in
setting up machinery on the one hand to supplement collective
bargaining and on the other to associate representatives of
employers and workers with Government in the solution of
problems with which industrial relations must deal.

162

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

Employers'1 and Workers' Organisations : Collective Bargaining.
By far the most important employers' organisation is the
Association of Sugar Producers of Puerto Eico, which has taken
a prominent part in collective bargaining in the island.
Most unions are members of one of three large labour
union organisations, the Puerto Eico Free Federation of
Workingmen (Federación Libre de los Trabajadores de Puerto
Rico), affiliated to the American Federation of Labor, the
General Confederation of Workers of Puerto Eico (Confederación General de Trabajadores de Puerto Rico) or the General
Union of Workers (Unión General de Trabajadores), founded
in 1947. The latter is a recent growth, but from all indications
has made great progress in the few years of its existence.
Since 1945, the O.G.T. has been split into two parts ; the
accepted explanation for this is political conflict among the
leaders of the C.G.T. Jurisdictional conflict among the organisations is keen. In the absence of any system of compulsory
registration of unions and their membership, no exact statements on either the nominal or dues-paying membership of
either organisation is available, and the claims made by the
organisations themselves have to be treated with caution. The
O.G.T. in a. 1943 memorandum claimed that it consisted of
180 industrial duly affiliated unions with a membership of
250,000 organised workers. On the other hand, officials of
the Labor Department estimate that there may be a total of
300,000 organised workers even if only a small percentage pay
dues regularly. There are also a number of strong independent
unions notably among longshoremen. x
These organisations can claim that they have brought
great benefits to the workers. An official of the Puerto Eico
Free Federation of Workingmen has thus summarised his
organisation's view of the change that has taken place :
The worker without recognition, without representation, who
several years ago was compelled to work 10 and 12 hours daily
for 40 and 50 cents has turned into a full citizen enjoying representation and dignity in industry and in society, and the old wage of
40 and 50 cents for 10 and 12 hours of work has been substituted
with one of $1.51 for 7 and 8 hours.
1
For a recent and more detailed account of the structure of the trade union
movement in Puerto Rico, cf. Simon EOTTENBUHG : " Labor Cost in the Puerto
Rican Economy " in Revista juridica\de Puerto Rico, Vol. XX, No. 2, Nov.-Dec.
1950, pp. 109 et seq.

THE MACHINERY OF INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS

163

With whatever qualifications such statement be hedged,
the records of the Department of Labor bear witness to substantial gains on the part of the workers. The first large-scale
collective agreement in Puerto Eico was that made in 1934
between the Sugar Producers' Association and the Free Federation of Workingmen ; this agreement affected some 100,000
workers, and the Department of Labor was largely instrumental
in its negotiation. Since that year, the agreement was annually
renewed to cover the crop period and its terms have progressively provided more favourable wages and working conditions
for the labourers concerned ; for example, the agreement made
for the year 1937-1938 provided an increase in wages for field
workers of 10 per cent, over the previous season and a corresponding increase of 5 per cent, for factory workers, and in
1941 the agreement stipulated that workers might grow minor
crops on those lands available at the sugar centrals. Nevertheless, great difficulties have arisen with the emergence of
the rival General Confederation of Workers.
In the sugar manufacturing industries in 1943 and 1944
the Free Federation had a collective agreement with the
Association of Sugar Producers, whose members owned 34 mills
and five refineries. The General Confederation had an agreement with each of ten companies owning a total of 14 mills
and one refinery. A separate union, the United Workers
of Loiza, had agreements with two companies owning a total
of three mills. Eight of the companies having agreements
with the General Confederation and one of the two companies
with an agreement with the United Workers were members of
the Association of Sugar Producers and therefore the 13 mills
and two refineries owned by these companies were subject
to two agreements.
Throughout 1944 the Free Federation and the General
Confederation struggled to obtain the position of sole bargaining agent on the labour side throughout the sugar industry.
The Insular Labor Eelations Board tried to meet the situation
by elections which took place in January 1945 and resulted in
the selection of the General Confederation as the bargaining
agency. The General Confederation opened negotiations with
the Sugar Producers' Association. The Free Federation
threatened that if a collective agreement was so reached it
would call a strike in the mills, in which it still had a majority
of members, and sympathetic strikes by the Electrical Workers'

164

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

and Longshoremen's Unions. When negotiations between the
Free Federation and the Producers' Association broke down
in February, both the Federation and the Confederation called
out their members on a strike which lasted into March.
Other industries were similarly affected. For example, in
1944 in the rum industry the Free Federation, the General
Confederation and a separate union, the Liquor Industry
Independent Union îfo. 1, had collective agreements with
five, two and one of the companies respectively.
Agreements between the shipping companies and the
Insular Council of the Longshoremen's Unions of Puerto Eico
and affecting some 12,000 workers date from the year after
the first agreement in. the sugar industry. Here again wage
increments and improved working conditions have been a
result ; at the same time, in the year 1937-1938, there was a
general and prolonged strike of longshoremen, which had to
be met by arbitration after conciliation had failed ; the arbitration award gave longshoremen a wage increase of 40 per cent.
and allied workers an increase of 25 per cent. Other agreements which have been renewed more than once include that
between the tobacco dealers and women tobacco strippers
involving between 8,000 and 12,000 women workers and that
between the White Star Bus Line and the Chauffeur and
Mechanics Union ISTo. 1 of San Juan. In the year 1940-1941,
agreements were entered into for the first time between
employers' and employees' unions in five additional industries.
In 1941-1942, reports to the Department of Labor indicated
that employers negotiated 17 agreements with affiliates of the
Free Federation and 24 with affiliates of the General Confederation. From 8 March to 30 June 1943, 37 agreements were
concluded through the Conciliation Service of the Department
of Labor.
Government Collaboration.
Legislation regarding trade unions, trade disputes and
labour relations has been an outstanding feature of Government
activity. The relevant legislation is summarised in Chapter
VIII. Here it need only be said that its standards and guiding
principles approximate to those obtaining on the United
States mainland. The responsibilities of the Government for
direct intervention in the machinery of industrial relations are
thus greater than in the British territories where the role of

THE MACHINERY OF INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS

165

the Government has been partly determined by British traditions of conciliation.
The Insular Department of Labor plays a prominent part
in labour relations work. Its detailed work in labour supervision and the collection of statistics provides data and experience for the assistance of the parties negotiating collective
agreements. Furthermore, the pattern of industrial relations
is affected by the existence of a Department which has administrative responsibilities in regard to questions which are
often elsewhere left for settlement by collective bargaining
without governmental intervention. The functions assigned
by law to the Commissioner and his Department are described
in Chapter VIII ; here reference may be limited to the staff
and facilities available for the tasks allocated and the range
of action these make possible. For 1941-1942, the staff of
the Industrial Supervision Service alone consisted of a chief,
an assistant chief, and 125 other employees. 1
In 1942 there were 15 labour agencies and 26 district
supervisors for the island as a whole. While the Department
considers that it requires additional staff to discharge its
responsibilities effectively, it is clear that, even after due
allowance is made for the larger population covered, labour
administrative machinery in Puerto Bico is outstanding
among Caribbean dependencies, a view based not on mere
staff size, but on the detailed work of the Department which
the Commissioner's annual reports reveal.
The Department is organised under a Commissioner and
Assistant Commissioner among the following principal services : the Women's Bureau, the Mediation and Conciliation
Service, the Industrial Supervision Service, the Employment
Service, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Child Bureau, the
Bureau of Publications and Workers' Education, the Board of
Industrial Safety and the Legal Division. The whole staff is
Puerto Eican.
Provision was made in 1938 for the creation of an Insular
Labor Eelations Board of three members to be appointed by
the Governor, but as explained in Chapter VIII, this Board
never operated. When, however, in 1944 the jurisdictional
conflicts in the sugar industry sharpened, the fact that the
National Board did not operate in agriculture brought an
1
Annual Report of the Commissioner of Labor Submitted to the Governor of
Puerto Rico for the Fiscal Year ended 30 June 1942 (San Juan, P.R., 1942), p. 13.

166

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

Insular Board into existence under new legislation to determine the proper bargaining agencies and thus to fix the structure within which collective bargaining might operate.
The most important insular agency directly operating by
conciliation has been the Mediation and Conciliation Service,
formerly the Insular Mediation and Conciliation Commission.
The duties of the Conciliation Commissioner are " to intervene and mediate in disputes, conflicts and controversies for
the purpose of keeping industrial peace ". The following
table summarised the number of interventions from 1936
to 1942.
INTERVENTIONS OF MEDIATION AND CONCILIATION COMMISSION

1936-1942
Year

1936-1937
1937-1938
1939-1940
1940-1941
1941-1942

Number of strikes Number of workers
and controversies
involved

40
43
39
41
71

about 13,000
14,755
15,152
11,185
26,740

From March 8 to June 30, 1943, the Insular Conciliator
intervened in 55 labor situations in which 13,584 workers were
directly involved ; 47, out of these 55 situations, were disputes in
which 13,483 workers were involved. In 25 out of the 47 disputes
the workers went on strike. All these strikes, with but one exception, were settled to the satisfaction of both employers and employees.
Only two disputes resiilted in strikes after the conciliation commissioner had mediated.
Out of the 47 disputes, 22 took place in the sugar industry ;
seven in the hotels and restaurants business ; two in moving picture
theatres ; three in the transportation industry ; three in the liquor
industry and 10 in all other industries. 1
During 1943-1944, the Service intervened in 181 disputes
directly affecting some 143,500 workers and in 1944-1945 in
180 disputes involving over 300,000 workers. In 1948-1949,
the corresponding figures were 603 and 255,235.
The United States Department of Labor has the following
four agencies operating in Puerto Eico : the Bureau of Labor
1
Annual Report of the Commissioner of Labor Submitted to the Governor of
Puerto Rico for the Fiscal Tear ended 30 June 1943 (San Juan, P.E., 1944), p. 23.

THE MACHINERY OP INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS

167

Statistics, the National Labor Relations Board, the United
States Conciliation Service and the Wage and Hour Division.
The Federal Commissioner of Conciliation was appointed in
February 1942 for the duration of the war. Despite the
existence of an insular agency, his services have been in
great demand. As Chapter VIII on legislation will explain,
the federal agencies in Puerto Eico have executive duties
assigned to them in virtue of federal legislation. This is in
contrast with the position in the British territories where
authority is concentrated in the insular governments.
Minimum Wage Board.
This Board is under the jurisdiction of the Insular Department of Labor and comprises nine members, four representing
employers' interests, four workers' interests and one the
public interest. Its powers and sphere of competence are
described in Chapter VIII. The Board's power to fix wages,
hours and conditions of work which, after due process, become
mandatory, gives it a high status in the machinery of Puerto
Eican industrial relations. In the first year of its existence
it issued the following six mandatory Decrees fixing manhours, minimum wages and general conditions of work : No. 1 :
Leaf Tobacco Industry (25 January 1943) ; No. 2 : Sugar
Industry (27 February 1943) ; No. 3 : Sugar Industry (27
February 1943) ; No. 4 : Workers and Employees in Hospitals,
Clinics and Sanatoria (18 May 1943) ; No. 5 : Liquor and
Soft Drink Industry (12 January 1944) ; No. 6 : Hotel, Eestaurant, Canteen and Soda Fountain Business (5 April 1944).
Ten further Decrees have since been issued. 1
Special

Determinations.

In virtue of the United States Fair Labor Standards Act
of 1938, as amended in 1940, the Federal Department of
Labor has from time to time appointed special industry committees for Puerto Eico to investigate industries producing
goods for inter-State commerce (excluding agriculture) and
to recommend minimum wage rates. The 1938 Act did not
permit geographical distinctions in wage rates and the application of United States wage rates to Puerto Eico threatened
to destroy the island's industries, particularly the needlework
1
For a detailed list of Decrees issued by the Minimum Wage Board up to
November 1949, see Appendix IX.

168

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

industry. The 1940 amendment endeavoured to remedy the
situation by providing that rates for Puerto Eico would be
fixed on the recommendation of special industry committees
on condition that no minimum rate would be approved
if it gave a Puerto Eican industry " a competitive advantage
over any industry in the United States outside of Puerto
Eico ".
The most recent enquiries and wage determinations have
been effected through the Special Industry Committee
appointed on 11 February 1944. This Committee is composed
of three members representing the public interest, three
members for employees and three for employers.
Other special wage determinations affect the sugar growing
industry. Under the Federal Sugar Act of 1937, the Secretary
of Agriculture is empowered to make payments to sugar
growers subject to requirements including labour standards.
His powers were transferred for the war emergency to the
War Food Administrator.

Virgin

Islands

There is no specialised labour supervision machinery in this
territory ; labour questions and policy come within the scope
of the Department of Public Welfare. The only machinery
existing for Government-employer-worker collaboration is the
Industry Committee for the Virgin Islands appointed by the
Administrator of the Wage and Hour and Public Contracts
Division, United States Department of Labor, in 1944. This
committee consists of one Government member, two employers' representatives and two workers' representatives. 1
There are three labour unions. The Federal Labor Union
in St. Thomas, an A.F. of L. affiliate, has a membership of
500 and was organised during the war. The St. Croix Labor
Union, more than 25 years old, has a membership of some 600 ;
of these, it is estimated that 85-90 per cent, are either
agricultural workers or sugar factory workers. A St. Croix
branch of the A.F. of L., organised during 1946, has a membership of between 50 and 100. ÎTo collective agreements are
in force.
1

Cf. also below, Chapter V.

THE MACHINERT OF INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS

FRENCH

169

TERRITORIES

The following information is based primarily on information
received from the Government of France.
In Guadeloupe in 1948, the most active and important
trade union group was the Departmental union grouping the
unions affiliated to the French General Confederation of
Labour. A few unions were affiliated to the French Confederation of Christian Workers, and two to the General
Confederation of Supervisory Staff, but none were at that
date affiliated to the General Confederation of Labour - Force
ouvrière. The number of unionised workers in private
employment was estimated at 10,000. Several employers'
organisations existed.
Up to 1948 the metropolitan legislation of 23 December
1946 relating to collective agreements had not been made
applicable to Guadeloupe. At the end of 1948, however,
collective agreements were in force covering the workers
employed in the industrial and agricultural phases of sugar
and rum production, workers employed in banana cultivation,
workers employed in commerce and the employees of printing
establishments. At the time, the importance of collective
agreements had diminished because wage levels were determined by the public authorities.
No detailed information regarding the frequency and scale
of industrial disputes is available ; the most important dispute
involving stoppage of work in 1948 was a strike of industrial
and agricultural workers employed by the establishments
producing sugar and rum ; this strike lasted from mid-June
to 1 August.
The Labour Inspection and Employment Services in
Guadeloupe and the other French Caribbean territories
correspond generally in function to that of the Labour Departments in the British West Indies. These services in the
Overseas Departments are in principle identical in structure
with the same services in metropolitan France, but in 1948
restaffing to fit in with the new constitutional status of the
Caribbean Departments had not yet been completed. In addition to the functions exercised by the corresponding labour
supervision staffs in metropolitan France, the Labour Inspection and Employment Services in the Caribbean Departments

170

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

are required to supervise the application of all social legislation
affecting agricultural workers to the extent that these are not
covered by the Social Security Service. The advisory functions of these services are also wider than in metropolitan
France, for reasons similar to those noted in respect of other
West Indian areas.
In Martinique early in 1949, the Departmental group of
unions affiliated to the metropolitan General Confederation
of Labour had about 8,000 adherents ; a General Confederation of Labour -Force ouvrière Federation had also recently
been formed.
The central grouping of employers was
the Chamber of Commerce and there were separate organisations grouping employers in the sugar cane industry
and employers operating distilleries. With the change of
Martinique's status to that of a Department an increasing
number of employers had become attached to the metropolitan organisations concerned with their field of operations.
In both Martinique and Guadeloupe during the period in
which wages have been fixed by the competent authority
since the second world war, bipartite consultative ad hoc
committees under the aegis of the administration have been
utilised in an advisory capacity in connection with the regulation of wages and the establishment of occupational classifications.
In Guiana, there were four employers' organisations with
a membership of 69, seven workers' organisations with a
membership of 382 and ten associations of Government
employees with a membership of 326.
NETHERLANDS

TERRITORIES

The Department of Social and Economic Affairs in the
Netherlands Antilles and the Department of Social Affairs
established in 1945 in Surinam are respectively responsible
for all aspects of labour questions in these two areas. Since
these Departments have other duties, administratively specialised labour supervision services, such as exist in most other
parts of the West Indies, have not yet been established in
the Netherlands territories.
According to the information available, there are at the
present time over 30 trade unions in Surinam with a total
membership of 12,000 and four in the Netherlands Antilles

THE MACHINERY OF INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS

171

with a total membership of 2,000. These unions are all
small and have for the most part been only very recently
established. During 1948, representatives of the trade union
movement in the Netherlands visited Surinam to assist in
the development of trade unionism by advising trade union
leaders there.
As is noted elsewhere, special trade union legislation does
not exist in the Netherlands territories, the right of association being guaranteed by the Constitutions of the two territories. Legislation making provision for conciliation and
arbitration machinery and procedures was enacted in both
territories in 1946.x
In Surinam, during 1947, nine disputes involving 3,049
workers were submitted to the Conciliation Board established
under the 1946 legislation.

Cf. Chapter VIII.

CHAPTER V
WAGES, HOURS AND CONDITIONS OF WORK
The wage structure of most West Indian territories is
largely influenced by certain features of the predominantly
agricultural economy. West Indian labour systems are, with
few exceptions, conditioned by the availability of a large
unskilled labour force principally engaged in hand operations ;
capital equipment and mechanical aids to labour have only
slowly made headway, ' in comparison with countries more
economically advanced. The level of actual earnings is further
depressed by the fact that the varying seasonal labour requirements of an agricultural economy with a low level of mechanisation results in irregularity of earnings in communities in which,
as has been indicated in Chapter III, employment opportunities are not commensurate with existing populations and
their rate of growth.
The industries outside the prevailing agricultural economy,
such as the oil industry of Trinidad and the Netherlands
Antilles and the bauxite industry of the Guianas, are, because
of their mechanised pattern of production and the consequential productivity of labour, in a position to pay, and do pay,
higher wages than obtain generally. The development of
industry, except in Puerto Rico, has been too slight to have a
marked effect on the general wage level.
The independent status of the West Indian working woman,
as compared with that of women in societies with a more
closely knit family structure, implies in practice both a potentially larger labour supply in relation to total population and
a tendency for wage levels for men to be fixed without consideration for normal family needs.
During the period 1939-1949, a very considerable increase
in wage levels has been registered in all territories. It is
extremely difficult, however, to ascertain whether wage levels
have kept pace with the increase in the cost of living without
carrying out territorial surveys.

WAGES, HOUES AND CONDITIONS OF WORK

173

I t is generally admitted that, because of the methods
used in weighting, the official cost-of-living indices of the territories do not, for the most part, give an accurate picture
of the situation.
In the absence of other indices except for a few territories, the official indices have nevertheless been cited in the
present report.
Apart from the general upward spiral of prices and wages
under wartime conditions, in the West Indies as elsewhere,
the progress made in the area during 1939-1949 in the direction of regulation of wages deserves to be noted. In the
first place, whereas, at the outset of the period, minimum
wage fixing machinery existed in few territories, it now
exists in virtually all territories and has been applied to a
large variety of occupations. Secondly, over important
sectors of industry, wages are now regulated by collective
agreements ; as has been indicated in the previous chapter,
the development of collective bargaining units is primarily
a feature of the period since 1939. Thirdly, the establishment of Labour Departments with statutory powers of inspection is equally a feature of the period and provides the requisite
means of enforcement.
Hours of work in agriculture have to be related to the
fact that, in most West Indian territories, the organisation
of work is on a task, not a time basis. In the British territories, at least, the size of a task usually involves rather
less than a working period of eight hours and, where work
is available and workers are prepared so to do, it is in
some cases possible to perform two tasks a day. On the
other hand, during the crop season, particularly in the sugar
industry, a very long working week may be worked by
many field workers.
In industry and commerce, at least in the larger enterprises, working hours correspond largely to Western standards,
as is indicated in the detailed information provided elsewhere
in the present chapter.
As will be shown, the regulation of hours of work, whether
by collective agreement, by administrative order or by general
legislation, has developed during the period 1939-1949 as part
of the general process of the introduction and strengthening
of modern labour legislation in the area and of the development of collective bargaining.
12

174

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

Legal provisions regulating conditions of work have also
considerably expanded during the period and collective agreements have again played their part in this field. In particular, very much wider provision now exists for the granting
of annual holidays with pay.
BRITISH TERRITORIES

Wages
As a preface to the examination of wage levels in the
British West Indies, brief note must be taken of the general
effect of guaranteed and bulk purchase arrangements. During
and since the second world war, a very substantial proportion
of the exportable produce of these territories has been purchased either by the United Kingdom or local Governments in
accordance with guarantees given and these purchasing arrangements have been sufficiently flexible to permit increases
in the prices paid, increases designed to offset changes in
the cost of production—including labour costs.
COMPARATIVE WAGE RATES OF UNSKILLED WORKERS
IN POUR BRITISH WEST INDIAN TERRITORIES,

Territory

Category of worker

British Guiana. . . Male agricultural worker
Female agricultural worker
British Honduras 4 . Mahogany worker
Road labour
St. Lucia

St. Vincent

Rate

1939-19481

1948

B.W.I. S

per d a y

0.52

f 0.952
\ 1.97 a

83
280

per d a y

0.37

f 0.56 a
\ 0.983

51
165

per month 14.00
per d a y
0.75

20.00
1.44

Male agricultural worker
per d a y
0.72
0.30
Female agricultural worker
per d a y
0.24
0.54
Domestic servant (not fed or
per month 4.80-6.00 4.80-8.40
lodged)
. . . . Male agricultural worker
Female agricultural worker

Percentage
increase

1939

per d a y
per d a y

0.28
0.20

0.60
0.45

43
92
140
125
0-40
114
125

1
Compiled b y t h e I.L.O. on t h e basis of d a t a contained in O R D E B R O W N E , op. cit.,
and in t h e reports sof t h e Labour Departments 4 of t h e territories concerned for t h e year 1948.
* Time workers.
Resident piece workers.
U.S. dollar. ' Plus rations.

WAGES, HOURS AND CONDITIONS OF WORK

175

The accompanying table provides a comparison of 1939
and 1948 wage rates of a few categories of unskilled workers
in British Guiana, British Honduras, St. Lucia and St. Vincent.
Its principal purpose is not to indicate changes in the general
level of wages of the average worker but to provide a further
comparison, in respect of some of the lowest paid categories
of workers closest to the subsistence margin, with the subsequent table in the present chapter indicating the movement
in the cost-of-living indices in the different territories. As
has been noted above, however, statistics such as these need to
be treated with reserve in view of the structure of employment
and wages in the West Indies.

OFFICIAL

COST-OF-LIVING

INDICES

SOME

INDIAN TERRITORIES

BRITISH

WEST

Most recent figure
available

Base date = 100

Highest rate
reached

Barbados

Jan.-Aug. 1939

Dec. 1948 = 236

Dee.

British Guiana :
Georgetown . . .
Plantations . . .

Mar.-Dec. 1938
Mar.-Dec. 1938

Dec. 1949
Nov. 1949

216
250

Dec. 1949 = 216
Dec. 1949 = 247

Territory

British Honduras

1949 = 228

Sept. 1939

Apr. 1948 = 211

Dec. 1949 = 193

Jamaica :
General
Sugar workers. .

Aug. 1939
June 1941

Dec. 1949
Dec. 1949

250
199

Dec. 1949 = 250
Dec. 1949 = 199

Sept.
Dec.
Dec.
June

202
203
221
195

Sept.
Dec.
Dec.
Sept.

Leeward Islands
Antigua
St. K i t t s . .
Montserrat .
Virgin Islands

Year 1939

. .
. .
. .

1948
1948
1948
1948

=
=
=
=

202
203
221
193

Trinidad

Year 1935

Dec. 1949 = 228

Windward Islands :
Dominica . . . .
Grenada . . . .
St. Lucia . . . .
St. Vincent . . .

Sept. 1939
Aug. 1939
Aug. 1939
Year 1939

Sept.
Dec.
Dec.
Aug.

Sept.
Dec.
Dec.
Dec.

1949 =
1949 =
1949 =
1948 =

237
220
252
227

1949
1949
1949
1949

237
220
252
225

1
Compiled by the I.L.O. from indices published in the Official Gazettes of the territories
concerned.

For the purpose of a fuller description of the factors which
have played a part in the upward trend of wages during the
period under consideration, a detailed account is provided
in respect of Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad.

176

LABOXTE POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

Barbados.
The West India Boyal Commission reported in 1939 as
follows on the wages paid to agricultural workers in this dependency :
Daily rates vary between Is. and Is. 6d. for men ; a normal
rate for women is Is. a day. Earnings from task work may be
substantially higher than the daily rates when sugar cane is "in
crop ", but the difference over the whole year does not appear to
be large.1
In the same year, rates for stevedores on general cargo
were in the case of foremen 9s. 7d. and in that of labourer 8s. 4d.
per day (7 a.m. to 12 noon and 1 to 5 p.m.), the rate on Sundays
and bank holidays being 12s. 6d. for both grades. Overtime
was paid for at Is. per hour on weekdays and Is. 3d. on Sundays
and bank holidays. 2
In foundries, rates per hour in 1939 were as follows 2 :
Moulder
Fitter
Apprentice (according to number of years served).
Turner
Apprentice (according to number of years served).
Blacksmith
Carpenter
Planer
Apprentice
Striker
Pettier

Cents
to 18
to 16
to 6
to 16
to 6
to 18
11
9 to 12
4
3to 5
4

6
6
1
6
1
6

At the same date, foremen in the Pubhc Works Department earned 3s. 6d. to 4s. 2d. a day ; journeymen, 3s. per
day ; apprentices, 6d. to 2s. 6d. per day. Male labourers,
Is. 2d. to Is. 9d. per day, and women Is. per day. In large
bakeries foremen earned $8.24 per week and others $1.92
to $4.08 per week ; the corresponding figures in small bakeries
were $4.32 to $6.00 per week and $1.92 per week.
While the rates applicable to stevedores, for example, do
not seem inadequate by Caribbean standards, allowance has
to be made for the factor of underemployment which is particularly prevalent in regard to wharf labour. Average take1

Report, op. cit., p . 194.

OKDE B K O W H E : op.

cit.,

pp.

63-65.

WAGES, HOUES AND CONDITIONS OF WORK

177

home earnings calculated in 1942, when wage rates had
already begun to rise from their pre-war level, are illustrated by the following table :
BARBADOS : E S T I M A T E D
BY INDUSTRY

AVERAGE Y E A R L Y E A R N I N G S

OR OCCUPATIONS, 1 9 4 2

Occupation or industry

Number

Agricultural labourers (nearly all sugar workers) . . .
Fishermen
Sugar factories (three months)
Other factories and public utilities
Dock workers and porters
. .
Transport (including taxis)
Artisans (carpenters, masons, coopers, etc.)
Shop assistants
Government and other clerks
Dressmaking, etc
Police
Assistant teachers
Boad work, etc
Government and parochial employees not elsewhere
included
Domestic servants
Hucksters, etc
All others

21,000
1,500
5,000
2,000
2,000
2,000
5,000
5,000
5,000
4,000
600
700
600
1,000
20,000
6,000
1,500

Average . . .

Average
yearly
earnings
I
s. d.
21
33
13
50
37

50
40
40
80
25
108
57
83

10
5
0
0
10
0
0
0
0
0
5
5
5

0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0

50
15
41
63

0
0
15
5

0
0
0
0

1
Rounded to nearest, 5s. Based on estimates given by Frederic BENHAM : The National
Income of Barbados, 1942 (Development and Welfare in the West Indies, Bulletin
No. 9), p. 18.

On this basis the average weekly earnings for all grades of
workers was almost exactly 12s., varying from slightly over
£2 for policemen to 14s. 9d. for dock workers and 8s. 3d. for
agricultural workers, and thence to slightly under 6s. for
domestic workers.
The rise in wage rates in Barbados since 1939 has been
well marked and can be amply illustrated. A report prepared
for the Anglo-American Caribbean Commission in 1 9 4 3 1
indicated, inter alia, that in agriculture the basic wages of
semi-skilled workers had risen 12% per cent, and that such
workers received in addition a war bonus of 32% per cent. ;
1

Cf. The Caribbean Islands and the War, op. cit., pp. 70 et seq.

178

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

that skilled and unskilled labour in the building industry alike
received a war bonus of 20 per cent, and that certain classes
of port labour were receiving a substantial rise since 1943.
During the last six months of 1944, for example, scavengers,
who had already in 1942 received an increase of 20 per cent.
in their basic rates (bringing the range from 12s. to 15s. a
week), obtained a further basic increase of 50 per cent. ; the
war bonus for stevedores, lightermen and associated workers
was increased from 10 per cent, to 25 per cent.; a regrading
for manual workers employed by local public authorities
provided up to 50 per cent, increase for the lowest paid categories and all such workers continued to receive a war bonus
of 20 per cent. ; workers in foundries, the regrading of whom
in September 1941 had resulted in an increase of from 40 per
cent, in the Wages Bill, received a further increase. In January
1945 basic wages in sugar factories were increased by 25 per
cent, and the war bonus applying to them raised from 17%
per cent, to 20 per cent. In 1946 basic and overtime rates for
stevedores were increased by 20 per cent, and the existing
cost-of-living allowance of 2s. 6d. a day was continued. For
lightermen the rates for ordinary as well as for overtime trips
in respect of the handling of general cargo and sugar cane
products were increased by 20 per cent, irrespective of the
size of the lighter. Daily working hours were reduced from
ten to nine. For clerical staff and workshop employees in
foundries an increase of 30 per cent, took place for incomes
up to £100 a year and a 25 per cent, increase for incomes
between £100 and £200 a year. For lumber yard porters a
retaining fee of Is. 8d. a day was given as an incentive to
regular turn out. The existing 30 per cent, cost-of-living
allowance was continued. The cost-of-living allowance for
employees of the Barbados Telephone Company, Limited, was
increased from 10 per cent, to 22 y2 per cent. For employees
of Eadio Distribution (Barbados) Limited the basic rates were
increased by 1 3 % per cent, and the existing cost-of-living
allowance of 20 per cent, was continued. A considerable
improvement in the wages of shop assistants was given in
Bridgetown. For the following occupations the existing 30
per cent, cost-of-living allowance was absorbed into the pre-war
rates and the resultant figure was then increased by a percentage
from 20 per cent, to 25 per cent. : building and shipping
coopers, ships' carpenters, licenced porters, lumber yard carters,

WAGES, HOURS AND CONDITIONS OF WORK

179

sugar and molasses porters, crop-time factory mechanics and
steamer warehouse porters.
In 1948 a 15 per cent, increase was awarded to workers in
the sugar industry. As a result of this award cane cutters
received 2s. 4d. per ton of cane cut ; and for cultivation work
the time rate fixed for men was 8 %d. an hour and for women
6d. an hour.
In the sugar factories and syrup plants the rates of wages
continued to be based on the ton of sugar and the puncheons
of molasses, and varied with the size and efficiency of the
factory. From 1 July 1948, the out-of-crop mechanics received
a similar increase in their wage rates. The rates now range
from 8d. to Is. 4d. an hour.
Stevedores received an increase of Is. a day in 1948, their
basic wage rate during this year being 16s. a day with timeand-a-half on Sundays and public holidays. Other port
workers received increases in their wage rates ranging from
10 per cent, to 15 per cent, over the 1947 rates. These workers
included lightermen, produce carters, produce porters, warehouse porters, deck clerks, tally clerks, ships' carpenters,
lumber yard porters and carters.
In the foundries, there was a 25 per cent, increase in the
wage rates. The new rates ranged from 8d. an hour for a
first-year improver to Is. 7d. an hour for a senior journeyman.
The wages of shop assistants, artisans and domestic servants
remained substantially the same as in 1947. Bus drivers and
conductors received a 50 per cent, increase in wages, the former
receiving 8s. 4d. per day and the latter 7s. 6d. per day.
The following comparative table shows the increase in
wage rates for special categories of workers :
Category and basic rate
Cane cutters, per ton
Stevedores, per day
Foundry workers, per hour . . .

1946

1947

1948

0.42
3.00
0.10-0.34

0.50
3.60
0.10-0.34

0.57 %
3.84
0.16-0.38

Source : Annual Report of the Department of Labour, for the years 1946, 1947 and
1948 (Government Printer, Bridgetown).

An important development affecting the wage structure in
Barbados has been the new procedure for determining the wage
rates of cane cutters in the sugar industry. This procedure

180

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

was introduced for the first time for the 1946 crop ; it consists
of payment of wage for cane cut instead of by the " cane hole ",
and it was estimated that at the rates fixed for 1946 cutters
would earn an average of over $2 a day as compared with
$1.34 a day in 1945 and $1.08 in 1944, since it was calculated
that the rate fixed for 1946 was 91 per cent, greater than
that for 1944 and 50 per cent, greater than for 1945.
I n the beginning of 1950, the agreement concluded between
the Sugar Producers' Federation of Barbados and the Barbados
Workers' Union regarding the wages of workers in the sugar
industry provided for an all-round increase of 12 y2 per cent.
on the basic wages of factory and field workers, with retrospective effect from 1 January 1950. In addition, it established
a scale for cash bonuses to be paid to factory and field workers
in accordance with the size of the annual crop. One hundred
and twenty thousand tons was taken as an average crop, and
the bonus scale was to begin with 1 per cent, for anything
over 125,000 tons and to rise by 1 per cent, for every 5,000
tons. I t was estimated that the crop for 1950 would be over
140,000 tons, which would result in a bonus of 4 or 5 per
cent, over and above the basic wage increase of 12 % per cent.
The gains made are in the main to be attributed to a combination of three factors : the wartime increase in living costs,
the development of collective bargaining and the increased
concern of Government in relation to these problems. Barbados
was the scene of serious labour disturbances in 1937, and the
local Commission appointed to report on these disturbances
attached considerable weight to wage problems. The generally
improved situation since that date is indicated not only by the
raising of wage rates in view of the rise in the cost of living but also
by the fact that that process involved relatively little friction.
Jamaica.
The West India Eoyal Commission, 1938-1939, summarised
the 1938 wage position in regard to agricultural workers as
follows :
Daily rates vary from Is. 6d. to 2s. 6d. for men and
to Is. 6d. for women. On task work averages in 1938
in différent parishes. Tney range between Is. 3d. and
cutting, between Is. 6d. and 4s. 3d. for forking, and
and Is. 9d. for weeding.1
1

Report, op. cit., p . 194.

from 10%d.
vary widely
4s. for cane
between Is.

WAGES, HOURS AND CONDITIONS OF WORK

181

The Orde Browne report provides a more detailed schedule
of wage rates prevailing at this period. Wharf labour, for
example, was remunerated at the rate of lOd. to l i d . an hour,
with double rates for night work and during meal hours, but,
as elsewhere, employment was intermittent. Building trade
workers in the corporate area earned from 4s. to 9s. a day; the
wages of sugar factory workers ranged from 2s. 3d. to 4s.
a day for labourers and 6s. 6d. to 9s. a day for mill foremen up
to £3 to £7 a week for sugar boilers.
Average rates of wages paid by the Public Works Department in 1938 were as follows 1 :
Classification of labour
Artisans :
Carpenters
Masons
Plumbers and
Painters
Saddlers
Blacksmiths
Skilled labourers
Unskilled labourers :
Male
Female

fitters

Rate per day
s. d.
6 11
6
6
7
6
6
4
6
7
7
2
4
1
3
1

1
5

Since 1938, wage rates have registered a substantial increase
in Jamaica, as elsewhere in the Caribbean. In Jamaica, the
development of trade unionism since 1938 has been marked
and the gains that unions have made through collective bargaining substantial. Government action under the Minimum
Wage Act, 1938, has been the instrument for stabilising and
raising minimum rates in a number of instances and represents
a form of Government activity negligible in Jamaica prior to
1938. A further factor of considerable influence in Jamaica
has been Government purchasing of export commodities, a
factor which, in relation to the sugar industry, has been thus
summarised :
As the price of sugar can be increased by the Ministry of Food
irrespective of market conditions, the emphasis has shifted away
from the wages which the industry can afford to 2pay to the wages
required to provide for the needs of the workers.
A survey of wage rates by the Anglo-American Caribbean
Commission in 1943 showed the following increases, inter alia,
in the rates paid to certain categories of workers as compared
1

O R D E B R O W N E : op. cit.,

Report of the Sugar Industry Commission (Jamaica, 1945), p. 156.

97.

182

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

with immediately pre-war rates. Agricultural field workers
were receiving a war bonus of Id. in every shilling for every
rise of five points in a special cost-of-living index, pertaining
only to such workers, the base month for which was June 1941.
In the building trade, the basic wages of unskilled workers
had risen by 40 to 50 per cent, and of skilled workers by 10 to
25 per cent. Winchmen and stevedores had obtained an
increase of basic wages of 18 per cent, and all grades of workers
engaged in public utilities (lighting) were receiving a war bonus
of 25 to 30 per cent. 1
Minimum wage rates have been prescribed, under the terms
of the Minimum Wage Law, for a number of occupations,
including the following : sugar industry, 1942 ; catering trade
(Kingston and St. Andrew), 1944 ; bread and cake bakery trade
(Kingston and St. Andrew), 1944 ; the biscuit trade (Kingston
and St. Andrew), 1944 and 1946 and the printing trade, 1945.
I n a number of cases the rates originally fixed have been
subsequently revised. The notes that follow apply to the Wage
Orders noted above.
The Proclamation covering the sugar industry provided
(a) that every able-bodied male person, except an apprentice
or a learner, employed in the sugar industry should receive a
minimum wage of 2s. 6d. for each working day, and (b) that
every able-bodied female person employed in the sugar industry
and paid by the day should receive a minimum wage of Is. 6d.
for each working day. " Wage " was defined to exclude any
ancillary benefits but to include war bonus.
In the printing trade, the schedule of rates fixed is a complex
one, based on the norm of a 45-hour week. Separate sets of
rates apply to workers in establishments with approved systems
of grading and to workers in establishments without such
systems. Time rates are prescribed for different grades of
workers engaged in the different processes of the trade, with
special rates for apprentices and learners over and under age 18.
Where work is given out as piece or task work, it is provided
that the minimum piece or task rates of wages shall be such as
will enable an ordinary worker to earn at least the same
amount of money in a given period as would be earned in
respect of the same period were that worker employed at the
time rates specified. In addition, task rates for some pro1

Cf. The Caribbean Islands and the War, op. oit., pp. 68 et seq.

WAGES, HOTJES AND CONDITIONS OP W0EK

183

cesses are specified. Minimum time rates for overtime work
are also prescribed. A few rates may be cited. The minima
for female apprentices range from 12s. to 24s. a week, according
to the year of apprenticeship ; the corresponding figures for
male apprentices range from 12s. to 30s. a week ; for unskilled
workers the range is 16s. 2d. to 27s. a week. With the exception of a few categories, all skilled and semi-skilled workers
earn more than the highest minima for unskilled workers.
In the catering trade, the minimum for single-time work is
fixed at 16s. for a 54-hour week ; where hours are less than
54 the rate is proportionately reduced. Overtime is remunerated at time-and-a-half rates.
In the bread and cake bakery trade, minimum single-time
rates for a week of 51 hours are as follows : male unskilled
workers 22s. 6d., female unskilled workers 16s. ; semi-skilled
workers 25s. to 27s. 6d. ; skilled workers 30s. to 35s. ; foremen
55s. Overtime is to be compensated at time-and-a-half rates.
Piece or task rates are to follow the principle noted above in
regard to the printing trade.
According to the 1944 Proclamation regarding minimum
rates in the biscuit trade, the norm was to be a 48-hour week ;
the 1945 amendment reduced the working week to 45 hours,
the rates remaining the same. Single-time rates for unskilled
workers range from 18s. (for females under age 20) to 33s. ; for
semi-skilled workers from 26s. to 35s. and for skilled workers
from 45s. to 54s. Normal overtime is to be at time-and-a-half
and overtime on Sundays or public holidays at double rates.
The 1946 Proclamation covering specified miscellaneous
categories is based on an eight-hour day and a 45-hour week ;
minimum rates fixed range from 18s. to 33s. a week for
workers of an assistant grade to 36s.-80s. a week for different
classes of tradesmen.
The practical effect of the rates fixed under these Proclamations is not always evident, but the following local account
has been given of some of the consequences ensuing from the
fixing of^minimum rates for bakeries and the catering trade :
In the Grade B skilled category are tablemen who formerly
operated over a range of 15s. to 38s. for a 35- to 66-hour week.
They are now paid a ininimum of 30s. for a 51-hour week, or an
increase of 100 per cent, for the 15s. men.
In the semi-skilled categories come furnacemen, who from a
range of 15s. to 30s. for a 35- to 66-hour week havex been raised
to a 27s. 6d. minimum for a 51-hour week or an 88 /3 per cent.

184

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

increase for the 15s. man. Hand-carters were raised from a range
of 9s. to 22s. for a 30- to 66-hour week to a minimum of 25s. for
a 51-hour week, or an increase of 177 7/B per cent, for the 9s. man.
In the unskilled categories are male wrappers who formerly
operated over a range of 16s. to 22s. for a 48- to 52-hour week and
now get a minimum of 22s. 6d. And there are others like tin sheet
cleaners who are generally women, who from a range of 9s. to 22s.
jumped to a minimum cf 16s. for a 51-hour week.1
Appendix X contains the latest information available to
the International Labour Office in regard to wage levels in
Jamaica.
Since 1944, collective bargaining has come to play a major
part in determining wage levels in the sugar industry, the
enhanced strength of the trade union movement being an
important factor in this regard. A 1944 agreement between
the Sugar Manufacturers' Association and the Bustamante
Industrial Trade Union provided for an increase in the war
bonus of an additional 2d. in the shilling on basic rates then
prevailing, subject to the limitation that the maximum
increase consequent upon this concession should be one
shilling a day and six shillings a week. Further increases
granted by the Association in relation to the 1945 crop were
estimated to increase the labour bill by some £20,000. In
1945, an agreement between the Union and the All-Island
Cane Farmers' Association resulted in the grant of a wage
increase of about 4 per cent, to workers on farms larger than
10 acres. On 4 January 1946, an agreement concluded between
the Sugar Manufacturers' Association and the Union included
the following wage provisions : all factories and estates should
increase wages as from the week ending 5 January 1946 by
Is. y2d.. in the " new composite shilling " 2 ; it is further
specified that, in any case, the minimum rate per day is to
be 3s. 6d. for men and 2s. 4d. for women with higher rates
of 4s. and 2s. lOd. applicable to two estates. Subsequent
agreements have confirmed the general trend of wage gains.
Under-employment, nevertheless, remains a crucial factor
in keeping down workers' earnings. Should effect be given
to the policy recommendations of the Sugar Industry Commission, earnings in the industry would assume a very different
pattern.
The Commission recommended, inter alia, that,
1

Daily Gleaner (Kingston, Jamaica), 6 Aug. 1944.
The " composite shilling " represents a shilling made up of original basic
rates plus war allowances.
2

WAGES, HOUES AND CONDITIONS OF WORK

185

instead of maintaining a part-time, fluctuating labour force,
the sugar industry should reorganise itself so as to employ,
on a weekly basis, 14,000 full-time workers. These workers
should be provided with work throughout the year with a guaranteed wage of 25s. for a week of 50 hours. During crop, additional workers could be obtained from among small farmers. I t
is suggested that the United Kingdom Government should be
asked to guarantee to take a specified amount of sugar at
£19 a ton for a sufficiently long number of years. A number
of part-time workers would, as a consequence, cease to derive
employment from the industry but—
. . . the efficiency of the sugar industry as the major source of
the island's income from abroad must be the primary consideration and it cannot be considered its duty to maintain on a low
level large numbers of superfluous workers.1
Trinidad.
The report of the Boyal Commission, 1938-1939, provides
the following information on prevailing rates of pay in the
sugar industry and may serve as an indication of the typical
earnings of the Trinidad agricultural labourer at that date :
The average daily rate for men varies between Is. 10d., and
3s. 4d., and for women between Is. %d. and Is. 10 %d. The average
weekly earnings vary between 10s. 5d. 1 and 14s. 7d. in the case2
of men, and between 6s. 10 %d. and 9s. 4 ,4d. in the case of women.
In 1937, the wages of field and factory workers throughout
the sugar industry had been increased by 10 per cent, and
20 per cent, respectively, the International Sugar Agreement
of that year being probably the main contributory factor.
The figures the report cites include this increase.
The trend of wage levels in Trinidad since 1939 has been
markedly upwards, and the causes are not far to seek. In
Trinidad, as compared with other British Caribbean territories,
emphasis has to be laid on the significant expansion of employment opportunities, described above 3 ; the development of
collective bargaining and guaranteed purchase has also been
influential. It is, however, noteworthy that no Government
action has been taken to prescribe minimum wage rates ;
presumably competitive wage increases ensuing from the
1

Report, op. cit., p. 183.
Ibid., p. 194.
3
Cf. Chapter III.
2

186

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

shortage of labour in Trinidad during the war years have
caused such action to be regarded as unnecessary.
The rates quoted in Appendix X I I require brief comment.
The marked increase in earnings in the sugar industry up to
1944 was not brought about by a general increase in basic
wage rates, but partly by a reduction in the sizes of tasks
without any modification in task rates and partly by war
bonus arrangements. In general, war allowances constitute
a large part of the wage gains registered. The wage rates
cited for the oil industry do not include a war bonus addition
to wages calculated on a sliding scale based on the movement
of the Government's cost-of-living index figure : at the end
of 1941, this addition represented an increase in earnings of
three cents an hour ; 1942, six cents ; 1943, eight cents ; and
1944, 8% cents.
The general position in 1943 may be summarised as follows.1
War bonuses were being paid at the rate of 15 cents a day to
agricultural field workers and sugar factory workers, 12 cents
a day to telephone workers, 7 cents an hour to stevedores
and 10 per cent, of weekly wages in most shops (distributive
trade). In some workshops and factories, war allowances
increased wages by as much as 7 cents an hour. Government
employees, truckers in the shipping industry, public utility
workers (lighting, water and transport) and workers engaged
in road building received war allowances calculated on the
following basis : 15 per cent, on the first 80 cents a day earned,
10 per cent, on the next 80 cents and 5 per cent, on the remainder subject to a minimum of 14 cents a day. Most basic
rates of pay had also increased ; for example, in the unskilled
category, building trade by 20 to 33 per cent., for some shop
assistants by up to 100 per cent. During 1944, further increases
were registered for field workers in the sugar industry, certain
factory workers and for Government employees. 2
The collective agreements in force during the war played
a substantial .part in securing relatively smooth adjustment
of wage rates to rising costs of living, a particularly important
question in Trinidad, where living costs have more than
doubled since 1935, according to the Government cost-of-living
index. ïfew agreements concluded towards the end of the war
1

Cf. The Caribbean Islands and the War, op. cit., pp. 70 et seq.
Trinidad and Tobago, Council Paper No. 52 of 1945, Administration Report
of the Industrial Adviser for the Year 1944 (Trinidad, 1945), pp. 5-6.
2

WAGES, HOUES AND CONDITIONS OF WORK

187

or since the return of peace are playing an equally important
part in the present transition period. Of most importance
during the past few years have been those concluded in the
sugar industry, the oil industry and the shipping industry.
At the end of 1944, the first comprehensive collective
agreement covering the sugar industry was concluded between
the Sugar Manufacturers' Association of Trinidad and the
All-Trinidad Sugar Estates and Factories Workers' Trade
Union, covering the 1945 crop and applicable to some 20,000
workers. The agreement provided that the basic rates of pay
of all field and factory day, task and piece workers should be
increased by 15 per cent, of the existing rates, such increase
not to apply to war, attendance and output bonuses. Attendance and output bonuses represented one method through
which the sugar industry endeavoured to rehabilitate itself.
Field and factory workers, for example, were granted by some
companies an attendance bonus of 20 cents a day for attendance of not less than ten days per fortnight during 1945.
The terms of this collective agreement were extended for a
further year by a second agreement of 1 February 1946.
In addition provision was made for the payment of a general
group time bonus equivalent to 10 per cent, of the 1944 basic
rates. A further increase took place in the beginning of 1947.
Average daily earnings were $1.10 for field workers and $1.70 for
workers in the factories where an eight-hour day is observed.
During 1948 the rates for task work were increased by 6 cents,
and for time and piece work in collective operations by 12
cents on the 1947 basic rates. Work people employed in sugar
factories received an increase of 2 % cents an hour on the
1947 basic time rates.
A new agreement was concluded at the end of 1947. Under
this agreement skilled workers received rates of pay ranging
from 3 4 % cents per hour and unskilled workers from
29% cents to 3 2 % cents per hour inclusive of cost-of-living
bonus which was at the rate of 11 cents an hour. After
15 January 1948 the cost-of-living bonus rose to 1 1 % cents
an hour.
An agreement effective from 13 December 1945 replaced
the agreement which had lasted for the duration of the war
between the Oilfield Employers' Association of Trinidad and
the Oilfield Workers' Trade Union. The agreement, covering
some 14,500 workers, provided for daily paid workers wage

188

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

increases ranging from two cents to eight cents an hour and
for foremen and clerks, minimum weekly increases of $1.50.
I t was estimated that the wage bill of the Trinidad oil industries
would be increased by about a million dollars a year as a
result of the agreement.
An agreement effective from 1 April 1946 between the
Shipping Association of Trinidad and the Seamen and Waterfront Workers' Trade Union replaced the agreement of December 1938 which had operated during the war. I t provided for
increases in basic rates of the order of 20 per cent.
In 1947 hours of work in the Port Transport Industry
were reduced from 48 to 44 hours a week. Stevedores received
4114 cents per hour including cost-of-Uving bonus. In 1948
stevedores received a wage of 30 cents per hour plus cost-ofliving bonus of 1 1 % cents.
All the above agreements maintained cost-of-living bonus
separate from basic rates and left undecided the question of
their eventual consolidation in a new single composite rate.
The 1948 Commission enquiring into the working of the sugar
industry in Trinidad recommends in its report that " the
basic wage rates and the cost-of-living bonus be consolidated
for field and factory workers." x
The following table of indices published in the Official
Gazettes of two territories shows the extent to which the
increase in the cost of various items has varied.
Territory

Item

Index
of December 1949

Barbados :
Jan.-Aug. 1939 = 100 .

British Honduras :
Sept. 1939 = 100 . . .

Food
Clothing
Rent
Fuel and light
Other items
Food
Rent
Clothing
Fuel, light and washing
Other items

217.12
354.04
115.00
181.67
257.08
192
110
295
172
173

1
Report of the Commission appointed to Enquire into the Working of the Sugar
Industry in Trinidad (Port of Spain, Government Printer, 1949), p. 136.

WAGES, HOUES AND CONDITIONS OF WOBK

189

Hours and Conditions of WorJc1
Three characteristics previously mentioned of the employment structure in British Caribbean territories require to be
re-emphasised in studying hours of work in these territories.
Casual labour, on a day-to-day basis with frequent intervals
of unemployment, is a standard pattern. The closely allied
factor of intermittent employment implies, in terms of a casual
labour system, that over long periods in any given year
schedules of weekly hours of work in many occupations have
no real meaning. Thirdly, since employment, particularly in
agriculture, is so largely remunerated on a " task " basis,
the term " normal hours " requires a certain effort of interpretation.
One explanation offered by official opinion of the large
volume of underemployment is that it is largely voluntary
absenteeism. The report of the 1943 Sugar Industry Commission, Trinidad, included the following statement :
The information which has been placed at our disposal indicates
that absenteeism is a traditional characteristic of Trinidad workers
in all trades and industries. The incidence of absenteeism varies
with the degree of industrialisation among groups of workers and
the regularity of employment provided, but absenteeism seems
more habitual in agriculture than in any other industry, and most
pronounced in the sugar industry.
By absenteeism we mean the failure of wage earners to work
regularly when regular work is available, or the failure consistently
to perform a full week's work . . .
In the sugar industry . . . we And that workers perform an
average of rather less than four units of labour each week. A unit
of labour is regarded
as one task, and in the case of time workers,
one day's work.2
The Economic Policy Committee, Jamaica, made similar
comment and the Comptroller's Eeport on Development and
Welfare in the West Indies, 1943-1944, s t a t e d Irregular attendance and avoidable absenteeism is common
throughout the West Indies and this can only result in a lowering
of the standard of life. In Trinidad and British Guiana avoidable
absenteeism has been very noticeable during the past two years.
The causes are varied. In both colonies, the shortage of consumer
goods has played a part, local production of foodstuffs at guaranteed
prices has stimulated production with profitable returns, whilst in
1
2

Cf. also Chapters I I I and V I I I .
Trinidad and Tobago, Council Paper No. 1 of 1944, op. cit.
13

190

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

Trinidad considerable savings made from work during the construction of the bases have not yet been exhausted or expended . . .
In several instances, it would seem that workers have been content
over given periods of time to look for earnings very little in excess
of those which were received before wages were increased.1
Such criticisms of working habits need definitely to be
questioned and the factors involved considered in proper
perspective. On the one hand it is clear that in normal times
full employment has not been available. When, in wartime,
higher employment levels prevailed, and continuous employment became available for larger numbers of workers, it could
hardly be expected that the habits of, perhaps, a lifetime
could be rapidly overcome. On the other hand, prevailing
social conditions, particularly malnutrition and highly unsatisfactory living conditions, have had an adverse effect on
workers' output. But the capacity of the British West Indian
worker, granted reasonable continuity of employment and an
adequate wage incentive, is suggested by his performance as a
migrant worker in the United States, the United Kingdom
and elsewhere during the second world war.
I n the territories under consideration, hours of work are
regulated in some cases by law (for example, shops and factories), in others by hour schedules tied to prescribed minimum
wage rates and in others by collective agreements. The scope
of such regulation is limited to prescribing normal hours after
which overtime rates will apply rather than setting absolute
maxima to hours. Eegulation is becoming more widespread
but is not extensive at the present time.
The hours of work of shop assistants are limited by law to
41 a week in St. Lucia (56 in small shops), 45 in Antigua,
St. Christopher-Nevis and British Honduras, 47 in British
Guiana and 48 in St. Vincent. I n Jamaica, the limitation is to
the effect that shop assistants may be employed only from
Monday to Friday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and on Saturdays
to 6 p.m., with provision for a half-holiday on one of these
days. Provision has usually been made for longer hours
during the Christmas season. Elsewhere, as in Trinidad and
Barbados, the limitation set is on the hours of opening of
the shops. In St. Vincent, barbers, chemists and restaurant
employees are subject to a ten-hour day and 54-hour week
limitation.
1

Development and Welfare in the West Indies, 1943-1944, op. cit., pp. 69-70.

WAGES, HOUES AND CONDITIONS OF WORK

191

Factories legislation enacted in a number of territories
authorises the competent authority to regulate hours of work
in factories by administrative order, but only in a few cases
has this permissive power been used. In Jamaica it has been
limited in its application to boys under 16 years and to women.
These two categories of workers may not be employed for more
than eight hours a day or 44 a week, on Sundays or on night
work, nor for more than four-and-a-half hours without an
interval of at least half an hour for a meal or rest ; provision
for a half-holiday is also made. Overtime is permitted for
women subject to the following conditions : (a) the total
overtime hours shall not exceed 300 in any calendar year ;
(b) total hours worked are not to exceed ten a day or
56 a week ; (c) except in exempted industries, night work is
not permissible ; and (d) employment shall not extend for
more than four-and-a-half hours without an interval of at least
half an hour for a meal or rest. Overtime for boys under 16
years is subject to the limitation that overtime hours are not
to exceed 100 a year and total working hours nine a day. 1
Minimum wage orders at present in force prescribe the following working hours in relation to minimum rates set : British
Guiana, waterfront workers, eight a day; Jamaica, printing
trade, 45 a week ; Kingston and St. Andrew, Jamaica, bakery
trade, 51 a week, catering trade, 54 a week, biscuit trade, 45 a
week ; Windward Islands, agricultural workers, eight a day.
Where minimum wages have been prescribed for occupations operating largely on a task basis, the principle has been
followed that task rates are to be fixed so as to allow average
workers to earn at least the minimum rate in the time prescribed. Where there has not been regulation, the time taken
by workers to perform tasks constitutes a relatively short
working day and in the Caribbean relatively few workers
perform more than one task a day, even though on occasion
sufficient work has been available to permit them to do so.
The situation in Trinidad may serve as an illustration. In the
sugar industry in 1943, task workers generally completed their
tasks in between four and five hours and worked only on three
or four days a week. On cocoa estates, while the working day
for time workers is eight to eight and a half hours, task workers
require only from four to six hours to complete the task set.
1

S.R.O. 51 of 1943 ; S.R.O. 21 of 1945.

192

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

Hours of work in commercial undertakings have in the past
been unsatisfactorily long, but the regulation of hours of work
of shop assistants has met this criticism to some extent. In
industrial undertakings there is wide variation. In Jamaica
in 1943 a survey revealed that average working hours were
about 51 a week for trades and industries in the Corporate
Area ; for industry and public utilities the average was rather
less, but a substantial proportion of the work was done on job
or piece rates. Where continuous operations are involved and
skilled operatives for a particular process are rare, such
operatives may work extremely long hours. The Jamaica
Labour Department report for 1943 records that in sugar
factories during the crop season some employees worked on
occasion the equivalent of 12 nine-hour days in a single
week.
Abnormal hours of work are prevalent in some occupations :
waterfront work and domestic service may be cited as instances. In regard to waterfront work the situation is of particular interest because the system is one maintained by the
wish of the employee. The position in Jamaica was thus
analysed by Major Orde Browne :
(Labour on the wharves in connection with the loading and
unloading of ships) . . . is . . . notoriously irregular in incidence, and in consequence usually well-paid during employment.
In Kingston the rates of pay may occasionally be as high as 2s.
an hour, and the men would be quite comfortably situated if they
had any approach to constant employment, but in practice the
numbers seeking work are so great that cases frquently occur where
a man may have only a day's, or even a few hours', employment
in a week. Such being the position, any available employment
is jealously guarded, and men once engaged in connection with a
particular ship expect to be retained for the duration of the job.
Hours of continuous employment thus reach almost incredible
figures ; twenty hours, thirty hours, and even forty hours are stated
by responsible parties to occur normally. With this there has
grown up a peculiar and pernicious system of overtime ; meal hours
are paid at double rates, given that the worker forgoes his rest
and food, while furthermore, the midnight hour is paid at four
times the usual rate. This system is obviously calculated to achieve
the exhaustion of the worker with reduction of efficiency ; in addition, the highly paid overtime must have an objectionable effect
in putting a premium on the sacrifice of necessary rest and in
introducing an extraneous motive for trying to secure employment
during the most lucrative periods, or for prolonging a job so as
to include a double-pay hour.1
1

O R D E BKOWNB : op.

cit.,

pp.

75-76.

WAGES, HOUES AND CONDITIONS OP WOKK

193

Despite attempts at regulation, the system has persisted.
In British Guiana, for example, a port-workers' registration
scheme has been instituted, and an eight-hour normal day
set by administrative order, but it is still customary for workers
to be engaged for the duration of the job, the loading and
discharging of one ship, for example.
The Eoyal Commission reported in 1939 that the normal
working day of the domestic servant was from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.
She depends upon the goodwill of her employer for any sick
leave, annual holiday or other time of release from duty. Workmen's compensation legislation, where it exists, does not apply
to her. Her lot, which is often a hard one, might be relieved in
many cases if she would live in, but we were told that few servants
will accept that condition of employment and there are many
homes which do not offer it. 1
In Jamaica in the Kingston and St. Andrew area the
average hours worked by domestic servants in 1943 were
76 a week.
Weekly rest arrangements are general though express
legal provision is rare and has been made only in a few Shops'
Assistants' Hours Laws and in factory regulations. Overtime
rates for any work performed on Sundays or public holidays
is a general practice. The terms of minimum wage orders also
indicate widespread recognition of the principle of weekly rest.
Legal provision for annual paid holidays is infrequent, and
where in force applies only to limited categories of workers.
In British Honduras, Dominica, St. Lucia and St. Vincent
shop assistants are granted by law an annual hobday of
fourteen days with pay and in Jamaica, as is noted in Chapter
VIII, legislative provision on a wider basis has been made.
Collective agreements cover several other groups of workers.
In Trinidad, an estimated 20,000 workers employed by members of the Sugar Manufacturers' Association were by 1945
and 1946 agreements with the All-Trinidad Sugar Estates and
Factories Workers' Trade Union given annual paid holidays
subject to the following conditions :
(1) the maximum holiday with pay to be seven days per annum ;
(2) the qualifying period for holidays with pay to be 234 days'
work each leave year subject to (7) below ;
(3) the leave year to be the employment year of each employee ;
(4) for the purpose of calculating a leave year an employment
period to be deemed to have been terminated if an employee is
1

Report, op. cit., p. 218.

194

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

absent from work without permission for a continuous period of
fourteen days, save in the case of genuine sickness ;
(5) for the purpose of calculating the qualifying period of
234 days, time lost through genuine sickness and time lost by the
employers' inability to offer suitable alternative employment to
a worker's normal occupation, to be regarded as time worked ;
(6) the daily rate of payment for holiday periods to be equal
to the average daily earnings during the qualifying period ;
(7) seasonal workers, i.e., those who work during the crop
season only, to be entitled to holidays with pay, the qualifying
period and the holidays with pay being reduced in such cases proportionately to the period of continuous employment.
Other agreements include the following provisions :
employees of the Antigua Sugar Factory, six days to all workpeople who have worked satisfactorily throughout the crop ;
employees of the Sugar Manufacturers' Association, Jamaica,
one week's annual holiday with pay.
Annual holidays with pay are granted more frequently
than the above summary might suggest. In Barbados, casual
workers employed by the Government receive 14 days'
vacation leave if they have worked 250 days or more during
the previous year, similar provision for seven days' leave
having been increased as from 1 April 1946 ; the two foundries
operating in Bridgetown and a great many of the shops and
commercial undertakings give their employees annual holidays
with pay ranging from one to two weeks. In Jamaica " it is
the custom for most employers, including Government, to
give holidays with pay—usually a fortnight or a month per
year—to their permanent staffs." x In the oil industry in
Trinidad, workers are given one week's leave with full pay
annually, the qualifying period being 272 days a year, while
non-established Government employees are given a paid
vacation of seven to 14 days depending upon the number
of effective years of continuous service (250 days a year)
served. In British Honduras, manual workers employed by
the Government receive seven days, the qualifying period
of work being 250 days. From the beginning of 1946, provision
was also made in St. Kitts for Government casual workers.
In St. Lucia, all categories of workers employed by the Colonial
Development Corporation receive seven days holiday with
pay, the qualifying period of work being 234 days.
I n Chapter V i l i , a detailed account is given of the legal
requirements in force regarding advances and the protection
1

BENHAM : op. cit., p. 17.

WAGES, HOURS AND CONDITIONS OF WORK

195

of wages in British Guiana and British Honduras. In these
two territories the question is one of substantial importance
because of the recruitment of labour for employment in the
interior. Where minimum wage orders for the agricultural
industry have been issued in the island territories, provision
for the protection of wages has assumed importance for a
different reason ; it has been needed to ensure that workers
do not cease to enjoy any customary privileges as a result
of the fixing of higher rates. In St. Vincent, for example, the
Order stipulates that—
. . . all payments of wages made under the provisions of this
Order shall be in money, and no reduction shall be allowed in respect
of any privilege enjoyed by the agricultural worker.
A " privilege " is defined to include—
. . . any advantage, concession, perquisite or benefit whatsoever (including free housing and free pasturage) which now is
or may hereafter be conferred on, granted or made to an agricultural
worker as a condition
of or otherwise in connection with his employment as such.1
The privileges accorded workers in some territories aid in
relieving the impact of underemployment, as the report
of the Jamaica Sugar Industry Commission, 1945, indicates.
In this industry, approximately 39 per cent, of the workers
during the crop period and 50 per cent, out-of-crop are provided
with housing free of rent ; the estates usually make such
provision for regular field and factory workers.
In-crop 25 per cent, and out-of-crop 40 per cent, are
provided by the estates with allotments of land for cultivation
and a small percentage are allowed pasturage privileges.
Workers' privileges are to be correlated in part with the
now legally obsolete responsibilities once vested in the employer
with regard to housing, medical attention, educational facilities, allotment, pasturage and other privileges. The present
anomalous system has been thus summarised by Major Orde
Browne :
The abandonment of indentured labour introduced an important
change in the position of the labour force, though this appears to
have passed quite unrecognised. The tradition of a body of workpeople resident on the estate persisted, though it no longer had
any legal support. The workman was entirely free, bound by no
contract and equally enjoying no contract rights ; he had therefore
1
St. Vincent, Department of Labour (Agricultural Workers) Order, 1943,
S.R.O., 1943, No. 18.

196

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

no justification for requiring any housing, medical attention or
other privilege beyond his wage. Nevertheless the old barracks,
squalid, dilapidated and overcrowded though they might be, continued to house a considerable population, who regarded them as
their homes and protested vigorously iE required to leave them. It
would indeed have been difficult for these people to find housing
elsewhere, while it was also a convenience for the plantation to
have at least the bulk of its labour residing near at hand. Modern
opinion continued to demand improvements and the surviving ranges
of barracks began to be replaced by small cottages better suited
to family requirements than the older buildings intended for
transient occupation only. Hospitals were improved until it is
now possible to find estates maintaining well-equipped establishments with a staff of a medical officer and nurses ; similarly, special
buildings and qualified teachers cater for educational requirements.
The implication that such responsibilities must be borne by the
estate was generally accepted and the lapse of the former obligations under the indenture system was ignored. Unprogressive
properties therefore which provided only low-grade accommodation were bitterly criticised and contrasted with the more advanced ;
the absence of any legal
basis for these claims seems to have been
generally overlooked.1
Legislation regarding factories is summarised below. 2 In
practice, arrangements for inspection do not seem to be satisfactory except in Jamaica and Trinidad, largely because of
the absence of the necessary trained staff. Factories regulations
in Jamaica contain, in addition to rules for the safe operation
of machinery, a number of provisions specifically framed to
protect workers' health and safety. These include the regulation of hours of work (Jamaica only), cubic space per worker,
ventilation, sanitary conveniences, rest rooms for female
workers, first-aid equipment, and such equipment as goggles
or screens where the character of the operations being performed so require.
Finally, one recent development, an outcrop of the growth
of trade unionism, deserves attention. Some of the wellestablished unions are endeavouring in collective agreements
to improve security of tenure for their members by including
clauses stipulating preferential employment rights for their
members, clauses containing anti-victimisation provisions and
clauses conferring sole bargaining rights. Agreements between
the Bustamante Industrial Trade Union and the Sugar Manufacturers' Association of Jamaica, for example, have included
clauses with such content.
1

O R D E B R O W N E : op.

Cf. Chapter VIII.

cit.,

pp.

15-16.

WAGES, HOTJES AND CONDITIONS OF WORK

197

UNITED STATES TERRITORIES

Puerto Rico
Wages.
Both wages and prices in Puerto Eico are at a higher
general level than in nearly all other West Indian territories,
largely because of the fact that the economy of Puerto Eico
is geared to that of the United States.
Appendix XIV contains a table prepared by the Department of Labor of Puerto Eico, illustrating the constant and
marked increase in average hourly wages in Puerto Eico from
1934 to 1949.
The cost-of-living index, whose base period is March 1941,
rose to 178.3 as at June 1948. During the year to June 1949,
the index fell for the first time and at the latter date was at the
level of 162.6. The different items comprising the index showed
the following coefficients in June 1949 :
Food
Clothing
Bent
House furnishings
Miscellaneous

186.4
130.5
108.7
130.5
144.3

Increased wage levels must be regarded, in large part, as
resulting from the general inflationary trends consequential
upon wartime conditions and the continuance of the sellers'
market in the immediate post-war years. More proximately,
the establishment and utilisation of an extended network of
minimum wage fixing machinery and the development of
collective bargaining resulting from the increased strength
of workers' organisations have played an important part in the
process of adjustment. However, it is clear from available
analysed documentary evidence that the level of real income
and wages has risen in Puerto Eico over the past decade,
a fact which cannot be established in respect of other West
Indian territories. 1 The sustained and actively pursued policies
of economic development and industrialisation of the Puerto
Eican Government furnish the essential explanation.
1
Cf. above, Chapter I I and the following studies, inter alia, PERLOFF : Puerto
Rico's Economic Future (Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1950); Daniel
CREAMER : The Net Income of the Puerto Mean Economy, 1940-1944 (Río Piedras,
Social Science Research Center, University of Puerto Rico, 1947).

198

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

The legislative aspects of the Insular Minimum Wage Act
and of the application of the Fair Labor Standards Act, 1938,
and the 1937 Sugar Act to Puerto Eico are examined in Chapter
V i l i . A few features of the practical application of the minimum wages for which this legislation provides require some
comment here.
Minimum hourly rates prescribed under the Fair Labor
Standards Act have been subject to substantial upward revision
since special rates for Puerto Eico were first introduced in
December 1940. In the needlework industry, for example,
the rates first set ranged from 12 % to 22 yz cents an hour ;
present rates range from 15 to 40 cents an hour. The industry
studies conducted as a basis for fixing these rates have been
detailed and comprehensive. The 1941 study of the Puerto
Eico leaf tobacco industry may be cited as an example. I t
examines the position of the industry in the economy of the
island, its historical development, the volume of employment
afforded, the number and location of establishments and the
quantity and value of shipments to the United States and
England. Existing average hourly earnings, health conditions,
unionisation and out-work are examined and compared with
mainland labour conditions in the industry. In consequence,
the study analyses the factors affecting the demand for and
price of Puerto Eican leaf tobacco, trends in the number and
resources of leaf tobacco purchases, estimated increases in
labour costs and costs of production of leaf tobacco and cigars
resulting from possible increases in minimum wage rates in the
Puerto Eican leaf tobacco industry, the factors bearing on ability
to absorb possible wage increases and transportation costs. 1
The rates prescribed annually by the Secretary of Agriculture under the 1937 Sugar Act as fair and reasonable wages
are announced after public hearings. They have tended to
follow closely rates reached by collective bargaining, in particular in the sugar industry.
Up to November 1949, sixteen Mandatory Decrees had
been issued by the Insular Minimum Wage Board. 2 The
Puerto Eican Department of Labor thus summarised the
effect of the first six Decrees :
1
United States Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division, Research and
Statistics Branch : Puerto Rico : The Leaf Tobacco Industry (Apr. 1941).
2
For a complete list and statistical information relating thereto, cf. Appendix XIV.

WAGES, HOUES AND CONDITIONS OF WORK

199

The annual payrolls of said industries or commercial activities
have been increased by over five and (one)1 half million dollars and
over 170,000 workers have been benefited.
The development and present status of collective bargaining
in Puerto Eico has received detailed attention in Chapter IV.
The collective agreements reached, particularly in recent years,
have tended to be well above the minima laid down by administrative orders, except in the case of agricultural workers.
These minima, however, were designed only to " put a floor
under " wages, and the tendency sometimes noticed of statutory minimum rates of pay becoming in practice maximum
rates has been only partially operative in Puerto Eico. For
example, the minimum rates prescribed by Mandatory Decrees
2 and 3 for workers in the factory phase of the sugar industry
range from 33 to 46 % cents an hour ; in the 1946 agreement
signed between the management of the Gambaleche Central 2
and the union representing the factory workers (an affiliate
of the P.L.T.), agreed basic rates ranged from 40 to 65 cents
an hour, with provision for sliding-scale increases in proportion
to any rise in the price of sugar. But in the 1946 agreement
between the Sugar Producers' Association of Puerto Eico
on the one hand and a C.G.T. affiliate and two other unions
covering agricultural sugar workers, the scheduled basic rates
for the lower-paid categories of workers are identical with the
minima laid down by the Minimum Wage Board.
Two recent developments affecting the Puerto Eican wage
structure require mention : the guaranteed day or week 3 and
proportional-profit sharing. The former development is to be
noted both in insular Minimum Wage Decrees and in collective
agreements ; the latter naturally applies only to certain undertakings owned by the people of Puerto Eico and administered by
the Land Authority. The significance of both, at the present
stage, lies in improving the level of earnings diminished by partial or intermittent employment. This is clearly the case with the
guaranteed day or week; in the circumstances of Puerto Eico, the
distribution of profits from proportional-profit farms provides a
lump sum to tide the agricultural worker over that period of
the year at which he feels the effects of seasonal unemployment.
1
Annual Report of the Commissioner of Labor . . . for the Fiscal Year ended
30 June 1944 (San Juan, P.R., 1944).
2
One of the largest sugar factories in Puerto Rico and the first such factory
to be acquired by the Land Authority.
3
Cf. below, Chapter VIII, for fuller account.

200

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

Sours and Conditions of WorTi.
The summary of labour legislation provided in Chapter
VIII shows that there is in force in Puerto Eico a large body
of legislation regulating hours and conditions of work. The
relevant provisions cover, inter alia, the regulation of hours
generally, the regulation of hours and conditions of work
by the Minimum Wage Board, weekly rest, safety and inspection and the protection of wages and also include a number of
provisions of a more specialised character.
The study of typical provisions in recent Puerto Eican
collective agreements and of the status and history of collective
bargaining in the island, made in the preceding chapter, has
provided some picture of the significance of this factor in
improving working conditions.
The problems attendant upon analysis of hours of work in
Puerto Rico have points both of similarity and of difference
as compared with corresponding problems in regard to the
British territories. On the one hand, seasonal unemployment,
underemployment and casual employment are common
features. On the other, task work in agriculture is relatively
infrequent and available information on hours is much more
extensive for Puerto Eico.
The following table sets out average weekly working hours of
selected categories of workers in Puerto Eico during 1944-45. 1
Occupation
Agriculture
Sugar cane
Tobacco
Coffee
Minor crops
Cattle raising
Industrial undertakings
Food and kindred products
Cane sugar (except refineries)
Cane sugar refineries
Apparel
Wholesale trade
Retail trade
Transportation
Communication

Average weekly
hours
31.3
24.9
40.3
36.8
32.7
43.1
36.2
36.4
28.7
29.8
33.8
37.3
47.0
34.7
41.9

Such averages, because they allow for intermittent employment, disguise both the duration of work regarded as normal
1
Compiled from Annual Report of the Commissioner
Fiscal Year ended 30 June 1945 (San Juan, P . B . , 1945).

of Labor

. . .

for the

WAGES, HOUES AND CONDITIONS OF WORK

201

in an industry and the much longer hours worked by some
employees. While it is not gainsaid that regulation of hours
of work is much stricter now than was the case in 1940, the
information available for that year reveals some of the problems
of interpretation in using averages as a guide. The average
weekly number of hours actually worked by all workers was
28.4 and the average full-time week was 50.8 hours. On
wharves, in the needlework industry and in milk pasteurisation,
the full-time working week was calculated to be 50.7, 45.0
and 56 hours respectively; hours actually worked were 8.1,
32.6 and 55.4.
Corroboration of this evidence is given by studies made by
the Minimum Wage Board. A single example will suffice—
WEEKLY HOURS WORKED BY 8 2 2 EMPLOYEES OF BARS, HOTELS,
RESTAURANTS AND SODA FOUNTAINS IN PUERTO RICO

Weekly hours
Less t h a n 4 0 . . . .
40-41.9 . .
42-43.9
44-45.9
46-47.9
48-49.9
50-51.9
52-53.9
54-55.9
56-57.9
58 and over

Total
16
8
5
2
3
659
12 •
5
22
48
42
822

Percentage
of total
1.9
1.0
0.6
0.2
0.4
80.2
1.5
0.6
2.7
5.8
5.1
100.0

1
Gobierno de Puerto Rico, J u n t a de Salario Mínimo : El Negocio de Hoteles, Bestaarantes, Cantinas y Fuentes de Soda en Puerto Rico (San J u a n , P . R . , Nov. 1943), p. 27.

In practice the most effective measures for the regulation
of hours and conditions of work in Puerto Rico appear to be
those consequent upon the Mandatory Decrees of the Minimum Wage Board. A detailed analysis of these also serves to
throw light on general working conditions in the industries
covered.
All the Mandatory Decrees include a number of provisions
of a general character to the following effect. If wage rates
of any workers are higher than the minimum rates prescribed,
existing rates may not be decreased. Employers may not

202

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

increase rents or the cost of any services they provide by
reason only of the coming into effect of a Decree nor may they
require payment for any food provided in the course of work.
Where collective agreements are in force, the terms of
Mandatory Decrees shall not be a ground for non-fulfilment
of any of the requirements of such agreements. Should
any part of a Decree be declared null by a competent judicial
authority, such a ruling is not to affect other provisions of the
Decree.
With a few exceptions, the Decrees stipulate an eight-hour
day and a 48-hour week, with overtime to be remunerated at
double rates. A 40-hour week is the standard set for the leaf
tobacco industry, the industrial phase of the sugar industry
and for theatres and cinemas ; an eight-hour day without a
maximum week is prescribed for the agricultural phase of the
sugar industry and for hospitals and allied institutions, and
certain classes of field workers in the sugar industry have a
seven-hour day with overtime at double rates. In the leaf
tobacco industry and the industrial phase of the sugar industry,
while double time is to be paid for work in excess of eight hours
a day, only time-and-one-half rates are required for hours in
excess of the weekly maximum.
Provision for fifteen days' annual holiday with pay, which
may be accumulated over two years, is made for permanent
employees in the Decrees covering hospitals and allied institutions, hotels, bars, restaurants and soda fountains, theatres
and cinemas, retail trade and the milk industry. Provision
for annual sick leave with pay is made in a few cases, but in
others an employee is merely permitted to count days of
absence through sickness against his accumulated holidays
with pay if desired and no provision is made in these
instances, especially when employment in the industry concerned is casual. Weekly rest provisions are also included in
some Decrees.
Employers are usually required to provide sanitary conveniences, drinking water and a clock in an accessible position.
Provision is also made for the supervision of the adequacy
and cash value of housing or meals customarily provided and
regarded as part of remuneration. Where minimum wages
prescribed have been based on the assumption that certain
services are customarily provided free of charge to the worker,
the employer is prohibited from charging for such services.

WAGES, HOTJES AND CONDITIONS OF WORK

203

A provision of general occurrence is the requirement that
minors under 18 years should be paid not less than 75 per cent.
of the minimum wages fixed for the occupations in which they
are engaged.
I n industries where intermittent employment and underemployment are notoriously frequent, provision is made for
the workers to obtain either a minimum period of employment or to be paid for at least a minimum number of hours.
The Decree covering field workers in the sugar industry, for
example, requires that any worker employed on a given day
should be afforded at least four hours' work and the Decree
covering hotels and allied establishments requires that
employees working four hours a day for four days in a given
week are to be paid the full weekly rate.
There are also a number of miscellaneous provisions
applicable to particular industries.
In hotels and allied
establishments, tips may not be regarded as part of wages ;
one litre of milk daily is to be provided free of charge to
workers milking cows ; seats are to be provided for shop
assistants, and in the agricultural phase of the sugar industry
task work is prohibited unless the worker desires it.

Virgin

Islands

The minimum wages prescribed under the Fair Labor
Standards Act, 1938, and in force in the Virgin Islands in
1947, are given in the following table 1 :

Industry

Property motor carrier .
Communications

. . . .

Rates per hour
St. ThomasSt. Croix
St. John
Cents
Cents
35
30
32
30
30
30
30
30
30
30
32
25
25
25
25

From Wage Order of 15 June 1945, effective 1 August 1945, published in the
Federal Register, 21 June 1945.

204

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

The Hill Wage and Hour A c t l , applicable only to St.
Thomas-St. John 2 , as amended, prescribes the following
minima :
Classification
Utility worker
Scales or service clerk
Unskilled labour
Semi-skilled labour
Skilled labour

Minimum hourly
rate of pay
Cents
15
20
30
40
50

Other minimum rates prescribed under the 1937 Sugar
Act are applicable to St. Croix. In 1942 the following minima
were prescribed : harvesting of sugar cane, $1.36 a day of
eight hours ; production and cultivation, $1.04 a day of eight
hours. Overtime was to be remunerated at single-time rates.
Persons employed on a piece-rate basis should be paid at
rates which would result in earnings at least equal to the
above rates. Employers were required to furnish workers,
without charge, any perquisites customarily furnished, such
as a dwelling, garden plot, pasture lot, and medical services.
In 1949, the minimum rate for all sugar cane workers was
at the level of $0.25 an hour for an eight-hour day.
A survey of wage rates made in 1943, preliminary to t h e
introduction of special rates under the Fair Labor Standards
Act, of workers engaged in interstate commerce revealed that
in St. Croix such workers earned an average of 30.8 cents
an hour, the range varying with the industry concerned from
22.6 to 53.1 cents ; the corresponding figures for St. Thomas
were 37.8, 29.0 and 58.3 cents. 3
Under the Hill Act, maximum hours are fixed at eight
a day and 44 a week for the workers coming within its coverage.
As is noted elsewhere, labour legislation in the Virgin
Islands covering conditions of work is not extensive.* It does not
appear, however, that in this small community serious problems
arise as a result of this deficiency. Nevertheless, large classes
of workers, for example, domestic servants, do not seem to
"be covered by any protective legislation whatsoever.
1
2

Cf. Chapter VIII.
A similar Act, the details of -which are not available at the time of writing,
has 3recently been adopted by the municipality of St. Croix.
U.S. Department of Labor : Wage, Hour and Public Contracts Division :
Economic Report on Industries Operating in the Municipality of St. Thomas and
St. John, Virgin Islands, and in the Municipality of St. Croix, Virgin Islands
{Washington, July 1944).
4
Cf. Chapter VIII.

WAGES, HOUES AND CONDITIONS OF WOEK

FRENCH

205

TERRITORIES

The following information and statistical data have been
provided by the Government of France in respect of Guadeloupe and Martinique. 1
Guadeloupe
Wages.
A summary comparison of money wages paid in 1938 and
as at 31 December 1948 in certain occupations is given in the
following table :
Type of undertaking

Metal work

. . . .

Sugar factories and
distilleries
. . . .
Building and
Agriculture

Type of worker

Skilled worker
General worker

Rate

1938

1948

per hour

Frs. 1
4.50
2.55

Frs. 1
64.45
38.50

4.80
2.55

65.45
38.50

4.30
2.55

82.80
41.25

15.00
10.50
20.90
16.25

308.00
308.00
369.60
325.40

Skilled worker
General worker

public
. . . .

Skilled worker
Worker, 1st category
General worker

Male

Female
Cane-cutter
Assistant cane-cutter

per day

?»

1
In 1938 the U.S. dollar averaged about 35 frs. at the official clearing rate and about
32 frs. at the free market rate. In 1948 the corresponding averages were about 200 and
345 frs.

Minimum wages are fixed by the Prefect after consultation with bipartite industrial committees. They have to
be approved by the Minister of Labour and Social Security.
This procedure is the result of the Ministerial Order of
30 March 1948. The regulations followed are similar to those
in force in metropolitan France (adoption of a basic wage,
classification of forms of employment, grading, equal pay
for equal work as between men and women, special rates
in regard to workers below the age of 18 and workers of
sub-normal physical capacity).
1
Communication to the I.L.O. from the Ministry of Labour and Social Security,
17 Oct. 1949.

206

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

An inter-Ministerial decision of 5 February 1949 indicated
that the wage rates and principles laid down in the interMinisterial Orders of 31 December 1947 and 28 September
1948 would be applied in the Department with a reduction
of 12 per cent, as from 1 February 1949.
Working

Hours.

The regulations laid down in the Labour Code in relation
to the duration of working hours are applicable in the Department.
In accordance with the terms of the Decree of 30 March
1948, working hours are determined by Orders of the Prefect.
The length of the working week is in general 40 hours.
This is rarely exceeded except in regard to dockers, the
employees of sugar and rum factories during the crop season
(the duration of work is then 48 hours a week), building and
public works. The working week in commercial establishments
is rarely as much as 39 hours.
The Bole of Collective Agreements in the Fixing of Wages and
Conditions of Work.
Wages are fixed by the competent authority after consultation with the committees mentioned above. They cannot,
therefore, at the present time be fixed by collective agreements.
The Law of 23 December 1946 is not yet applicable to the
Department.
Special Labour Conditions in the Plantations (Housing and
Services Provided by the Employer).
A large number of agricultural workers are provided with
housing free of charge by the employer. Pood is not, in general,
provided by the employer who, however, in certain areas
often gives his workers free of charge certain products harvested
on the property—for example, bananas.
Agricultural workers often have the possibility of raising
a few cattle on the property of the employer for their own
benefit.
Holiday with Pay.
Metropolitan legislation in regard to holidays with pay is
applicable in the Department in respect of industry, commerce and the liberal professions, and is observed in practice.

WAGES, HOUES AND CONDITIONS OP WORK

207

Although agricultural workers in Guadeloupe do not have
the right to a paid holiday, employers and wage earners, in
the course of a meeting held in February 1949 agreed that,
while awaiting the extension of the provisions in force in
metropolitan France in respect of paid holidays in agriculture,
workers in this occupation should be given a period of leave
similar to that which similar workers received in the métropole.
Holidays with pay were therefore granted agricultural workers
in Guadeloupe as from 1949.
Time-work and Piece-worlc.
As in metropolitan France, workers in industry are, in
general, paid by time.
This practice is, on the other hand, relatively little used
in agriculture, where most work is given out by the task or
by the piece.
Martinique
Wage Bates.
The following table shows the change in the level of money
wages between 1939 and 1948.
Occupation

Type of worker

Rate

Agriculture. .

Cane-cutter

Commerce . .
Public works .

Employees
Unskilled
labourer

Task of 20 heaps
of 25 packets of
10 1-metre sections
Per month

Per hour

1939

1948

Frs. '

30
300-1,200

523.80
6,000-12,000

2.50

30-60

See footnote to table on p. 205.

Principles of Wage Regulation.
Before 1939, wage rates were regulated in the same way
as in metropolitan France.
From 1939 to 1948 wage rates were fixed by the local
administration after consultation with a tripartite wages
commission.
Since 1 November 1948 wages have been again fixed on the
same basis as in metropolitan France. Martinique has been
attached to a metropolitan wage zone with a minus differential

208

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

of 12 per cent, (as from 1 February 1949) on t h e rates prevailing in the Paris zone.
Hours of Work.
Hours of work in Martinique are regulated by the Decrees
applying the Law of 21 June 1936 regarding the 40-hour week.
In practice, commercial establishments have a 40-48 hour
week, all hours worked in excess of a 40-hour week falling under
the terms of the legislation concerning extra hours of work.
Special Working Conditions on Plantations.
In general agricultural workers benefit from payment in
kind (housing, gardens, pasture rights). Some employers
provide living accommodation for workers whose presence is
indispensable for the supervision and maintenance of the
plantations.
Annual Holidays with Pay.
The system of annual holidays with pay in force in Martinique is the same as that of metropolitan France as applied
since 30 March 1948 by the extension of the metropolitan
labour code to the West Indian Departments.
Taslc and Time

Employment.

In general, remuneration in industrial and commercial
establishments is on an hourly or monthly basis. On the other
hand, task work is the prevalent method of remuneration in
agriculture.
NETHERLANDS TERRITORIES

The following table summarises the most recent information available in regard to wage levels in Surinam.
The information provided to the United Nations by the
Netherlands Government pursuant to Article 73 of the Charter
states that the daily wages of employees in 1946 averaged 2.60
guilders. In 1938, average daily wage rates were between
0.60 and 0.75 guilder. The increase in 1946 therefore was of
the order of some 250 per cent. I t should be noted that the
cost-of-living index in 1946 was about 300, taking 1939 as the
basic year ; in December 1948, the price index of local
foodstuffs was 340 and of imported foodstuffs 274.

WAGES, HOUES AND CONDITIONS OF WOBK

Industry or occupation

Number
of undertakings

Number of labourers
employed
Skilled

209

Wages per week

Unskilled

Surinam
guilders '
Metal trade
. . . .
Wood manufacturing
Catering
Leather
Pood processing . .
Rice husking . . . .
Bricks
Clothing
Bauxite
Match making . . .
Shipbuilding . . . .

27
54
16
60
41
90
2
72
3
1
6

96
279
78
132
144
93
5
87
575
19
39

94
444
208
117
167
75
34
76
1,072
32
22

0.75
0.75
6.25
3.00
4.00
1.00
5.10
1.00
6.70
3.00
4.00

39.00
27.00
43.80
35.00
28.00
17.50
36.00
18.00
65.96
44.40
37.50

Source : Government of Surinam statistics communicated by the Netherlands Government.
1
Since 29 September 1949, 1.88 Surinam guilders = 7s. Sterling = U.S. $1.00.

Wage levels in the Netherlands Antilles are largely
determined by the wage policy of the oil refineries. This wage
policy is based on the application of a certain formula in which
the cost of living is taken into account. This means that the
wage level in these islands increases with the same percentage
as the prices of the imports. In 1946 the usual hourly wages
paid by the petroleum company of Curaçao were as follows x :
Helpers
Unskilled labourers
Skilled labourers,
second class
Skilled labourers,
first class

Guilders
0.79
0.65-0.80
0.78-1.00
0.88-1.23

Average hourly wages in 1947 were :
Steel and building
Phosphate mines
Ports and docks

0.66-0.77
0.88
1.25

In 1949, hourly wage rates of workers in the oil industry
ranged from 0.85 to 2.10 guilders ; for longshoremen, the
corresponding figure was 1.40.
Wages in Aruba are slightly higher than in Curaçao, cost
of living there being always slightly higher.
The following table summarises information available
regarding prevailing hours of work in different industries in
Surinam.
1

Communication from the Department of Labour and Social Affairs, Curaçao.

210

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

Industry
or occupation

Metal trade . .
Wood
manufacturing
Catering . . .

Less
8
than 8 hours
hours
per
per day day

8%
hours
per
day

9
hours
per
day

Food processing

6
3
22
5

22
4
6
2

Clothing

8
3
6
7
1
7

14
3
15
8
1
11
1

. . .

Match making.
Shipbuilding. .

4
1
1
2

9y2
hours
per
day

More
10
hours than
10
per
hours
day per
day
1

2
1
5
3

1
1
8
9

1
2
2
5

1
1

Total
number
of
undertakings

64
16
60
41
2
72
3
1
6

Source : Government of Surinam statistics communicated by the Netherlands Government.

Surinam legislation provides for an 8 %-hour working day
and a 48-hour working week for undertakings. After five hours
of work an interval period of half an hour is provided. Hospitals
and Government services are included in the coverage of this
legislation. In the case of overtime, provided authorisation
has been given for it by the competent authority, a maximum
of a 64-hour week is permitted. Watchmen have a maximum
of 12 hours a day and 84 hours a week.
An annual paid holiday of six days after one year of
continuous service is granted. For every year of service in
addition to the first year one extra day is granted up to a
maximum of 12 days altogether. Outworkers, seafarers and
children of the employer living with him are exempted from
this rule.
Netherlands Antilles legislation on hours of work is
limited to office workers and shop assistants. For shop
assistants the normal working hours are ten a day and 56 a
week. Office workers have a maximum of eight hours a day
and 46 a week. For the petroleum industry a normal working
day of eight hours has been accepted. In 1949, the average
work week in the oil industry was 45 hours and for longshoremen 52 hours.
Provision for one week's annual holiday with pay at the
employer's expense, which may be accumulated over four
years, is made for all the wage earners in the Netherlands
Antilles. The system of holidays with pay which is now in
force in the Curaçao Petroleum Company is as follows :

WAGES, HOUES AND CONDITIONS OF WOEE

211

Local workers, paid by the month, are granted a fortnight's
leave with pay in Curaçao after each year of employment for
the first three years and four weeks after the fourth year.
If paid by the hour and week, they only have one week's local
leave with pay after each year of employment for the first
three years and four weeks after the fourth year. Local
workers travelling on leave are not paid their fares by the
Company.
Non-local workers under contract who are paid by the
month have a fortnight's local leave with pay after each year
of employment for the first three years and six weeks' leave,
excluding travelling time, with pay, to the country from which
they came after the fourth year, fares being paid by the
Company for the whole family including children up to 18
years of age.
STon-local workers under contract who are paid by the hour
and week only have one week's local leave with pay after each
year of employment for the first three years, but six weeks'
leave, on the same terms as non-local workers paid by the
month, after the fourth year.
Portuguese workers under contract are granted leave on
the same terms as other non-local workers except that after
the fourth year of employment they have three months' home
leave including travelling time with pay for six weeks.

CHAPTER VI
WOMEN, CHILDREN AND YOUNG PERSONS
The problems attendant upon the employment of women,
children and young persons in the West Indies are naturally
conditioned by standards of living, remuneration and education
and by the prevailing forms of family life. On the one hand,
a meagre family income leads to the utilisation of the labour
of the family's younger members to supplement that income ;
on the other, since women are relatively often the breadwinners
and heads of families, their employment is more widespread
than is normally the case in many other countries.
In the British territories the woman is very often the
family breadwinner, the percentage of illegitimacy being
sometimes as high as 70 per cent. The term " illegitimacy "
in this context, however, covers two clearly demarcated sets
of social practices. At the one end of the scale, there may
be permanent cohabitation between the unmarried which
" leads to a home life and the establishment of a family group
which is little different from the married state " 1 ; at the
other, irregular unions which may be broken off either after
a short period or even after the birth of two or three children,
or promiscuity without birth control. Although there is legislation requiring fathers to support such children, its enforcement is inadequate and in some cases impossible, especially
where fathers are only intermittently employed at low earnings. Further, the mothers concerned are often unwilling to
have the law applied, since, under some legislation, imprisonment is the ultimate, and in practice often the only sanction.
The situation in rural Puerto Eico may be inferred from
the results of a detailed health and socio-economic study made
of a typical sugar cane plantation in 1936—
Consensual marriages constitute 26.6 per cent, of the total
population of fifteen years or over and 46.6 per cent, of all married
1
West India Royal Commission : Report (London, H.M. Stationery Office,
1945) p. 220.

WOMEN, CHILDREN AND YOUNG PERSONS

213

persons. Almost five out of every ten marriages were consensual,
three were church marriages, and two civil marriages.
Of all children below fifteen years, 43.5 per cent, were illegitimates. Among children below one year of age, illegitimacy
was 58.2 per cent., and
among children from one to four years
of age, 52.2 per cent.1
A further study made of the same community in 1940
revealed the following situation. Over three fifths of the
population of marriageable age (15 years or more) were
married. Among the married persons, 56.4 per cent, were
civil or church marriages and 43.3 per cent, were consensually
married. The percentage of illegitimacy among children less
than 15 years was 42.4 per cent. 2
In the Netherlands Antilles in 1944, 1,090 of 4,279
children born during the year were illegitimate, approximately
25.5 per cent.
Figures available for the French West Indian territories
are unfortunately incomplete, but suggest that the illegitimacy rate is over 50 per cent.
A summary of labour legislation specifically framed for
the protection of women, children and young persons, together
with legislation of a general character applicable to these
categories, is provided in Chapter VIII. Supplementary comment is, however, required on the terms of this legislation
and on its practical application.
CHILDREN AND YOUNG PERSONS

Minimum

Age and Extent of Employment

British West Indian legislation in regard to employment
of children and young persons primarily comprises restrictions
on the age at which they may be engaged in general employment, employment at sea, in industry, as trimmers or stokers,
or as migrant workers, and prohibition of their employment
in specified occupations ; in some territories provision is made
for compulsory examination for the employment at sea of
young persons under 18 years. 3 The standards set are in
1
Quoted by Minimum Wage Board, Puerto Rico, 1942 : The Sugar Cane
Industry in Puerto Rico (San Juan, P.R., 1943), p. 141.
2
Ibid., p. 143.
3
Cf. Chapter VIII, p. 14.

214

LABOTJB POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

large part based on international labour Conventions ratified
by the United Kingdom Government. 1
The one group of provisions of extensive practical importance is the minimum age set for general employment and the
exceptions thereunder permissible : employment in industrial
undertakings and other forms of employment for which special
minima are set is in the territories under consideration relatively insignificant. The characteristics of the most advanced
British Caribbean legislation in this regard are to be found
in the terms of the Grenadian law. It provides that no child
may be employed in any undertaking or work whatsoever
whether industrial or otherwise—
(a) so long as he is under the age of fourteen years ; or
(b) before the close of school hours on any day on which he is
required to attend school ; or
(e) before six o'clock in the morning or after eight o'clock in
the evening on any day ; or
(d) for more than two hours on any day on which he is required
to attend school ; or
(e) for more than two hours on any Sunday ; or
(f) to lift, carry, or move anything so heavy as to be likely
to cause injury to him ; or
(g) in any occupation likely to be injurious to his health or
education.
Notwithstanding these requirements, the Governor-inCouncil is empowered to make regulations with respect to the
employment of children—
(a) authorising the employment of children under the age of
fourteen years by their parents or guardians on light agricultural
or horticultural work on their family land or garden ;
(b) prohibiting absolutely the employment of children in any
specified occupation ;
(c) prescribing—
(i) the age below which children are not to be employed ;
(ii) the number of hours in each day or in each week for which
they may be employed ;
(iii) the intervals to be allowed to them for meals and rest ;
(iv) the holidays or half-holidays to be allowed to them ;
{v) any other conditions to be observed in relation to their
employment.2
1

Cf. International Labour Conference, 29th Session (Montreal, 1946), Report
IV (1) : Proposed International Labour Obligations in respect of Non-Self-Governing
Territories (Montreal, I.L.O., 1946), pp. 103 ei seq.
2
The Employment of Women, Young Persons and Children (Amendment)
Ordinance, 1945, No. 9 of 1945.

WOMEN, CHILDREN AND YOUNG PERSONS

215

With the exception of other territories in the Windward
Island group, the legislation of all other British West Indian
dependencies is less stringent in its requirements, 12 being the
most usual general minimum age.
In the United States Virgin Islands it is illegal to employ
a child of compulsory school attendance age (six to 15 years)
during school hours, and the employment of juveniles in
hazardous occupations is prohibited in St. Thomas. These are,
however, the sole restrictions on child labour. Although the
Fair Labor Standards Act is applied in other respects to the
Virgin Islands, the wording of its child labour provisions has
permitted the exclusion of these islands from their scope.
Puerto Eican legislation, in addition to a number of more
specialised provisions, sets a general minimum age of 16, one
exception being permissible ; minors aged 14 to 16 may be
employed outside class hours and during school vacations, but
n o t in a factory or a n y occupation prohibited b y law. I n t h e

case of minors under 18 attending school and working after
school hours, the total number of school and working hours
is not to exceed eight. Minors aged 14 to 18 may not be employed without an employment certificate or special permit
from the Child Bureau of the Department of Labor. The
following table shows the number of permits issued from July
1941 to June 1943, but the relatively small number in the
circumstances cannot purport to be an index of the employment of minors of the ages stated :
AGE

CERTIFICATES

AND

PERMITS

ISSUED

1941-1942 AND

1942-1943
Age certificates and permits

1941-1942

1942-1943

Increase or
decrease

Totals
Special permits (14-15 years) . .
Regular permits (16-17 years) . .
Over-age certificates (18-21 years)

1,559
244
1,062
253

1,635
148
767
540
180

+
76
— 96
— 295
+ 287
+ 180

Source : Annual Report of the Commissioner o¡ Labor [or the Fiscal Year ended June
30, 1943 (1944, San Juan, P.R.).

The highest number of permits were issued to minors
working in diamond and jewel factories, followed by minors

216

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

working in street trades and minors in the needlework industry.
During the fiscal year 1946-1947, the total number of age
certificates and permits issued was 4,239 and for the year
1947-1948, 4,539.
Puerto Eico was designated in 1940 as a State whose
employment and age certificates would be accepted as proof
of age under the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act, and the
child labour provisions of the Act are therefore administered
through the agency of the Puerto Eican Department of Labor.
In the Netherlands Antilles the employment of children
under the age of 13 is prohibited ; in Surinam school attendance is compulsory up to the age of 12. These are the only
legislative restrictions in the Netherlands territories in regard
to the employment of children and young persons. In its
annual reports on the application of international labour
Conventions to the Netherlands Antilles, the Netherlands
Government has stated that the absence of legislation covering
such questions as the prohibition of the employment of young
persons on night work is due to the fact that, in practice, no
such employment occurs.
As is noted in Chapter VIII, legislation in regard to the
employment of children and young persons in the French West
Indian Departments of Martinique, Guadeloupe and Guiana is of
an advanced character, following closely for the most part the
legislation of metropolitan France, and fulfilling the requirements of almost all the international labour Conventions in
this field. This legislation does not, however, cover agriculture.
Statistical evidence illustrating the extent of the employment of children and young persons is scanty, but the general
picture seems clear. Assistance by children to the family breadwinners is frequent : in the sugar industry in Jamaica, " some
workers are assisted by children who work without pay " * ;
in Puerto Eico, " both the growing and preparation of tobacco
gives employment to large numbers of laborers of all ages
and both sexes " 2, and " employment of young children in
industrial homework occupations is frequent, but effective
supervision of this child-labor evil has not been attainable." s
1
U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics : Monthly Labor
Review, June 1945, Vol. 60, No. 6, p. 1247.
a

ZIMMERMAN : op. cit., -p.

232.

U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division : Report on Puerto
Rico : The Needlework Industry, 1940, p. 32.

WOMEN, CHXLDEBN AND YOUNG PERSONS

217

Examples could be multiplied indefinitely. A 1945 statement
of the Government of Barbados provides the following information on the employment of children on sugar estates :
Enquiries have been made of 290 estates and replies have been
received from 271 of these. The replies indicate that there are
employed on estates eight children under the 1 age of twelve and
400 between the ages of twelve and fourteen.
As regards application, it is well known that in highly
developed countries child labour laws are among those most
commonly evaded, particularly if control is not supplemented
under school attendance laws. Where, as in the Caribbean,
general social conditions and administrative facilities militate
against strict enforcement, it is to be expected that the difference between law and practice may be considerable. The West
India Royal Commission made the following statement in
regard to the British territories in 1939 :
Evidence which we heard in the West Indies leaves us in no
doubt that children under the legal age of employment are in fact
employed from time to time in both agriculture and industry. We
strongly deprecate this practice and recommend that everywhere
the employment of children under the age of fourteen years should
be prohibited and that stringent penalties should be inflicted for
infringement of this prohibition, the sole exception to which should
be employment on work or
in an undertaking shared only by members of the same family.2
The 1945 Barbados statement given above continues—
Enquiries are being made of the circumstances in which the eight
children under twelve are employed, but the Government has no
information which indicates the desirability of introducing legislation
to prevent the employment of children between the ages of twelve
and fourteen on sugar estates. The employment of Women, Young
Persons and Children Act, 1938, governs the employment of children
in industrial undertakings and, as far as the Government is aware,
this Act is not infringed.
This statement was severely criticised in the House of
Assembly. A number of speakers considered that the employment of child labour was much more widespread than the
returns from the estates indicated, that such employment was
largely the result of the low wages paid to the children's
parents and to lack of adequate educational facilities, and that
it would be unfair to penalise parents in the event of their
1
2

Barbados Advocate, 22 F e b . 1945.
Cf. Report, op. cit., p . 210.

218

LABOUR POLICIES IN TH3 WEST INDIES

children not attending school unless their economic position
were improved.
In 1949, an encuiry undertaken by the Government of
Trinidad into allegations of widespread employment of children
on sugar estates indicated that the situation was not as serious
as had been alleged. It was the custom of employers to
require birth certificates to show that an applicant for work
was over 12 years of age (the legal minimum in Trinidad),
but evidence showed that the certificate of a child over 12
was used to obtain employment by or on behalf of children
under the minimum age. I n a memorandum to the 1949
Trinidad Sugar Industry Commission, the Trinidad Trades
Union Council urged raising the minimum age of employment
to 15, the establishment of an active inspectorate and the
imposition of heavy penalties for breach of the law.
In the British territories the exceptions permitted by law
to the minimum ages set for the employment of children are
considerable, and such employment may, therefore, in many
cases not be illegal. In Puerto Eico, legal restrictions on child
labour are more stringent, but the practical difficulties of the
general social situation common to the West Indian territories
mean that in Puerto Eico the difference between law and
practice tends to be wider. Two particular factors are of
marked influence in this regard. In the first place—
. . . about 45 per cent, of Puerto Eican children cannot go to
school because of the lack of facilities and a great many others
are out of school because of the poverty of their parents and their
inability to buy clothes and school books ; a great proportion of
the children
of the island are without educational or recreational
facilities.1
Secondly, in some occupations, in particular agriculture,
industrial homework and street trades—traditionally child
labour spheres—inspection and law enforcement are rendered
extremely difficult by the character of the occupation itself.
Eeports of the Child Bureau of the Puerto Eican Department of Labor underline the human and economic implications
as well as the practical difficulties of enforcement of a high
standard of child labour legislation in the social context of the
West Indies. The report for the year 1947-1948, for example,
indicates that policy was directed not only to secure compliance
1
Investigation of Political, Economic and Social Conditions in Puerto Rico,
H. Res. 159, Part 19, of. cit., p. 1840.

WOMEN, CHILDREN AND YOUNG PERSONS

219

with the legislation stipulating that permits be obtained but
also to dissuade minors from working ; to persuade parents,
where financial circumstances permitted, to send the children
concerned to school in preference to allowing them to work
and through social work to assist the homes of child workers so
that such children were given the opportunity of attending school.
The extent to which child labour is employed in Puerto
Eico without the supervision afforded by the system of working permits and despite the existence of an inspection service
far in advance of other West Indian territories is illustrated
by the fact that, of 94 industrial accidents incurred by underage workers in 1947-1948, only in 21 instances were the workers
concerned covered by legal permits.
Information available in regard to Guadeloupe suggests
the existence of similar problems in the French West Indies.
The regulations relating to compulsory elementary education
and fixing the age in this respect at 14 result in preventing
the employment of young children in (agriculture) during
school hours. If children below the age of 14 are sometimes
to be found employed in agriculture as wage earners, this is
often due to the fact that there is no room in the schools.
Apprenticeship
The absence of adequate apprenticeship and vocational
training arrangements has frequently been cited as a major
problem in the West Indies. The Labour Adviser to the
British Secretary of State for the Colonies emphasised in 1939
the necessity of improved facilities both during school years
and the years immediately following for providing young
people in the British West Indies—
. . . not merely with abstract instruction or even technical training
but with a well-considered plan which will provide them with a
salutary discipline and true 1education, and a future to which they
can look forward hopefully.
The aim thus defined is one primarily within the sphere of
competence of educational authorities. The limited character
of legal provision in this regard, except in the French West
Indian Departments, is noted elsewhere.2 A summary of a
1
a

Labour Conditions in the West Indies, op. cit., p. 42.
Cf. below, Chapter VIH.

220

LABOtlE POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

1943 report on apprenticeship problems in Jamaica indicates
the significance of the whole question in the West Indies, even
though the report's recommendations have not so far been
fully implemented.
An Apprenticeship Committee was appointed by the
Governor of Jamaica in October 1942, its terms of reference
being to enquire into the wage rates, earnings, hours of labour
and working conditions generally of male and female apprentices and learners and other juveniles employed in industrial
and technical occupations, and to advise, after consultation
with representatives of employers and workers in the various
trades concerned, as to the possibility of establishing by
voluntary agreement or otherwise : (i) uniform conditions of
apprenticeship and learnership ; (ii) minimum or standard
rates of payment ; (iii) arrangements for the continued education and technical training of apprentices and learners.
The Committee interpreted its terms of reference as
entirely excluding agriculture ; it also decided that young
people in domestic service and learners in professional or
semi-professional occupations were not within its sphere of
enquiry, but that, where appropriate, comments and recommendations relevant to these groups might be embodied in
its report.
According to the Committee's findings, both the law and
the practice of apprenticeship in Jamaica are unsatisfactory.
The existing apprenticeship law x is described as being for all
practical purposes obsolete. The evidence examined by the
Committee revealed that the establishments in which reasonable efforts were made to maintain a systematic scheme of
apprenticeship employed less than 50 per cent, of the total
number of apprentices included in the scope of the enquiry.
Only in a few occupations and industries was there a regular
system of female apprenticeship. The records of the Labour
Department, which were made available for the Committee's
work, showed a very high ratio of apprentices to skilled
workers in some industries ; there were, for example, as many
apprentices as skilled workers among auto-mechanics, while
in cabinet-making, 166 apprentices and 183 skilled workers
were enumerated. Wage rates payable to apprentices in the
1
Law No. 3 of 1881 (Cap. 388 of 1939 Edition of Laws). A Bill was, however,
introduced in 1951 to replace existing apprenticeship legislation (cf. Chapter VIII
below).

WOMEN, CHILDREN AND YOUNG PERSONS

221

same trade and in the same year of training were widely
variable. The Committee strongly condemned the so-called
" volunteer system ", made possible by the over-stocked
labour market and used to exploit juvenile labour to the
detriment of skilled labour ; practices noted under this head
include unduly long probationary periods during which
apprentices are called upon to do a considerable amount of
work which should be done by fully qualified workmen, and
the employment of typists, stenographers, and trainees from
commercial schools who work for several months with no
pay or at very meagre rates with the doubtful prospect of
receiving permanent employment.
The unsatisfactory characteristics of the present situation,
particularly in the light of the high proportion of apprentices
to skilled workers, were summarised as—
(i) the lack, in most cases, of any system of training or
well-defined conditions of employment ;
(ii) lack of co-ordination with the training afforded by
technical and vocational schools. Little or no regard is paid
to the basic educational qualifications of apprentices or learners,
with the result that they are frequently not sufficiently
equipped to derive the maximum benefit from the practical
training ;
(iii) some employers merely exploit juveniles by utilising
so-called apprentices as a means of securing cheap labour ;
(iv) some parents and guardians are more concerned about
the prospect of immediately increasing the family income than
in a career for the boys and girls whom they seek to place
under apprenticeship or learnership ;
(v) owing to disadvantages outlined in (i) to (iv) above,
apprentices and learners make efforts to increase their earnings
by shifting from one employment to another or by opening up
businesses on their own in a small way before completing
training ;
(vi) as there is no regulation requiring the certification of
apprentice and master, these half-trained apprentices and
incompetent young workers who set themselves up as
" masters " are also at liberty to employ " apprentices ".
The recommendations with which the report concludes
propose fundamental changes in existing apprenticeship
15

222

LABOUfi POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

conditions. It is recommended that the existing apprenticeship law should be repealed and replaced by a new law drafted
in the light of present-day requirements and covering the
measures applicable generally to apprenticeship in all industries ; such a law should be framed in accordance with the
Committee's other recommendations. The new law should
include provision for the establishment of an Apprenticeship
Board in which would be vested responsibility for the administration of the law ; this Board should comprise three representatives of workers, three representatives of employers and one
representative from each of the following : the Education
Department, the Labour Department, and the Social Welfare
agencies. The determinations of the Board, after approval
by the Governor in Privy Council, should immediately acquire
the force of law. The Education Department, the Labour
Department, trade unions and employers should co-operate
to set up vocational guidance committees throughout the
island and to improve the arrangements governing the selection and recruitment of apprentices. The minimum commencing age for apprentices should be fifteen years. Probation
periods should be prescribed, after consultation with representatives of workers and employers in the trade concerned,
in regulations under the proposed apprenticeship law. After
similar consultation, the Board should be empowered to fix
the period of apprenticeship for each occupation. Particulars
of every apprenticeship and learnership entered into should
be registered with the Board.
The practice of premium
apprenticeship should be rigidly controlled by the Board to
prevent abuse. In collaboration with existing trade or minimum wage boards, or after consultation with the relevant
employers' and workers' representatives, the Apprenticeship
Board should assume the responsibility for determining
minimum wage rates and controlling hours of work ; the
regulations it frames should include provision for annual
holidays with pay, sick leave and study leave for apprentices.
Only employers duly approved by the Board should be
allowed to indenture apprentices. The ratio of apprentices
to skilled workers should be supervised with due regard to
the future needs and absorptive capacity of the respective
industries. Special Government welfare officers, attached to
the Labour Department, should be empowered to enter
premises where apprentices or learners are employed for the

WOMEN, CHILDREN AND YOUNG PERSONS

223

purpose of enquiring into and reporting on the general conditions under which the trainees are required to work.
The Committee also made detailed recommendations in
regard to systems of training and the provision of scholarships
for vocational and technical training. 1
With the introduction of the Apprenticeship Act of 1947 2
there was increased interest and activity in regard to apprenticeship in Puerto Eico. During the year July 1947-June 1948
there were the following developments. An Apprenticeship
Division was established in the Department of Labor to enforce
the Act and the Rules and Regulations adopted by the
Apprenticeship Council. It secured the services of a representative of the Federal Apprenticeship Bureau (of the United
States) to assist in its organisation. During the period nine
apprenticeship programmes for the training of apprentices in
the trades of cabinet-maker, photo engraver, terrazzo worker
and diamond worker were approved and registered ; training
work schedules of eight apprenticeable trades were worked
out ; a number of apprenticeship programmes previously
registered and supervised by the Federal Apprenticeship
Bureau were taken over and 288 apprenticeship agreements
were approved and registered.
Part of the Apprenticeship Division's duties is to promote
knowledge of and interest in the general apprenticeship
scheme with which the new Act is concerned.
The Division has a great task confronting it in the education of
both management and labor to make them apprenticeship minded.
The need for skilled labor in Puerto Eico is growing. An intensification of the apprenticeship program ; a co-ordination with the Federal
Wage and Hour Division and Insular Minimum Wage Board regarding the establishment of apprenticeship and other on-the-job programs ; the establishment of related instruction classes for apprentices
by the Insular Board for Vocational Education ; . . . a study of
the possibilities of establishing area and individual apprenticeship
programs in the building trades, needlework industry and in factories
owned by the Puerto Eico Industrial Development Company—
these are some of the steps which the Apprenticeship Division
of the Department of Labor can take to contribute its share
in the3 training of the skilled workers which Puerto Eico sorely
needs.
1

Report of the Apprenticeship Committee, December, 1943 (Kingston, 1944).
Cf. Chapter VIII, p. 33.
3
Annual Report of the Commissioner of Labor . . . for the Fiscal Year ended
30 June 1948 (San Juan, P.B., 1949).
2

224

LABOUR, POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

Institutional

Training

Under the aegis of the Caribbean Commission, some attention has been given to training questions on a regional basis
in the Caribbean area. As a result of a recommendation
made at the third session of the West Indian Conference,
a number of scholarships in industrial arts, tenable at the
Metropolitan Vocational School in Puerto Eico, were awarded
to students from other territories in the Caribbean area. This
programme has now been expanded and financial grants for
living expenses as well as free tuition are now available under
the United States Technical Co-operation Program at the
Metropolitan Vocational School. The subject of vocational
training is also to be a principal item on the agenda of
the fifth session of the West Indian Conference, to be held
in 1952.
Among the British territories in the area, measures have
been formulated for a common programme by the British
West Indian Development and Welfare Organisation which
has studied these problems on a common basis for the British
territories. Lack of progress in the development of technical
education in these territories has been attributed by the
Organisation to the following causes : (1) the strained economy
of the islands ; (2) the prohibitive cost of all major building
projects and the substantial expenditure required to provide
adequate machinery and equipment for technical institutes ;
(3) the difficulty of recruiting in England or elsewhere suitably
qualified staff which West Indian Governments can afford
to pay ; (4) the difficulty of selecting suitable local candidates
for technical training owing to the restricted opportunities
for training in the basic skills in the vast majority of the
schools ; and (5) the high recurrent costs required to maintain
a technical institute. I t has been proposed that these difficulties might be met by : (1) the development of a regional
centre for technical education at the new Technical Institute
in British Guiana ; (2) providing training for teachers who
show an interest in and aptitude for technical training by
means of a series of short courses ; (3) awarding a large
number of scholarships under the West Indies and Empire
Training Schemes to students and selected craftsmen who
wish to train as technical instructors ; and (4) by inviting
the British Council to send on tour to the West Indies good

WOMEN, CHILDREN AND YOUNG PERSONS

225

craftsmen and technicians capable of demonstrating the skill
required to produce work of high standards of craftsmanship.
The following information summarises the present position
in regard to vocational and pre-vocational training facilities
in the individual territories.
I n the Bahamas, prominence has been given by the Board
of Education, which is responsible for general education
administration in the territory, to agricultural training, and
this has become an outstanding feature of education in the
Bahamas. Sewing lessons for girl pupils are given in most
schools and two centres for cooking classes for girls and two
for woodwork classes for boys have been established in Nassau.
A technical school was opened in 1949 and a training school
in 1950. The Dundas Civic Centre, established in 1930, acts
as a training school for domestic servants. No apprenticeship
arrangements exist.
There are no technical schools in Barbados, but some
technical training is provided by the Board of Industrial
Training under the Apprenticeship Bursaries Act, 1928.
Under this arrangement, training is confined to placing
apprentices under master workmen who provide them with
a five-year course and present them for examination at the
end of each year. Between 1929 and 1948, 232 apprentices
completed their training in this way. Cooking classes, laundry
work and general housewifery are carried out in most of the
girls' schools, and in some of these schools senior girls are
given three-year courses in general domestic science. Evening
classes in commercial and certain technical subjects are
offered by the Barbados Evening Institute, which is under
the administration of the Department of Education.
The entire system of vocational education has been reviewed
by a local committee and recommendations have been submitted for a more advanced form of technical and vocational
education.
A Trades Centre for Youths in Georgetown, British Guiana,
established in 1931, gives young people of 16 to 18 years
of age an intensive course of training in woodwork, elementary
technical drawing and related subjects on the lines of a Junior
Technical School in England. The Carnegie Trade School
for Women, established in 1933, now provides two-year
courses in housecraft. I n September 1951, the British Guiana
Technical School was opened with workshops for wood and

226

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

metal work machinists, fitters, sheet and plate metal workers,
welders, motor mechanics, motor painters, cabinet-makers,
carpenters and joiners, blacksmiths and plumbers and electrical
installation work. A building school will also operate in
conjunction with the institute. It is estimated that 760 trade
trainees and 500 technical students can be enrolled annually
at the institute.
Industrial development, including the mechanisation of
the sugar industry, has led a number of private undertakings
to provide training facilities for their employees.
In British Honduras, apprentices are trained in the following Government Departments : Electricity and Telephone,
Public Works, Survey. At a handicrafts centre in Belize,
training is given in such local industries as carpentry, basketmaking and mat-making. The teaching of agriculture is
encouraged in rural schools by free grants of tools. A technical
high school has beea. completed, but up until a relatively
recent date, no equipment or plant had reached British
Honduras to permit its effective functioning to begin.
Considerable efforts have been made in Jamaica to
encourage rural vocational education as an alternative to
academic education in the post-primary stage. Four practical
training centres have been established in the past decade
for this purpose, three of which are for boys and one for
girls. The boys' centres concentrate on agriculture but also
give preliminary training in various trades. The girls' centre
is primarily devoted to home-making with emphasis on home
economics, dress-making and dairying. Opportunity is given
to outstanding students to proceed to higher standards of
agricultural or vocational education, for example, to the
Jamaica School of Agriculture or the Kingston Technical
School.
About 1,800 students attend the Kingston Technical
School, where day and evening instruction is given in engineering, building construction, domestic science and commercial
subjects. This school is now considered as quite inadequate
for the purposes and community it is designed to serve, but
through lack of funds it has not yet been possible either to
replace or to extend it.
~8o organised system of vocational training and apprenticeship so far exists in Antigua, Nevis, Montserrat and the
British Virgin Islands, but there is a limited vocational training

WOMEN, CHTLDBEN AND YOUNG PERSONS

227

scheme in St. Kitts, where the Basseterre Sugar Factory
employs 46 apprentices. Domestic science is taught in a
girls' high school in St. Kitts and in some of the elementary
schools in St. Kitts and ÏTevis. An agricultural course is
provided in the secondary school in the British "Virgin Islands.
In Trinidad, technical and commercial education is administered by a Board of Industrial Training, a statutory body
in receipt of Government grants. The Board maintains a
junior technical school (full time) at San Fernando and in
addition conducts theoretical and practical evening classes at
Port of Spain, San Fernando and on the oilfields. The Board
is also charged with the duty of approving apprenticeship
indentures and maintaining a register of apprentices. At
the end of 1949, 534 registered apprentices and approximately
2,500 other students were attending the Board's classes. There
are eight handicrafts centres for boys in Trinidad and five
in Tobago ; there are also 18 domestic science centres, of
which 13 are in Trinidad and five in Tobago. A number of
the oilfields' companies have established trade schools to
provide vocational training facilities for their own use. A
new Government technical school was expected to be opened
in 1951.
In Dominica and St. Lucia, no organised system of vocational training and apprenticeship exists. In St. Vincent, a
Manual Training Centre, the aim of which is to provide prevocational training to pupils between the ages of 11 and 15, is
attached to the senior department of the Georgetown Primary
School ; about 100 pupils each receive four hours instruction a week in woodwork, bookcraft and basket making. A
scheme for the training of agricultural apprentices was established by Government at the Camden Park Experimental
Station in 1946 ; training extends over a two-year period and
in the second year students are taught to operate holdings of
from two to five acres on a system of mixed farming. In
Grenada, there is a Vocational Training Evening Institute in
St. George's, with an enrolment of over 200 students, young
persons as well as adults. Classes include handicrafts, carpentry
and tailoring as well as a number of commercial subjects and
subjects in the field of home economics.
Practical courses in commerce and industry are provided
in the French West Indian Department of Guadeloupe at
(a) a technical training college at Pointe-à-Pitre, (b) handi-

228

LABOUB, POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

craft centres for girls attached to two girls' high schools, and
(c) through handicraft and technical training classes included
in supplementary courses for boys and girls under general
education arrangements. The duration of study for all courses
at the technical training college is three years. A system of
apprenticeship was established by legislation enacted in 1928
which makes provision for Government supervision of the
terms of apprenticeship contracts drawn up by the employers.
In French Guiana, the Training Centre for Apprentices
had, in 1947, an attendance of 110 student apprentices who
were being trained in woodwork, ironwork and electricity.
Certificates of technical proficiency are awarded on the completion of the regular course of instruction of three years.
Vocational and industrial training in Martinique comprises
(1) practical courses in commerce and industry ; (2) a school
of applied arts ; and (3) a school of agriculture. The industrial
course is designed for the training of skilled workers and
includes the following occupations : fitting of machinery,
blacksmithing, joinery and cabinet-making. Courses in electricity and refrigerating methods, inter alia, are planned. The
school of applied arts is intended to train master craftsmen
in such subjects as cabinet-making, sculpture, wood-turning,
bookbinding, ceramics and needlework. The school of agriculture, established in 1940, is devoted to the training of
technicians for farm management.
In the Netherlands Antilles, the oil and petroleum
companies at Curaçao and Aruba provide vocational training
facilities and apprenticeship indentures of three or four years'
duration for employees or prospective employees required for
their operations. A handicraft school and two Eoman Catholic
technical schools train pupils as carpenters, furniture makers,
printers, tailors, mechanics, electricians and agriculturists.
I n Surinam, a technical school provides facilities for the
training of some 70 students, mainly as blacksmiths and in
engineering. An agricultural school has recently been established with a practical bias, with emphasis on mechanical
agriculture and including instruction in animal husbandry.
Courses in domestic science are provided in two schools which
specialise in this subject.
Vocational education arrangements in Puerto Bico are
among the most advanced to be found in non-metropolitan
territories. The vocational education programme operates in

WOMEN, CHILDREN AND YOUNG PERSONS

229

five principal fields : vocational agriculture, home economics,
trades and industry, distributive occupations and occupational
information and guidance.
Vocational training in agriculture functions at three levels :
instruction and farm practice in all-day classes ; adult classes
and young-farmer classes; and teacher training activities
designed to prepare individuals for teaching vocational agriculture as well as to increase the professional efficiency of
teachers in service. Between 1931 and 1950, over 120,000
students have benefited from these courses.
Vocational education in the field of home economics is
provided largely through the schools, though provision is
made as well for out-of-school groups and for extension of
the programme into the homes of the community through
home project and club work. Between 1932 and 1949, some
162,000 girls in schools received training in home economics
as well as 32,000 adults through all-day, part-time or evening
classes.
The existing programme for trades and industry includes
seven vocational trade schools with an enrolment of some
1,150 students in ten different trades. Active steps are being
taken to expand facilities and at the end of the present sixyear plan of development, it is hoped to provide for the needs
of an annual enrolment of 6,000. Between 1931 and 1950,
about 41,000 students received their training in these schools.
Eeference has been made above to the utilisation of the
Puerto Eico Metropolitan Vocational School, which is claimed
to be the largest of its kind in the world, to provide industrial
training facilities for trainees from other parts of the Caribbean
area. This school, which was formerly the School of Industrial
Arts of the University of Puerto Eico, is administered now
by the Department of Education. In October 1950, total
enrolment was over 2,400 students, for whom 15 courses were
provided.
Training for the distributive trades is provided at the
secondary school level in 34 centres and for the improvements
of the skills of adults already in employment in 14 centres ;
in 1950, nearly 3,000 students were enrolled in the first group
of centres and approximately the same number in the second.
The occupational information and guidance service is
designed primarily to aid administrators and teachers to assist
pupils to adjust themselves through counselling. In this field,

230

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

there is close collaboration with the Government Departments concerned as well as private enterprise.
Vocational education at the university level is provided
by the College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts of the
University of Puerto Rico.
In the United States Virgin Islands, the St. Thomas Evening School provides short-term courses in commercial subjects,
home economics and related subjects, arts and crafts, and
woodworking. At the Charlotte Amalie High School, a vocational education programme has been provided offering courses
in electricity, woodworking, mechanical drawing and metalworking for boys and home economics for girls. It is expected
that vocational education facilities in this territory will be
considerably expanded in the near future since the United
States Vocational Education Act of 1946 has recently been
extended to the Virgin Islands and will provide considerable
additional financial resources for this purpose.
WOMEN

Prohibited

Employments

Provision for the prohibition of the employment of women
on night work in industry exists in the legislation of Barbados,
Jamaica, the Leeward Islands, Trinidad and Tobago, the
Windward Islands, British Guiana, British Honduras, Puerto
Rico and the Departments of Martinique, Guadeloupe and
Guiana. The exceptions allowed conform with general advanced
practice. The fact that the employment of women underground
is prohibited only in British Guiana, British Honduras and the
French West Indian Departments is to be explained by the
apparent absence in practice of such employment elsewhere.
A general restriction is set in Puerto Rico on the hours of
employment of women. In the French West Indies, in addition
to provision for the prohibition of night work and underground
work, legislative protection for women workers extends to
special arrangements in regard to prospective mothers, nursing
mothers and the general health and safety of women in
employment, along the lines of the legislation of metropolitan
France in this respect.
In regard to the Netherlands territories, where there is
no legislation regulating the employment of women under-

WOMEN, CHILDEEN AND YOUNG PEESONS

231

ground or at night, the Netherlands Government has stated
in its reports on the application of international labour
Conventions to these territories that legislation is superfluous
in view of the fact that no such employment exists.
Maternity Protection
Maternity protection provision is in force only in Puerto
Eico and the Netherlands Antilles, although permissive
legislation empowering the competent authority to issue
regulations dealing with this question has been enacted in
St. Lucia and Jamaica and maternity provision will be
part of the new social security scheme of the French West
Indies.
In Puerto Eico, the number of maternity benefit claims
made through the Women's Bureau of the Department of
Labor rose from 18 in 1943-1944 to 238 in 1947-1948. The Bureau,
which is responsible for the administration of the law, has
stated the following to be among its major difficulties : ignorance of the law on the part of employers and workers ; inadequate medical services ; frequent discharge and often
discrimination against pregnant women ; and deficiencies in
the law.
Official opinion in Puerto Eico considers that the law
might be improved along the following lines. Maternity leave
of absence should be for not less than six weeks before and
two months after delivery ; the present provision is for four
weeks' leave before and four weeks' leave after. Additional
leave of absence up to a total of three months without pay
should be permissible upon presentation of a doctor's certificate ; the additional period under present provisions is limited
to four weeks. Unused sick leaves with pay should be accumulated and remuneration due should be payable at the beginning
of leave.
Extent of Employment
A decision of the Supreme Court of Puerto Eico has laid
down that the law is equally applicable to unmarried and
married mothers.
The employment of women in the British territories follows
well-defined general patterns.
The largest wage-earning
groups are usually to be found engaged in domestic service

232

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

and agricultural work, but women participate in almost all
forms of employment, including heavy work—
Women in the (British) West Indies are employed on .
manual labour which would often seem to the onlooker unsuitable
for women, besides demanding more than their physical strength
justifies. For example, when unloading coal and sand barges,
women are required to carry very heavy weights ; this form of work
is particularly undesirable for people who are in a constant condition of child-bearing. A load of sand, which is carried in a basket
from the hold of a ship to the dock on the head of a woman,
may
weigh as much as 72 lb. A load of coal may weigh 50 lb. 1
Women are also employed extensively in the distributive
trades, in road-building and in industrial undertakings where
such exist. They also furnish a substantial proportion of the
teaching staffs of primary schools. Certain operations in
agriculture are customarily recognised as the almost exclusive
province of women, for example, weeding in the sugar industry
and the weeding and supplying 2 of cotton.
Statistical evidence in regard to Jamaica enables a more
detailed analysis to be offered of the extent of the employment
of women in that territory. At the time of the 1943 census,
2,860 women were classified as employers, 52,891 as selfemployed and 101,817 as wage earners ; these figures represent
approximately 0.6 per cent., 11 per cent, and 21 per cent, of
all females aged 10 years and over. The corresponding figures
for men were 4 per cent., 25 per cent, and 41 per cent.
The following tables 3 further clarify the situation :
WOMEN G A I N F U L L Y O C C U P I E D , JAMAICA,
SELECTED INDUSTRIES

Industry

Agriculture
. . . .
Personal service . .
Manufacturing . . .
Trade
Construction . . . .
Public administration
Professional services

1943 :

Percentage
Number gainfully
of gainfully
employed
employed in entire
industry
45,102
68,462
25,776
22,825
3,576
2,099
6,233

20
87
43
57
13
19
63

West India Royal Commission : Report, op. cit., p. 219.
Replanting where the first planting has b e e n unproductive.
8
Prepared by the International Labour Office on the basis of 1943 census
returns. Percentages rounded.
2

WOMEN, CHILDREN AND YOUNG PERSONS

233

JAMAICA : COMPARATIVE REGULARITY OF EMPLOYMENT
OP MALE AND FEMALE WAGE EARNERS
Number of
weeks worked
0
1- 9
10-19
20-29
30-39
40-49
50-52

. . . .
.
.
.
.
.
.

Number of male
wage earners

Percentage of Number of female Percentage of
wage earners
wage earners
wage earners

4,926
9,151
25,148
40,683
26,663
19,496
51,014

3,505
7,651
15,958
20,521
12,476
8,402
32,726

3.0
5.0
14.5
23.0
15.0
11.0
29.5

3
8
16
20
12
8
33

The concentration of employed women in personal service
and agriculture is clearly illustrated ; domestic service comprehends the majority of those in the former category, and,
significantly, women constitute one fifth of those gainfully
employed in the agricultural industry. Of the 25,776 women
classified under the manufacturing industry, some 19,500 are
employed on textile, wood and paper products, which suggests
that needlework accounts for a substantial proportion.

EMPLOYMENT STATUS OF PUERTO RICAN POPULATION, 1 9 4 0
Male

Total population
Persons 14 years of age and over .
In labor force
Not in labor force
In institutions
Other and not reported . . .
In the labor force
Employed (except on public
emergency work)
Employed on public emergency
work
Seeking work
Experienced workers . . . .
New workers
Employed (except on public emergency work)
Wage or salary workers . . . .
Employers and own - account
workers
Unpaid family workers . . . .
1

Census data.

Female

Number

Per cent.

Number

Per cent.

938,280
576,409
457,630
118,779
6,361
112,418
457,630

100.0
79.4
20.6
1.1
19.5
100.0

930,957
578,066
144,360
433,706
2,603
431,103
144,360

100.0
25.0
75.0
0.5
74.5
100.0

383,914

83.9

128,300

88.9

23,253
50,463
35,928
14,537

5.1
11.0
7.8
3.2

847
15,213
10,903
4,310

0.6
10.5
7.6
3.0

383,914
284,896

100.0
74.2

128,300
83,519

100.0
65.1

83,557
15,461

21.8
4.0

42,189
2,592

32.9
2.0

—

234

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

In small numbers women are occupied even in fishing and
forestry and more women than men are engaged in quarrying.
There are only relatively insignificant differences in the overall picture of the regularity of employment for women as
compared with men.
The percentage of women in Puerto Eico classified as
gainfully occupied at the time of the 1940 census is rather
less than in Jamaica : 25 per cent, as compared with some
33 per cent. The Jamaican classification is the percentage of
females over 10 and the Puerto Eican classification that of
females over 14. The accompanying tables based on 1940
census returns provide further relevant data.
Statistical evidence cited elsewhere in this study provides
additional information of interest. 1 In 1939, of some 139,200
females classified as experienced persons in the labour force,
approximately 37,000 were domestic service workers, 69,800
operatives and kindred workers, 9,000 clerical and sales
R E G I S T R A N T S I N P U E R T O RICO U N E M P L O Y M E N T S U R V E Y
B Y I N D U S T R Y OF USUAL OCCUPATION AND S E X
Begistrations from, 15 July io 15 August
1943
Male

Total
Agriculture — total.
Sugar
CoSee
Tobacco
Other
Construction — total
Building
Road
Manufacturing — total .
Needlework — factory
Needlework — home .
Rum
Cigar
Other
Wholesale and retail t r a d e . .
Domestic service
Government service
Other industries and services 1
No industry 2

155,711
95,988
50,545
5,537
4,088
35,818
43,094
10,955
32,139
1,471

—
—

65
395
1,011
4,309

—

1,063
4,369
5,417

Female

Females
as percentage
of t o t a l

50,660
1,566
260
85
768
453

24.5
1.6
0.5
1.5
15.8
1.2

—
—
—

19,390
9,025
8,139

92.9
100.0
100.0

—

1,349
877
788
9,490
1,264
1,488
16,674

—

77.4
46.5
15.5
100.0
54.3
25.4
75.5

Source : Report on Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands for the Federal Works Administrator (Washington, 1944), pp. 77-78.1
2
Miscellaneous small industries.
Mostly registrants in lower age groups with no
work experience except work relief.
1

Cf. Chapter I I I above.

WOMEN, CHILDREN AND YOUNG PERSONS

235

workers and 8,000 professional and semi-professional workers.
A major proportion of " operatives and kindred workers " were
probably engaged in the needlework industry, since over 90
per cent, of an estimated 45,000 workers in this industry are
women. About 5 per cent, of all experienced female workers
had been without employment in 1939, 4 per cent, had been
employed for under three months, 10 per cent, three to five
months, 17 per cent, six to eight months, 14 per cent, nine to
eleven months and 50 per cent, twelve months. On the whole,
this situation reflects closely the general employment situation.
Wage Differentials
The Eoyal Commission recommended in definite terms
that there should be greater parity of remuneration as between
men and women for work of equal value in the British areas :
Generally, throughout the (British) West Indies, although the
level of pay for men is low, an even lower standard is adopted for
women, who often receive less than a living wage. The argument
that man is the head of the household and is responsible for the
financial upkeep of the family has less force in the West Indies,
where promiscuity and illegitimacy are1so prevalent and the woman
so often is the supporter of the home.
The data provided in Chapter V showed clearly the marked
differentials that exist. Apart from this being the general
practice where no regulation of wages exists, most statutory
minimum wage orders prescribe different minimum rates for
men and women, one noteworthy example being the group of
minimum wage orders covering agricultural workers in the
Windward Islands of Dominica, Grenada, St. Lucia and St.
Vincent ; again, similar differentiation is to be found in the
terms of a number of collective agreements, for example those
between the Bustamante Industrial Trade Union and the
Sugar Manufacturers' Association of Jamaica. Nevertheless,
it cannot be assumed that the work in regard to which
differential rates of remuneration are prescribed represents
work of equal value even in the majority of cases. One general
example may indicate the difficulties of interpretation involved.
The spheres of work of men and women in the field phase of
the sugar industry are by custom fairly sharply demarcated,
women usually being assigned the lighter work. When differ1

Report, op. cit., p . 220.

236

LABOUB POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

ing minimum rates oí pay are fixed by administrative order,
it is therefore difficult to determine whether the principle of
non-discrimination is affected.
In the American territories the situation is substantially
similar, even if there are a number of superficial differences. I t
is true that minimum wage rates fixed under federal and
insular legislation make no discrimination between rates for
men and for women as such. But rates fixed for industries
in which women constitute the major part of the labour force
employed tend to be among the lowest rates fixed and the
over-all picture reveals unquestionable differences in wage
rates and earnings.
Minimum wage rates prescribed under the Federal Fair
Labor Standards Act for Puerto Eico and the Virgin Islands,
the Puerto Eican Minimum Wage Act and the St. ThomasSt. John Minimum Wage Ordinance are fixed in cents per
hour for specific occupations, sectors of occupations, or groups
of occupations and do not vary with the sex of the category
of worker covered ; it is even doubtful whether the terms of
the legislation cited would permit such variation. The St.
Thomas-St. John Ordinance, however, does not cover domestic
employment in private homes, and a substantial proportion
of employed women are therefore excluded. In Puerto Eico,
federal minimum wage determinations have set rates for the
needlework industry ranging from 15 to 24 cents an hour
according to the operation involved. No rates are lower, and
the only other occupations in which a 15 cent minimum
obtains are occupations in which, as in the needlework industry,
the vast majority of employees are women—vegetable packing, handicrafts, hand sewing operations in the leather goods
industry and the leaf tobacco industry. The argument might
be adduced that the minimum is fixed in the light of the
economic position of these industries. But while external
competition may explain the level of wage rates, insular conditions, in particular the disadvantages with which women
seeking employment are faced, constitute the primary explanation for the concentration of women in ill-paid industries.
Differences in aptitude are very often assumed a priori, resulting in unnecessarily narrow employment opportunities for
women.
A general comparison of men's and women's earnings in
Puerto Eico has been made in Chapter V but a few further

WOMEN, CHILDREN AND YOUNG PERSONS

237

indications are of special interest in the present context. A
1941 study of the incomes of some 750 representative wage
earners' families working in the sugar industry reveals that the
male workers in the agricultural phase of the industry earned
on the average $1.13 a day and $4.54 a week ; female workers
earned 38 cents a day and $1.67 a week. Male factory workers
earned $2.16 a day and $12.75 weekly; among employed women
belonging to families the heads of which were engaged in
sugar factories, the highest earnings, with the exception of
one Government employee, were 69 cents a day and $2.76
weekly. " But there are many women in domestic service
and in field work in tobacco who earned only 25 cents a day—
between 50 cents and $1.25 a week." 1 On the other hand, a
survey by the Wage and Hour Division of the United States
Department of Labor in 1941 revealed that females in the leaf
tobacco industry earned an average of 12.3 cents an hour
and males 13.3 cents an hour. The table overleaf enables
further comparison to be made.
Little information is available in regard to the French
West Indies. In Guadeloupe, by Order of the Prefect of
16 March 1948, equafity of wages was established as between
men and women in that Department.
The problem of women engaged in industrial homework
requires special mention in view of the importance of this
form of employment in Puerto Eico. Estimates as to the
number of women so engaged in 1948 in Puerto Eico ranged
from 50,000 to 80,000 ; a comparison of the bases on which the
varying estimates were made suggests that the latter figure
is a fair estimate of the total number who perform some work
of this kind, whether regularly or intermittently and whether
registered or not as required by local legislation.
Eegulation is of the essence of the problem ; law enforcement in industries organised on the homework pattern is
generally difficult. The low wage levels and unsatisfactory
conditions of work which official reports state exist in wide
sectors of Puerto Eico homework industry are directly related
to the difficulties of enforcement of better labour standards.
The prevalence of homework in Puerto Eico is to be
explained in the following terms. Both unemployment and
underemployment are endemic in Puerto Eico. Homework
permits a woman to supplement the family income while
1

The Sugar Cane Industry in Puerto Bieo, op. cit., pp. 111-112.
16

fco
OS
00

NUMBER OP ESTABLISHMENTS SURVEYED, NUMBER OP WORKERS, AND HOURLY AND WEEKLY WAGE RATES OP
WAGE EARNERS EMPLOYED IN AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES IN PUERTO RICO, BY SEX : 1 9 4 3 - 1 9 4 4
Male

Total
Industry

Coffee

Number
ol units
surveyed

1,297
537
89
327
17
18
220
52
35
2

Number
oí workers
27,318
22,709
484
2,347
217
116
795
438
196
16

Earnings
Weekly

Hourly

6.65 »
7.88
4.37
3.82
5.71
4.57
5.02
7.87
6.80
8.98

0.168 !
0.207
0.097
0.097
0.155
0.127
0.125
0.161
0.149
0.206

Number
oí workers
27,020
22,543
440
2,294
217
104
772
438
196
16

Earnings
Weekly
S
7.12 !
7.89
4.51
3.84
5.71
5.01
5.06
7.87
6.80
8.98

Female

Hourly

0.1711
0.210
0.101
0.097
0.150
0.130
0.130
0.160
0.150
0.210

Number
of workers
298
166
44
53

—

Earnings
Weekly
S
3.59»
6.58
2.90
2.99

—

Hourly
0.095 1
0.171
0.064
0.087

—

12
23

2.00
3.68

0.091
0.085

—
•—
—

—
—

Source : Annual Report of the Department of Labor to the Governor of Puerto Rico for the Fiscal Year 1943-1944 (San Juan, P.R.), p. 60.
1
Arithmetic average weighted according to proportionate employment as reported by the 1940 population census.

It)

s
sa

WOMEN, CHTLDBEN AND YOUNG PERSONS

239

carrying out her household duties. There is a tendency to
large families in Puerto Eico and the level of earnings is not
high. Homework has shifted from the United States mainland
to Puerto Eico because of its stricter regulation in the former
area and the fact that there is a considerable differential in
the minimum wages payable, under the terms of the Fair
Labor Standards Act, as between the two areas.
According to the 1947-1948 Annual Eeport of the Commission
of Labor, the aim of policy is not the abolition of all homework,
but regulation to ensure working conditions and wages
somewhat comparable to those prevalent in factories.
The problems surveyed in this chapter raise wide social
issues which transcend the limited sphere of labour policy.
Nevertheless, on a few specific issues, standards in regard to
the employment of women, children and young persons can
be appraised primarily from the labour angle.
In the West Indies, the most striking feature of the existing
position is the wide range of variation of such standards. Thus,
maternity protection arrangements exist only in a few territories ; provision in regard to apprenticeship is of an advanced
character in some areas, and lacking in others ; the minimum
ages prescribed for entry into various forms of employment
vary widely ; while the special problems of the domestic
worker are everywhere recognised, only in a few areas has any
specific regulation been effected. In these and in other respects,
a greater degree of uniformity might be expected in a region
in which the basic patterns of society do not vary widely.
The standards already achieved by some territories may be
regarded as indicative of • a common level which may be
attained in the early future.

OHAPTEE YII

SOCIAL SECURITY AND RELATED PROVISIONS

Income security may be achieved by two methods, social
insurance and social assistance, which may be applied in
conjunction, but their principles are somewhat different and
their practicability depends on different circumstances.
According to the social insurance method, the right to
benefit and the amount of benefit are conditional on the
regular payment of contributions. The reciprocity established
between the individual and the community promotes sound
citizenship and makes for economic realism. The method calls
for the efficient collection of periodical contributions and the
keeping of records for every insured person. The collection
of contributions in respect of employees is not difficult to effect
through the employer, at least where he is of a certain standing.
On the other hand, to enforce the payment of contributions
upon peasants or upon other independent workers of scanty.
means has usually been regarded as impracticable. It has,
nevertheless, been done satisfactorily in a few countries, and it
is envisaged in several national plans now under consideration.
According to the social assistance method, the amount of
benefit is conditional on insufficiency of means and the cost
is defrayed from general taxation ; the right to benefit is
conditional on a qualifying period of residence, which may be
coupled with the requirement of citizenship. Contact between
the administrative authority and the beneficiary first occurs
when the claim is made. The chief administrative function
is the investigation of the claimant's means and other relevant
circumstances. The method has the merits of making benefits
immediately available to individuals in need, whether employees or the self-employed, or unoccupied.
Income security provisions are extremely limited in the
West Indies, though notable progress has recently been made.
At the present time, social insurance arrangements exist only

SOCIAL SECURITY AND BELATED PROVISIONS

241

in the three French Overseas Departments ; workmen's compensation for industrial accidents and diseases, which, with
various limitations, is widespread, has evolved rather as an
employment right based on the principle of employers' liability ; in one territory, sickness compensation is organised
on a similar basis ; social assistance, in the form of unemployment assistance, old-age pensions and maternity protection,
exists in a few territories. In Puerto Rico, social assistance
is also made available under the Federal Social Security Act.
Some measures of general public assistance should also be
taken into account if only as indicative of existing needs. That
these needs, which comprehensive security schemes are designed
to cover, exist in the West Indies as elsewhere does not require
demonstration. It is generally recognised, however, that " the
framing of a satisfactory scheme of social security depends
on the solution of other problems of economic and social
organisation ".x The relation between, on the one hand, the
development, research and planning policies now being pursued
in the West Indies and, on the other, the possibilities of the
development of adequate income security systems is therefore
close. The successful outcome of the former would create a
new situation in which the latter might well become immediately practicable. In the past, social and economic conditions
generally, and, in particular, the poverty of the communities
concerned, intermittent employment, underdevelopment of
resources, low standards of living, defects of the general
administrative machinery and particular administrative costs
have all militated against the adoption of income security
provisions. This relation between development and income
security programmes was thus outlined in the Puerto Rico
Planning Board's 1944 Development Plan 2 :
Though the basic purpose of a development plan for the resources
of any community is the ultimate welfare of all its members, no
development plan can expect to cover each individual in every group
within it. Total production by the group may be increased as planned, resulting income may be fairly distributed among the community's members in direct remuneration for their efforts, and income
may also be redistributed through the various special services such as
health, sanitation, education, housing, and recreation as outlined
above. Yet, though all of these programs may be fully realised, there
will still remain some members of the community who will be " Left
1
Social Insurance and Allied Services, Report by Sir William BEVEBIDGB (London, H.M. Stationery Office, 1942), Cmd. 6040, p. 15.
2
Op. cit., pp. 60-61.

242

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

out ". There will be some who will not have enough food, clothing,
and shelter. These people may be categorised as those who are
temporarily unemployed, aged, dependent because of their youth,
sick or disabled (but not covered by other health programs), or the
victims of so-called " acts of God ". Others may not be so classified ;
they may simply be human beings who, for any reason, are in hunger
or want . . .
Puerto Eico's social-welfare programs have in the past been based
almost exclusively on institutional care. Except for a brief period
in the 'thirties when federal funds were available, Puerto Eico
has not had either an insular or local direct relief program, and its
participation under the Social Security Act has been limited . . .
Nevertheless, an expansion of its social security programs should be
outlined, since, even with the generally increased productivity which
the development plan attempts to provide, there will still be individuals in need. Specifically, the expansion should eventually
embrace institutional programs and measures for the temporarily
unemployed, the aged, dependent children, the sick, and the disabled.
No comprehensive statement on British colonial policy in
this regard has recently been made. In reply to a question
in the British House of Commons on 2 August 1944, however,
the Secretary of State for the Colonies said :
A considerable number of colonial Governments are already
examining the possibilities of establishing social insurance Bchemes
of one type or another. I propose shortly to address all colonial
Governments on the subject and to invite them to consider the
matter further in the light of my views on the several possibilities ofx
Governmental action in different types of colonial conditions.
Eecent reports submitted by the United Kingdom Government on the application of ratified social security international
labour Conventions to British territories state that, in the
present stage of social and industrial development of these
territories, such application is considered, as a general rule,
to be impracticable.
The British West Indian Development and Welfare Organi- sation has opposed the utilisation of Development and Welfare
funds for underwriting social assistance measures which would
involve recurrent expenditure for an indefinite period, for
example, old-age pensions. Welfare grants have, however,
been made for such purposes as the provision of buildings for
school meals and for cottage almshouses, involving capital
non-recurrent expenditure. 2
The trend of American federal policy in regard to the
social security problems of American Caribbean territories is
1
3

Parliamentary Debates, House of Commons, London, 2 Aug. 1944.
Of. Development and Welfare in the West Indies, 1940-1942, op. cit., pp. 60-61.

SOCIAL SECURITY AND RELATED PROVISIONS

243

perhaps best indicated by noting the extent to which the provisions of the Federal Social Security Act have been or are planned
to be made applicable to Puerto Eico and the Virgin Islands.
Until 1951, only Title V (Child and Maternal Health) and
Title VI (Welfare and Public Health) of the Act applied to
Puerto Eico, and only Title V had been extended to the Virgin
Islands. The possibility of extending this coverage had been
under consideration for some time. Legislation had been under
consideration by Congress by which the following further provisions would be extended to Puerto Eico—Title I (Old Age
Assistance), Title IV (Aid to Dependent Children) and Title X
(Aid to the Needy Blind)—and all provisions made applicable
to Puerto Eico would be extended to the Virgin Islands.
The sections of the Federal Act which relate to old-age and
survivors' benefits, on a contributory basis, have now been
extended to Puerto Eico, and the necessary administrative
machinery for their application is now being established.
In the French Overseas Departments of Martinique, Guadeloupe and Guiana, the social security arrangements of metropolitan France have in principle been adopted, with certain
modifications. The method and tempo of practical application
are still being worked out at the time of writing ; in May
1949, a mission of enquiry was sent to the territories by the
metropolitan National Assembly to examine conditions and
its report is under consideration.
The increased tempo of adoption of social* legislation in the
Netherlands territories has found expression in the revised
Netherlands Antilles Sickness Eegulations of 1946, which
make provision for protecting the worker from loss of earning
power through illness on the same pattern as workmen's
compensation. The entire field of social security arrangements
for the Netherlands Antilles has also recently been studied in
a report which is summarised later in this chapter.
FRENCH

TERRITORIES

Decree No. 47.2032 of 17 October 1947 and Decree No.
48.603 of 30 March 1948 extended to the Departments of
Martinique, Guadeloupe and Guiana, with certain qualifications, the provisions of the legislation of metropolitan
France 1 concerning the organisation of social security.
1

Order No. 45.2260 of 4 Oct. 1945.

244

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

Under the social security scheme to be applied to these
Departments benefits will he payable in regard to maternity,
sickness, death, disablement, old age, industrial accident and
occupational disease. Agricultural workers will be included
within the coverage of these provisions. The administrative
machinery set up is made responsible as well for the payment
of family allowances. Its further duties will include promotion
of health measures and of the prevention of industrial accident
and occupational disease.
Contributions towards the risks covered by the social
security scheme, with the exception of family allowances,
industrial accident and occupational disease, will be payable
at the rate of 16 per cent, of earnings ; the worker is to pay
6 per cent., which is deducted from his wages, and the employer
is to make a contribution of 10 per. cent. Contributions in
respect of industrial accident, occupational disease and family
allowances are due from the employer but not from the worker.
Special arrangements and rates apply to the home worker
and the independent worker.
General social security funds are to be established in virtue
of this legislation in each of the three Departments. They
are administered by special boards which, as a provisional
measure and until the extension to the Departments of the
relevant metropolitan legislation, are to be composed of representatives of the different categories of employers and workers
concerned, nominated by the most representative organisations
for the categories affected and in proportion to the respective
importance of the said organisations. The number of places
on such boards to be attributed to the different organisations
is to be determined by the Director of Social Security of the
Department. The board may co-opt two practitioners. Four
separate sections of each fund are to be established concerned
respectively with the questions of : (a) sickness, maternity,
death and disablement ; (b) old age ; (c) industrial accidents
and occupational disease ; and (d) family allowances.
Provision is also made for supervision machinery. A General
Social Security Directorate is established in Martinique with
administrative responsibility for all three Departments in
respect of the application of all social security législation. Subordinate to the Directorate, a Social Security Inspection Service
is established, which is to consist of at least one principal
inspector or one inspector for each oí the Departments.

SOCIAL SECURITY AND BELATED PROVISIONS

245

The legislation summarised above deals essentially with
the framework of the social security system to be established
in the French West Indian Departments. The system itself
is not yet in full application. Decree íío. 48.603 of 30 March
1948 provided that, as a temporary measure, and so long as
old-age insurance was the only part of the social security
system which was being operated as such, contributions
would be at the rate of 5 per cent, for the employer and 4 per
cent, for the worker. These rates would be increased progressively as later legislation increased the range of application of
the social security arrangements. Decree No. 48.593 of 30
March 1948 made detailed provision in regard to the payment
of old-age allowances for wage earners and old-age and disablement pensions, on the basis of the legislation of metropolitan France, with modifications relating principally to
rates of benefits. 1
The task of adapting a social security system designed
for an industriabsed Western country to the differing social
needs and organisation of a West Indian community is clearly
a difficult one. The 1949 mission of enquiry of the National
Assembly, to which reference has been made above, indicated
a number of the problems involved in this adaptation.
I t was considered essential that social security arrangements
should be introduced in practice in Martinique and Guadeloupe, b u t such arrangements would have to differ considerably
from those of metropolitan France, in view of the different
social background. In particular, the metropolitan health
scheme depended on medical services and facilities not to be
found in the Overseas Departments and the metropolitan
family allowances system was related to the metropolitan
demographic position and family pattern which were intrinsically different from those of Martinique and Guadeloupe.
The mission in its report therefore proposed, inter alia, that
health insurance funds should be largely devoted in the first
place to establishing adequate medical facilities and that
a substantial proportion of family allowances should be paid
in kind rather than in cash. A general conclusion of the report
was that appropriate social security arrangements could be
instituted only if a substantial proportion of the financial
burden were borne by metropolitan France, in view of the low
level of local resources.
1

Order No. 45.170 of 2 F e b . 1945.

246

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

More limited proposals were made in regard to Guiana.
It was considered that the health insurance part of the system
should be introduced, perhaps covering independent workers
as well as wage earners. The scheme proper might be limited
to the two centres of Cayenne and Saint Laurent ; elsewhere,
free medical care might be provided. The family allowances
system should be reviewed. Above all, the view was emphasised
that local conditions rather than the metropolitan system
should determine policy.
In regard to those aspects of social security arrangements
which are not yet covered in practice by the new system, it
may be sufficient to note that, in all three Departments,
workmen's compensation and family allowances legislation is
of long standing but is at present in course of being integrated
into the social security scheme as a whole on the basis of the
relevant French metropolitan legislation.
A Decree of 19 July 1925 extended to Martinique, Guadeloupe and Guiana the relevant legislation of metropolitan
France in regard to compensation for industrial accidents.
Legislation in regard to family allowances also followed
closely the principles laid down in French legislation. Provision
in regard to maternity leave also existed in the legislation
of the three Departments well before the outbreak of the
second world war. Under the arrangements now being made,
maternity provision will be made under the terms of general
social insurance legislation. 1
BRITISH, UNITED STATES AND NETHERLANDS TERRITORIES

Workmen's

Compensation

Workmen's compensation legislation exists in all the
British territories studied in the present report except Bermuda
and has for some time been under consideration in that
territory. A comprehensive Workmen's Accident Compensation
Act is in force in Puerto Eico, and provision is also made
in the legislation of the Virgin Islands of the United States.
Legislation in this regard also exists in the Netherlands
Antilles and Surinam.
The general recommendations made by Major Orde Browne
in regard to workmen's compensation laws in the British
1

See Chapter V I I I below.

SOCIAL SECURITY AND BELATED PROVISIONS

247

dependencies were (a) that such laws should be amended,
where necessary, to cover agricultural workers, and (b) that
the waiting period after which compensation would become
payable should be reduced from ten to three days. 1 The
West India Boyal Commission, 1938-1939 recommended :
. . . that West Indian Governments should consider carefully the
possibility of adopting schemes of workmen's compensation based
on the system in operation in Ontario since 1915 and subsequently
adopted in other Canadian provinces. This is compulsory and covers
manual and non-manual workers in public and private undertakings.
Exclusive administrative authority is vested in a board of three
members nominated by Government. The arrangement may be one
of collective liability under which the contributions of all employers,
assessed by the board, are paid into an accident fund ; or of individual
liability, in which case the employer concerned may be required to
deposit adequate security with the board, or to insure his liability.
The advantages of this system are speed and certainty in operation,
the elimination of litigation with its consequences of delay and
expense and the existence of an authority (the board) which is well
placed to undertake preventive work and propaganda. Whether one
board be set up for the West Indies, or boards for individual
colonies,
or groups of colonies, is a matter for consideration.2
The Colonial Office requested West Indian Governors to
examine this recommendation in consultation with the Comptroller for West Indian Development and Welfare.
The
conclusions reached were unfavourable. It was considered
that the Ontario law was too advanced in character for
conditions obtaining in the large majority of the West Indian
colonies and was unsuitable on the further ground that it
specifically excluded from its scope the farming industry
and also domestic servants. The Labour Officers' Conference,
1942, considered that agricultural workers should be included
under workmen's compensation legislation and suggested that
Jamaica and Trinidad seemed to be the only West Indian
colonies large enough to make it worthwhile to proceed with
the Ontario scheme.
Workmen's compensation legislation in the British territories has a common basic framework, deriving essentially
from its source in United Kingdom legislation now repealed.
Insurance by the employer against compensation liability is
voluntary, the only exceptions being Barbados and British
Guiana. Agricultural workers are in many cases not covered :
at present only the legislation of Barbados, British Guiana,
1

O R D E B R O W N E : op.

Recommendations,

cit.,

50.

op. cit., p . 16.

248

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

British Honduras, the Leeward Islands, St. Lucia, St. Vincent
and Trinidad 1 covers all such workers. In some territories,
including Jamaica, agricultural workers employed on powerdriven machinery are covered. Workers engaged other than
in manual labour and earning more than a specified annual
income, casual workers, outworkers, domestic servants and
members of the employer's family dwelling in his house are
generally excluded. A " waiting period " in respect of which
compensation is not payable varies from three to fourteen
days. Provision for lump-sum payments in case of death or
permanent incapacity is usual.
In all the British territories the worker is left with the
option of recovering damages in the courts where legal liability
of the employer or a third party affords an alternative remedy,
but he is debarred from recovering both compensation and
damages.
Summaries of two workmen's compensation laws may
serve to illustrate the type of provision made in the British
territories. The first, the Barbados Workmen's Compensation
Act, 1943 2 represents advanced British colonial legislation in
this regard ; the other, the Bahamas Workmen's Compensation
Act, 1943 3 is more characteristic of the limited type of provision which elsewhere is gradually being enlarged and extended ;
compensation rates payable under its terms are well below
the average obtaining in the British West Indies, even though
Bahamian wage rates are relatively high.
The Barbados Workmen's Compensation Act was adopted
in January 1943. " Workman " is defined as meaning any
person who has entered into or works under a contract of
service or apprenticeship with an employer, whether the
contract was made before or after the commencement of the
Act and whether the contract expressed or implied, is oral
or in writing. From the definition are excluded (a) persons
employed otherwise than by way of manual labour whose
remuneration exceeds £100 a year ; (b) casual workers
employed otherwise than for the employer's trade or business ;
(c) out-workers ; (d) members of the employer's family
dwelling in his house ; (e) persons in the civil employment
1

In Trinidad, only agricultural workers employed on holdings of 30 acres or
more are covered.
2
No. 2 of 1943.
3
No. 25 of 1943.

SOCIAL SECURITY AND BELATED PROVISIONS

249

of the Crown otherwise than in the government of the colony ;
(f) persons in the naval, military or air forces ; (g) members
of the police force ; and (h) domestic servants employed in
a private dwelling house. The exceptions are less far-reaching
than those of most British colonial laws of this kind, agricultural workers, clerical workers receiving not more than
£100 a year, shop assistants and domestic servants in other
than private houses being covered. A second advance marked
by the Act is provision for compulsory insurance. Every
employer is required to obtain from an insurer licensed under
the Act a policy of insurance or indemnity for his full liability.
Exemption from this obligation may, however, be granted
to employers furnishing guarantees to meet their full liability.
Employers become liable to pay compensation in the event
of personal injury caused by accidents arising out of or in
the course of employment. As regards slight injuries, it is
provided that no liability exists in respect of injuries not
involving disablement for three days, or in respect of the first
three days if the incapacity lasts for less than four weeks.
Compensation is also not payable in cases of misconduct,
such as being under the influence of drink or drugs, wilful
disobedience of safety orders or wilful removal or disregard
of safety appliances.
Subject to the above provisions, the compensation to be
granted includes the following. Where death results from
the injury and the workman leaves total dependants, compensation will be a sum equal to 156 weeks' wages or £200,
whichever is less. For permanent total disablement, compensation in the case of adults is to be 208 weeks' wages or
£300, and in the case of a minor, 312 weeks' wages or £300,
whichever in both cases is less. Permanent partial disablement
will bring reductions proportionate to the loss of earning
capacity. I n the event of temporary disablement, provision
is made up to a period of five years for half-monthly payments
of sums equal to weekly wages for adults and equal to one
and one third of weekly wages for minors.
The Bahamas Workmen's Compensation Act makes provision for the following payments for injury from accidents
arising out of or in the course of employment : death—30
months' wages or £100, whichever is less ; permanent disablement—for an adult, 42 months' wages or £100, whichever is
less ; for a minor, 84 months' wages or £100, whichever is less.

250

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

In the case of temporary disablement, a half-monthly payment
is to be made during disablement or for one year, whichever
is the shorter period. The half-monthly payment for an
adult is one quarter of the worker's monthly wages, for minors
under 17, one third, and for minors over 17, one half. The
employer is not liable " in respect of any injury which does not
result in the total or partial disablement of the workman for
a period exceeding 14 days ", and the payment of benefits for
temporary disablement begins only on the 16th day after
disablement.
The Act covers persons employed by way of manual labour
whose remuneration does not exceed £200, but excludes
casual workers, outworkers, persons in the naval, military or
air forces of the Crown, members of the employers' family
dwelling in his house, members of the police force and local
district or special constables, persons employed in agriculture,
domestic servants (including chauffeurs), persons employed
exclusively as clerical workers and/or shop assistants, and
persons in the civil employment of the Crown otherwise than
in the government of the colony.
In relatively recent legislation the waiting period which
must elapse before cash benefits become due is three days,
and payment is made for the first three days if incapacity
lasts more than four weeks : St. Lucia (1941), British Honduras
(1942), Barbados (1943), Trinidad (1945), British Guiana
(1947) ; older provisions, for example, those of Jamaica (1937)
stipulate a ten-day waiting period.
The general level of compensation benefits is fairly uniform. In Jamaica, British Guiana, Dominica, Grenada,
Trinidad, St. Lucia and St. Vincent, compensation for an
accident causing death was everywhere, until 1945, 30 months'
wages or £250 1, whichever is less, and for permanent total
disability, in the case of an adult, 42 months' wages or £350 1 ,
whichever is less. Benefits in Trinidad were raised to £375
and £525 respectively by a 1945 amendment and steps have
subsequently been taken in a number of other territories to
increase benefits.
In practice, in Jamaica some £2,000 was paid in the settlement of claims in 1942. Of 1,520 injuries reported, 567 (37.2
per cent.) were compensable accidents and 953 (62.8 per
1

Or its equivalent in local currency.

SOCIAL SECURITY AND RELATED PROVISIONS

251

cent.) were non-compensable. 1 The exclusion of agricultural
workers from the coverage of workmen's compensation legislation does not necessarily mean that employers invariably
neglect to make some provision for such workers when injured.
The Jamaica Sugar Industry Commission, 1944-1945, for
example, found that many workers in the industry not covered
by the island's Workmen's Compensation Law were nevertheless paid gratuities in case of illness or injury, and that
their funeral expenses were paid if death resulted. In 1947
the amount paid in settlement of workmen's compensation
claims was over £6,300 ; there were 5 fatal cases, 11 causing
permanent disability and 884 temporary disability.
The following table shows figures for British Guiana :
BRITISH

GUIANA : ACCIDENTS

AND

1941-1946

Year

1941
1942
1943
1944
1945
1946

Total
No. of
accidents

655
745
856
964 4
878*
949*

Fatal

2
8
7
9
7
4

Claims settled
in court

Serious '

Minor

151
163
194
221

502
574
655
734

COMPENSATION

Claims settled
out of court

Number

185

ACCIDENT
1

760

4
3
2
8
5
3

Value

Number

Value

S
2,073.82
1,831.60
757.50
2,959.86
2,073.63
1,498.50

13
23
31
20
16
20

$
5,922.23
5,075.86
13,549.59
8,349.83
7,686.17
8,384.07

Source : Reports of the Department of Labour for the years in question.
1
The figures for 1941 and 1942 were provided under a voluntary system, and those for
1943 under a compulsory system of notification of accidents. The data in each case come
from the Department of Labour Report for the year ina question.
* Causing disablement
for 21 days and over, but excluding fatal accidents.
Causing disablement for more than
24 hours but less than 21 days.
* The figure given is for accidents causing disablement
for more than 24 hours.
* Figures not available.

There is no provision in this body of legislation for compensation for incapacity or death resulting from occupational diseases.
Puerto Eican legislation on accident compensation is more
comprehensive and detailed.
The Workmen's Compensation Act, 1935, as amended 2
provides for the establishment of a single centralised State
1
I t is not clear whether " non-compensable " accidenta as recorded include
minor accidents reported only because of statutory requirements.
2
No. 45 of 1935 ; amendments in force in 1950 : No. 137 of 1938, No. 121 of
1940, No. 43 of 1942, No. 162 of 1943, Nos. 284 and 298 of 1945, Nos. 320, 384,
437 and 462 of 1947.

252

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

Insurance Fund in which all employers employing three or
more persons must be insured ; those employing fewer than
three persons may insure voluntarily. I t includes equally
within its scope workers in industry, commerce, agriculture 1
and Government, both insular and local. The provisions of
the Act apply to workers who—
. . .suffer injury, are disabled, or lose their lives by reason of accidents
caused by any act or function inherent in their work or employment,
when such accidents happen in the course of said work or employment, and as a consequence thereto ; or such as suffer disease or
death caused by (specified) occupations. Workmen and employees
engaged in domestic service and those whose work is casual and is not
included in the business, industry, profession or occupation of their
employer, 2and also such persons as work in their homes, are expressly
excepted.
Accidents are not compensable under the Act (a) if selfinflicted or deliberately designed to injure the employer or a
third party ; (b) if the result of drunkenness on the part of
the worker; (c) if the criminal act of a third party; or (d)
if the result of the carelessness or imprudence of the worker.
Workers suffering injury or an occupational disease are
entitled to all necessary medical attendance, hospital services
and medicines prescribed without cost to themselves. Temporary disability is compensated at a rate equal to half the
wage earned at the time of injury, such compensation not to
be less than $3 or more than $15 a week, nor payable for more
than 104 weeks. No compensation is allowed for the first
five days following the date on which the worker presents
himself to the physician for treatment unless disability lasts
for more than four weeks. Permanent partial disability is
compensated at half-pay rates, being not more than $15 or
less than $4 a week for a specified number of weeks, varying
according to the degree of disability 3 as scheduled in the Act.
In no such case is more than $2,500 to be paid. The maximum
compensation for permanent total disability is 340 weeks'
pay at half wages, cr $3,000 whichever is less, and is to be
not more than $15 or less than $4 a week. In the event of
death as the result of an accident and within two years of
1
Sharecroppers are covered unless subject t o a written attested contract with
the landholder concerned.
2
Section 2 of Act No. 182 of 1943.
8
Varying from five weeks for the loss of the little finger a t the third phalanx
to 300 weeks for the loss of an arm a t or above the elbow.

SOCIAL SECURITY AND BELATED PROVISIONS

253

occurrence of the accident, funeral expenses up to $100 are
payable. In addition, if the worker leaves dependants, they
receive a sum varying from $2,000 to $3,500, graduated according to the earning capacity of the deceased worker and to his
life expectancy.
Where compensation due to a workman or his beneficiaries
is less than $500, the amount is paid in full and at one time ;
where compensation is more than $500—
it shall be the duty of the manager of the State Fund to require
the workman or employee or his beneficiaries to devote the whole
or a part of the compensation to the purchase of a farm and or
dwelling, to the acquisition of a gainful business, or to some other
investment that may be profitable.
If the amount remaining after such investment is between
$300 and $1,000, it is paid in monthly instalments over a
period of twelve months ; if more than $1,000, in monthly
instalments of not less than twelve or more than twenty-four
months. Compensation for workers under 18 years is to be
double that of a worker over 18 in similar circumstances.
As regards occupational diseases it is provided that enumerated diseases shall be compensated when contracted in the
course of enumerated processes " within the twelve months
prior to the date of the disability caused by such diseases due
to the nature of any of the processes described". Sixteen
diseases and the corresponding processes are scheduled. The
diseases are anthrax, glanders or carbuncle, lead, mercury,
phosphorus and arsenic poisoning, poisoning by benzol, etc.,
silicosis, poisoning by any volatile petroleum product, by
carbon bisulphide, and by wood alcohol, infection or inflammation of the skin on contact with irritating oils, dust, liquids,
smoke, etc., ulceration of the skin or of the corneal surface of
the eye due to coal, pitch, tar or compounds, compressed air,
carbon dioxide and brass or zinc poisoning.
The Act defines the functions of the Manager of the State
Fund and of an Industrial Commission set up to assist him
in the performance of his functions. The injured worker may
apply to the Commission to expedite consideration of his case.
The necessary legal powers for investigation and inspection
are provided and employers are compelled to keep a register
of accidents. For insured workers, the Fund is the sole means
of recovering compensation. Workers not covered may institute proceedings under the Civil Code and are entitled to the
17

254

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

Manager's assistance in instituting legal proceedings against
their employers. A limitation is set on the fees to be paid
the advocates or representatives of injured workers.
Unlike the previous systems of 1916 and 1928, which went
bankrupt, the present State Insurance Fund has proved to
be financially sound. With the exception of its first year, the
Fund has ended every policy year with a surplus ; at the end
of its eighth year of operation (1943) it had accumulated a net
surplus and free reserve in excess of $2,300,000. By June
1948, this total surplus was nearly $5 million. During the
fiscal year 1941-1942, 65,604 claims were registered, of which
those registered by employees of insured employers were
classified as follows 1 :
Death claims
Temporary disability
Permanent partial disability
Permanent total disability
Unclassified open claims

61
56,632
2,226
2
5,280
Total . . .

64,201

The following are data for the years 1940-1941 and 19471948 1 :
Expenses
Compensation benefits
Medical benefits . . .
Administrative expenses

Policy year
1940-1941

$
527,625.30
609,303.20
290,673.25

Policy year
1947-1948
9
2,296,052.72
1,430,586.87
628,884.47

Payment of compensation and provision of medical treatment and hospitalisation are prompt. I t was stated in 1943
that the most pressing problems of the Fund were : (1) to
bring in employers who, in violation of the law, were not
covered ; (2) to secure a central hospital in San Juan large
enough to function economically and to permit development
of specialised departments in the field of industrial medicine
and surgery ; (3) to develop further the accident prevention
programme.
The Act empowers the Manager of the State Fund to
revise premium rates and classifications annually.
Such
revision has been periodically made on the " merit rating
1
Figures given are taken from the reports for t h e years in question of the
State Insurance F u n d of Puerto Rico (San J u a n , P.R.).

SOCIAL SECURITY AND RELATED PROVISIONS

255

system " by which the premiums of employers are regraded
in terms of their actuarial record. It is of interest to note that
some authorities, while admitting the strong arguments in
favour of the method now in use in Puerto Eico, stress the
merits of a flat rate.
In June 1944, 10,236 employers were insured with the
Fund, but at the same date it was estimated that there were
no less than 10,000 uninsured employers regularly employing
three or more persons. In June 1945, the number of employers
holding policies in the 40 principal classifications of the State
Insurance Fund was approximately 14,900 ; the corresponding
figures in 1946 and 1947 were 21,100 and 24,800.
An interesting feature in connection with the administration of this Fund are the accident prevention activities carried
on under its aegis ; these include safety education through
safety agents, lectures, broadcasts, press articles and bulletins.
The Municipality of St. Thomas-St. John, United States
Virgin Islands, adopted an amended Workmen's Compensation Ordinance in May 1941. The Ordinance excludes from
its coverage agricultural workers, domestic servants in private
homes, and outworkers, though agricultural workers employed
in connection with machinery, construction and similar work
are covered.
The Ordinance is applicable to all employers employing
four or more workers. Such employers are liable in regard to
the disability or death of an employee resulting from a personal
injury arising out of and in the course of his employment.
IsTo employee is entitled to compensation (other than medical
attendance) until the sixth day of disabüity unless the disability extends beyond two weeks in which case compensation
shall be payable from the first full day of disability.
Temporary total disability is compensated at one half the
weekly earnings of the worker, and temporary partial disability at one half the difference between earnings at the
time of injury and earnings during the period of disability.
The period over which such payments may be made is not
to exceed 52 weeks. Permanent partial disability is compensated at one half weekly earnings for a specified number of
weeks according to the nature of the injury, varying from four
weeks for the loss of a little finger to 104 weeks for the loss
of an arm or right hand. Permanent total disability is compensable at one half weekly earnings for 182 weeks. I n none

256

LABOTJE POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

of these cases is the weekly rate to be more than $15 a week.
In case of death, liability is limited to payment of funeral
expenses and medical services if the deceased leaves no
dependants. Where there are dependants, compensation is
between $1,000 and $2,500 graduated according to the earning
capacity of the deceased and to his probabilities of life.
Employers who may become liable are required to insure
with a Municipal Insurance Fund created under the Ordinance.
The administration of the Fund and the manner of payment
to beneficiaries is determined by a Compensation Commission for
which the Ordinance provides. A safety programme is correlated
with the administration of the Fund. In 1943 the Commission
handled thirty cases of injury, awarding some $1,400 in compensation ; in 1945 the expenditures of the Fund on payment
of claims was nearly $2,000 and in addition some $1,600 was
spent on payment for medical services and hospitalisation.
The legislation of St. Croix is on similar lines, but only
employers of three or more workers are covered.
In the Netherlands territories the legislation on workmen's
compensation has the following characteristics :
Every employer is obliged to insure the workers employed
in his undertaking against accidents and occupational diseases.
The Government may order the closing of any undertaking
the owner of which fails to comply with this regulation. All
wage earners, including voluntary workers and apprentices,
in the occupations covered by the Order are to be insured.
Government, agricultural, horticultural and forestry undertakings and cattle rearing stations do not come within
the scope of the Order. Wage earners employed in the hotel
industry, clerks, home workers and members of the employer's
family who are working in his undertaking are not covered
by the Order. Foreign labourers are subject to the same
provisions as nationals.
An insured person is entitled to medical benefits and
allowances only if he is the victim of an accident occurring
at the place of work and while engaged in the performance
of his assigned tasks. In the case of temporary or permanent
total disabiKty, the insured is entitled to an allowance of
70 per cent, of his daily wage. In the case of temporary or
permanent partial disability, the insured is entitled to an
allowance proportionate to his loss of capacity to work, in
no case to amount to more than 70 per cent, of his daily wage.

SOCIAL SECURITY AND RELATED PROVISIONS

257

In the case of permanent partial or total disability an
insured person may apply for a lump-sum benefit not exceeding
the amount which would be due in respect of benefits for a
three-year period. The employer is entitled to have the
insured person medically examined at any time within a period
of three years following the commencement of incapacity.
In the case of a fatal accident, an allowance amounting to
25 per cent, of the daily wage is payable to the widow, together
with an additional allowance amounting to 7% per cent, of
the daily wage in respect of children below the age of 16 years,
the total amount payable in such cases not to exceed 40 per
cent, of the daily wage. A funeral allowance, to a maximum
of 90 guilders, is also payable.
The conditions outlined above also apply as regards the
following occupational diseases : lead, mercury, carbon
monoxide, tin, zinc and methyl chloride poisoning, anthrax
infection, bakers' dermatitis and silicosis.
Maternity Protection
The provision made in Puerto Eican legislation for maternity protection is summarised in Chapter VIII, and an account
of its application has been given in the preceding chapter.
Legislation in the Netherlands Antilles is also summarised
in Chapter VIII.
Arrangements Specifically Relating to
Workers' Health
Legislation in force in the Netherlands Antilles makes
special provision designed to assist workers in the event of
loss of earning power through sickness.
A revised and amended version of the Sickness Eegulations
(1936) was published in June 1946. Every employer in the
Netherlands Antilles employing two or more workers is
obliged to insure the workers employed in his undertaking
against sickness. The following classes of workers are excluded
from the coverage of the regulations : workers who earn more
than 10 guilders a day * ; maritime workers ; domestic servants ;
outworkers ; relations and family of the employer who live
1

One Curaçao guilder equals U.S. $0.375.

258

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

with him ; and persons who have been in the continuous
service of the employer for less than 12 days. Pregnancy
and confinement are included within the definition of sickness
as covered by the regulations.
The employer is not liable to pay compensation where
medical examination reveals that the worker was already ill
at the time of engagement, where incapacity is brought about
intentionally or through the worker's intemperance or use of
narcotic drugs. Compensation may be reduced if incurrence
of illness is largely the worker's fault. The regulations, however, include within their coverage accidents to the worker
which are not in connection with the performance of the
work for which he is engaged. Detailed provisions are made
defining the liability of the employer in respect of pregnancy
and confinement. 1
Compensation in consequence of the same illness is not to
be granted for longer than ten weeks from the first day of
illness. I t shall include free medical attention, nursing and
medicaments and sickness pay. The cash sickness benefits
payable to insured workers who are undergoing treatment in a
hospital are fixed at 50 per cent, of wages and at 70 per cent.
in case of treatment at home. Sickness pay is due as from
the fourth day of incapacity ; it cannot be received until the
sick person has put himself under medical treatment. The
employer has the right to have workers medically examined
at his discretion. The worker is required to give notice of his
illness within 48 hours from the time that its consequences
have made medical attention necessary.
Employers are required to insure against their liability
under the regulations unless they have been authorised by
the Governor to meet this liability by themselves. Where
an employer is required so to insure and is not in a position
to do so, his undertaking may be closed or suspended by an
Order of the Governor.
In 1947, the premium for insurance was 3.7 per cent, of
wages paid and in 1948, 3.3 per cent. ; in Aruba, Bonaire
and Curaçao, 835 undertakings were insured with a total
premium of 237,903 guilders ; compensation payments were
made in 6,457 cases to a total amount of approximately
100,000 guilders.
1

Cf. p. 339.

SOCIAL SECURITY AND BELATE» PROVISIONS

259

Loss of Earning Power : Unemployment
For the British territories, the West India Eoyal Commission, 1938-1939, recommended—
. . . that the Governments of the larger colonies should examine
carefully the possibility of establishing some arrangement for
unemployment insurance in the case of those undertakings which are
organised on a system of regular employment and with exemptions
for those industries where, owing to the intermittent character of
employment, a scheme based on that obtaining in Great Britain
would be impracticable.1
Action along these lines has nowhere yet been taken, although
it is under consideration in Trinidad. Local employers there
have expressed opposition to the proposed limitations on
the groups to be covered. The Labour Officers' Conference
in 1942 concluded that the time was not ripe for the institution of unemployment insurance, and this, in general, seems
to be the official view. The arguments generally adduced in
opposition to such insurance for occupations in which intermittent employment is not widely prevalent are fundamentally
two : (a) the administrative machinery in existence would be
insufficient to check up on the actual status of all appficants
for unemployment benefit or the genuineness of their attempts
to find work, and (b) workers prepared to accept a low
standard of living by working part-time now, even when
work is available, would endeavour to supplement their
earnings by unemployment benefit while continuing to work
part-time.
In 1948 an unemployment insurance scheme for the sugar
industry was introduced in Puerto Eico. As first envisaged
by legislation enacted in 1948, provision was made for a contributory unemployment compensation scheme with contributions from both workers and employers. This legislation was
amended in 1949 before the scheme came into effective operation. The following is a summary of the legislation at present
in force.2
An Employment Security Division is established in the
Department of Labor of Puerto Eico and its Director is made
responsible for the administration of the employment security
1

Recommendations, op. cit., p. 16.
Act No. 355 of 15 May 1948 as amended by Act No. 1 of 5 Jan. 1949 ; Act
No. 356 of 15 May 1948 as amended by Act No. 2 of 5 Jan. 1949.
2

260

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

scheme. He is also required to carry out surveys which will
permit him to determine the prospect of extending similar
employment security programmes to other industries.
Provision is made for an Employment Security Fund into
which contributions are paid and from which claims are to be
met. Should the Commissioner of Labor find that at a given
moment the balance available to the Employment Security
Fund is insufficient to meet its commitments, the necessary
funds shall be anticipated from the Insular Emergency Fund.
Every employer who in 1948 produced, or in a subsequent
year produces, more than 15 tons of raw sugar and every
employer in the sugar industry who refines sugar, is required
to pay a contribution to the Employment Security Fund of
5 per cent, of his wages bill as from 31 December 1948.
Provision is made to bring within the coverage of the
Acts employers who deliver cane for grinding to centrales.
Payments from employers are normally to be made monthly,
but in exceptional circumstances arrangements may be made
for payment at three-monthly intervals.
The sugar industry is defined as covering both the agricultural
and the industrial phases and " shall comprise all processes and
services necessary for or related to the production of cane and
of sugar ". The term " labourer or workman " is defined in wide
terms excluding only " executive, administrative, office or supervisory employees and those holding permanent posts ".
To qualify for unemployment benefit the worker must
satisfy the following requirements : he must not have received
from any source during the week for which benefit is claimed
more than $2 if he is engaged in the agricultural phase of the
industry nor more than $3 if he is engaged in the industrial
phase ; he must have notified his status of unemployment to
the Employment Security Division ; he must have worked as
from 31 December 1948 at least 60 days in the sugar industry
during the year preceding the week for which benefit is claimed
and he must not have received aid from the State Insurance
Fund during the week for which benefit is claimed.
The worker may not receive benefit if he is unemployed
as a result of a strike, lock-out or labour dispute or when he
has voluntarily and without just cause abandoned his work
or has failed to accept reasonable employment.
Criteria are laid down for " reasonable employment ". If,
for example, the wages, hours and other conditions of employ-

SOCIAL SECURITY AND BELATED PROVISIONS

261

ment offered are substantially less favourable than those
generally prevailing for similar work in the locality, or if the
employment is offered as a direct result of a strike, lock-out
or labour dispute, such an offer of employment is not reasonable under the terms of the Acts.
Benefit is to be paid weekly through the Employment
Security Division at the rate of not more than $3 a week for
a worker in the agricultural phase and $5 a week for a worker
in the industrial phase. It shall be payable beginning with
the week following that on which the worker applies for benefit
and fulfils the conditions of eligibility. I t is payable only
between 1 October in a given year and 31 January of the
following year (beginning from October 1949) and workers
may not receive benefit for more than nine weeks a year.
These arrangements have proved entirely practicable,
although a number of administrative changes have been made
which introduce differences from the original legislation ; for
example, during the benefit period 1950-1951, benefits were
paid on a fortnightly instead of a weekly basis. The number
of workers receiving benefits has been considerable : for
example, during the first fortnight of the 1950-1951 benefit
period, some 67,700 workers received over $421,000.
A further step in the direction of providing social security
benefits in Puerto Eico on an occupational basis was the
institution, under the terms of Act îTo. 428 of 15 May 1950,
of a system of insurance against the risks of sickness and
death for chauffeurs, who in Puerto Eico form a large group
of workers.
General Assistance
Health and unemployment insurance are key items in
advanced income security systems. In the British, Netherlands and United States territories there are no specific
arrangements, apart from the Netherlands Antilles sickness compensation scheme and the Puerto Eican employment
security scheme for the sugar industry, designed to protect the
wage earner in case of such temporary loss of earning capacity.
Certain general community services should, however, be mentioned which tend, though partially, to fulfil the same ends.
Attention is here confined to three questions : (a) public medical
and health facilities ; (b) poor-law and public relief provisions,
and (c) Government social welfare machinery.

262

LABOUB, POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

Public Medical and Health Facilities.
The West India Eoyal Commission recommended that—
. . . the possibility of an extension of contributory health insurance
schemes on the basis of a carefully selected membership should be
studied by the Medical Adviser (to the Comptroller for West Indian
Development and Welfare) in consultation with Governments.1
Major Orde Browne in his survey concluded that one of
the benefits most needed by the British West Indian worker
was a cheap health service, and gave a detailed analysis of
the situation as it existed in 1938. The position on the estates
was that employers were called upon, in respect of medical
facilities, to assume ill-defined and unlimited responsibilities
which had ceased to have any legal foundation after the termination of the indentured labour system. Hospitals, with
arrangements for medical attention and, in some cases, maternity wards for the benefit of workers' wives, were provided by
very many estates, sometimes at considerable expense. I t
was recommended that consideration should be given to the
establishment of additional Government hospitals partly
maintained by employers' contributions, as a preferable
alternative to the existing system. In regard to workers'
health in general, it was considered that Government medical
facilities were inadequate to meet the needs of the working
community.
Beluctance to incur a doctor's bill raust prejudice the proper
treatment of many cases, and the threat of illness must
be constantly
reinforced by anxiety about consequent expense. 2
Public health policy and facilities in the British territories
have been subject, over the past six or seven years, to considerable changes based on the recommendations of the Eoyal
Commission, 1938-1939, which included the following : (a)
unification of the medical services of the British West Indies
and the centralisation of medical institutions, e.g., mental
institutions ; (b) the reorganisation of the medical services to
secure the development of a preventive outlook on health
questions and immediate progress with certain definite preventive measures, including improved housing, the development of maternity and child welfare work, school medical
1

Cf. Recommendations, op. cit., p. 13.

Cf. OBDE BROWNE : op. cit., pp. 26-28.

SOCIAL SECURITY AND RELATED PROVISIONS

263

services and the better education of the public in health ; (c)
the formulation of long-term health policies by the Medical
Departments in consultation with the Labour Departments,
inter alia ; and (d) study of the possibility of contributory
health insurance schemes on the basis of a carefully selected
membership. 1
In the Netherlands Antilles in 1948 expenditures for
public health services amounted to approximately one and a
half million guilders. There are eleven hospitals with 1,265
beds, 78 doctors and 20 dentists. In Surinam, the corresponding expenditure was 2 million guilders. There are four hospitals with a total of 463 beds, three infirmaries with 369 beds,
three leprosaria with 855 beds and a subsidised private hospital
with 60 beds. There are 59 doctors and 13 dentists.
In regard to the proposal to study the possibility of instituting a curtailed health insurance scheme in the British
territories, the official comment was—
Proposals of this nature have been put forward and examined
in a few colonies. Actuarial data, on which their cost could be
accurately estimated, have not been available, but the indications
are that their cost would be out of all proportion to the benefits
they would confer. In any case, there are insufficient doctors2 available
at the present time to make any such schemes practicable.
I t is of interest, however, to note that a pilot scheme of
health insurance on sugar estates has during the past few
years been experimented with in Trinidad. In Puerto Pico,
assistance under the Federal Social Security Act has, as has
been noted above, been provided for public health services.
Poor Law and General Belief Provisions.
The Comptroller's Beport on Development and Welfare in
the West Indies, 1940-1942, provides a short account of the
situation in the British territories and is summarised here in
part. 3
1
For detailed information on the implementation of these recommendations,
cf. Development and Welfare in the West Indies, 1940-1942, op. cit., passim ; Development and Welfare in the West Indies, Progress Report, 1942-1943 ; Development and
Welfare in the West Indies, 1913-1944 ; the British Government White Papers
on the operation of the Colonial Development and Welfare Act, West India Royal
Commission, 1938-1939 : Statement of Action taken on the Recommendations (London,
H.M. Stationery Office, June 1945), Cmd. 6656, passim.
2
Statement of Action taken on the Recommendations, op. cit., p. 31.
3
Op. cit., pp. 59-61.

264

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

Lack of funds is the greatest handicap in the administration
of Poor Laws, but, in view of the low level of material
resources of the territories, any larger provision of funds
would limit the more constructive social welfare work.
In the smaller colonies all that can be done is to provide an
almshouse for destitute persons who are sick or are otherwise incapable of looking after themselves, and to pay weekly pensions
to aged persons whose number is determined by the amount of the
funds available, rather than their needs. More is done in the larger
colonies, but relief is seldom available in amounts proportionate to
needs. Provisions are rarely made for temporary relief for the ablebodied under Poor Laws, and is, in fact, awarded infrequently.
In the large towns, destitution is found to be acute, low
wages and irregular employment contributing their share to
this situation. The general system of Poor Law administration is variable in quality. During the period surveyed in the
report, an amendment to the Jamaica Poor Belief Law was
adopted to strengthen the power of the Central Authority,
and proposals were made for a complete reorganisation of the
Poor Law administration service. In British Guiana, the
system is well organised.

I n smaller dependencies, t h e a m o u n t

of work involved in Poor Law administration funds does not
justify the creation of separate departments.
The most satisfactory arrangement appears to be where the
responsibility for the relief of the poor is placed on the Medical
Department, acting through the Sanitary Inspectors.
The two questions to which the section of the report dealing
with the relief of destitution attaches most importance are
provisions in regard to children and the aged ; these provisions
are considered elsewhere.
Finally, the report relates the relief given under the Poor
Laws to the general relief available, in the following terms :
Generally speaking, the relief which is given under the Poor
Laws and by private persons in the West Indies, only amounts to a
partial and very slender supplement to the help received by poor
persons from their relatives and friends. One of the most striking
features of the West Indies is the expenditure of large amounts of
money in weekly doles and, in smaller ways, of charitable societies
connected with the chnrches, and by merchants, shopkeepers, and
others, but little attempt appears to have been made to see that this
money is spent in a constructive way so that overlapping is avoided.
The whole situation calls for careful investigation. Much more
personal service from members of Boards of Guardians and Poor
Law Boards and leaders of the community generally, is required
than is given at the present time. Every possible effort should be

SOCIAL SECURITY AND BELATED PROVISIONS

265

made to mobilise voluntary assistance behind Poor Laws and to
secure, through voluntary effort, greater financial and other help for
the aged and infirm. The people of the West Indies are generous,
but it is desirable that their generosity should be utilised to the best
advantage.
The Division of Public Welfare of the Puerto Eican Department of Health discharges a multiplicity of functions within
the framework of social assistance. While these functions
are more extensive than the scope of the question here under
examination, the co-ordinating character of the Division's
work will be more clearly appreciated by considering its
operations as a whole.
The present scope of the Division's activities was delimited
by 1943 legislation. 1 Previous to this legislation, old-age
assistance, child welfare and the insular foster home programme were separately administered ; as a result of the 1943
Act the public welfare programme of the island in all its more
important aspects became the responsibility of the Division.
The principal facets of that responsibility have been : (a)
administration of economic assistance and service to needy
individuals as defined by law; (b) administration of four public
welfare institutions and supervision of all private child caring
institutions and (c) administration of social services to children.
The division of functions within the Division is as follows.
The Bureau of Public Assistance administers aid to needy
children, aid to the blind, old-age assistance and general
assistance. The eligibility requirements for the first three
categories follow closely those of the Federal Social Security
Act. The last category covers persons not included in any of
the other categories but able to prove their inability to earn
a living. That such aid is limited to unemployables is stressed
by the Division—
Because of the limitation of funds, general assistance has been
limited to physically or mentally incapacitated persons and their
dependants. Thus the public assistance program in Puerto Eico has
not been extended to meet the economic problems caused by underemployment and by lack of employment in an economic structure
where both underemployment and unemployment are chronic evils.2
At the present time, some 33,000 families on an average
receive public assistance every month.
1

Law No. 95 of May 1943.
Report of the Commissioner of Health to the Hon. Governor of Puerto Rico for
the Fiscal Year 1943-1944 (San J u a n , P.R., 1945), p . 145.
2

266

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

The Child Welfare Bureau is designed to render social
services to homeless, neglected and maladjusted children and
their families. These services include social services in the
children's homes, " foster care, either in boarding, free, work
or wage, or adoptive homes ; housekeeper service 1 ; psychiatric
treatments ; psychological and other services." 2 The Bureau
of Institutions has responsibility for the administration and
supervision of the Insular Home for Boys, the Insular Home
for Girls, the Puerto Bico Institute for Blind Children and
the Insular Asylum for the Indigent Blind. The Division also
includes an Office of Besearch and Statistics.
The legislation transferring this body of functions to the
Division also provided for the creation of a Public Welfare
Fund to provide continuity of expenditures on programmes.
In addition, federal appropriations are available for some
aspects of the Division's work ; for example, the Child Welfare
Bureau receives funds under title V of the Social Security Act
in addition to insular appropriations. I t is clear, however,
from the limitations which the Division has to set itself in
discharging its functions that its budget is distinctly inadequate for the purposes it is designed to serve.
The two municipalities of the Virgin Islands of the United
States annually allocate funds for relief. In 194a the sum
allocated by St. Thomas-St. John and St. Croix respectively
were of the order of $17,000.00 and $10,000.00. The minimum
grants made to unemployables are $5.00 a month in St. ThomasSt. John and $2.50 a month in St. Croix ; in the latter, comparatively recently, the minimum grant had been as low as
$1.00 a month.
In Surinam in 1948, 322 persons were provided with institutional care in the Boniface Public Belief Institution. A
subsidy of 180,421 guilders was granted to private organisations for the purpose of providing poor relief.
Social Welfare

Machinery.

In Puerto Bico, the Division of Public Welfare in the
Department of Health supervises the expenditure alike of
Federal and insular funds appropriate for public welfare
purposes, as described- above. In the United States Virgin
1
This ÌB provided where there ÌB no adult member of the family to take eare
of the children.
2
Report of the Commissioner of Health, op. cit., p. 154.

SOCIAL SECURITY AND RELATED PROVISIONS

267

Islands, a Department of Social Welfare was established in
1943 under the terms of the Social Welfare Act of that year.
The immediate purpose of the Act was to establish social
service standards and administrative arrangements which
would make the islands eligible for social security grants as
soon as certain titles of the Social Security Act were extended
by the United States Congress.
I n the British West Indies, the staff of the Comptroller
for Development and Welfare includes a Social Welfare Adviser.
Several Social Welfare Officers or Advisers have, during the
past few years, been appointed to British West Indian Administrations.
Old-Age Assistance
Legislation providing for non-contributory old-age pensions
exists in three British West Indian territories.
In Barbados, the Act of 1937 1 provided, in effect, for the
payment of Is. 6d. a week to persons aged 70 and over, with
a means test of 4s. a week. By the amendment in 1942 2, the
age at which pensions might begin was lowered to 68 and the
allowance increased to 2s. a week. By a further amendment
in 1945 3 , the means test was raised to 5s. a week and the
pension rate increased to 3s. a week. By further amendment
in 1949 4, the means test was raised to B.W.I. $1.75 and the
pension rate to B.W.I. $1.20.6 In 1945 it was estimated,
prior to the amendment of that year, that some 6,200 persons
were receiving old-age pensions, involving expenditure of
about £34,000 a year ; the 1945 amendment was estimated to
raise the cost of old-age pension payments to £50,000 a year.
In Trinidad provision is made 6 for the payment of a pension
of $3.00 per month from the age of 65 to persons resident for
twenty years in the colony whose means are less than $6.00
per month ; 16,621 persons were drawing pensions under this
law in 1945. 7
1

No. 48 of 1937.
No. 8 of 1942.
3
No. 18 of 1945.
* No. 27 of 1949.
6
The British Guiana dollar and the British West Indian dollar have an exchange
value of 4s. 2d. sterling.
6
Cap. 13, No. 5 of 1940 Edition of Laws.
7
Since 1944, a temporary war allowance amounting to a maximum of $2.00
has been available in addition to the basic pension.
2

268

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

Provision is also made in British Guiana. 1 Payment of a
pension is made conditional on the following requirements :
the claimant must have attained the age of 65 years, must
have been a British subject for at least ten years immediately
preceding the claim, must have been ordinarily resident in
British Guiana during the twenty years immediately preceding
the claim, and must satisfy the appropriate authority that his
monthly income does not exceed $4.50 if he is ordinarily
resident in the Georgetown area, or $3.50 if he is ordinarily
resident elsewhere in the colony.2
Claims are to be in writing, and an appeal may be made
from the decision of the pensions authority to an appeal
board, which the Ordinance empowers the Governor-in-Council
to constitute if any claim is refused and the claimant desires
to appeal. Pensions commence to accrue at the end of the
month on which the claim is received by the appropriate
authority or at the end of the month after the date on which
the claimant first becomes entitled to the pension, whichever
date is the later. The amount of pension payable is $3.60
a month if the beneficiary is ordinarily resident in the Georgetown area and $2.40 a month if he is ordinarily resident
elsewhere in the colony. The Governor-in-Council may, by
regulation, prescribe the times, places and manner of payments.
Persons who are inmates of any public or charitable institution
which provides board and lodging without charge, who are
absent from British Guiana or are undergoing imprisonment
are disqualified from receiving or continuing to receive a
pension, notwithstanding fulfilment of the statutory conditions. Pensions are not to be assignable. A penalty for false
statements is provided, and the liability to refund sums paid
when the pensioner was not entitled to pension is established.
The number of persons drawing old-age pensions was
8,800 at 31 December 1947 and approximately 8,900 at
31 December 1948.
Similar provision has been under consideration in Bermuda.
In Puerto Eico, Act No. 205 of 1938 established a Commission for Old-Age Assistance and a special fund to assist
the aged. Conditions for receipt of pensions were : (a) residence
for five years out of the previous nine in Puerto Eico including
1

Old-Age Pensions Ordinance, No. 17 of 1944, 3 June 1944.
The British Guiana dollar and the British West Indian dollar have an exchange
value of 4s. 2d. sterling.
2

SOCIAL SECURITY AND BELATED PROVISIONS

269

residence in the whole of the previous year, and (b) a person
applying for such a pension should have reached the age of 60.
Persons in receipt of an annual sum exceeding the old-age
assistance allowance, were excluded from the provisions of
the Act. Pensions were to range from $10 to $20 a month
according to means and needs. By an amendment in 1940
the minimum age for benefit was raised to 65 and it was
provided that cases were to be investigated by the Division
of Public Welfare of the Insular Department of Health.
Provision for a minimum of $10 per month was deleted.
Classification of the indigent for the purpose of determining
the size of their pensions was to be made after consideration
of any property they owned, the means of persons lawfully
obliged to support them, their age and degree of physical
disability. A further amendment of 1941 was designed to
permit utilisation of any funds forthcoming under the Federal
Social Security Act.
The Commission was, however, abolished by Act ~No. 95
of 12 May 1943 and its functions transferred to the Bureau
of Public Assistance of the Division of Public Welfare. Over
3,700 persons were receiving old-age assistance at the time
of the transfer. Subsequent operations of the Division of
Public Welfare in this regard have been summarised earlier
in the present chapter.
In its estimates for the year 1949, the Government of the
Netherlands Antilles made provision for the allocation of a
subsidy of 76,590 guilders for the care of aged persons to
religious institutions engaged in social welfare activities.
Child Welfare Assistance
The general question of social welfare services for children
and young persons is considered elsewhere.1 Attention is
confined here to arrangements for providing financial assistance
or its equivalent to those who have not yet reached the age
at which they may engage in gainful employment. In the
British dependencies, policies pursued have been markedly
shaped by the high incidence of illegitimacy and other aspects
of the family structure. Provision of meals to schoolchildren
is widespread, but the principle has been adopted—
i Cf. Chapter VI.
18

270

LABOUB POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

. . . that a payment should be made for every meal, whether of its
full or part cost, and that payment for children, whose parents could
afford nothing, should be met by voluntary and charitable organisations. This should prevent the abuse of the provision of free meals
and preserve a valuable element of private benevolence in the
appropriate field. Intention is that meals should ultimately be
provided for all children who need them, payment1 up to the full cost
being adjusted to the ability of the parent to pay.
In Barbados, Trinidad, and a few smaller dependencies,
free meals are provided in a limited number of cases by the
Government. The official attitude is that, because of existent
family patterns, out-door relief given to mothers for their
children requires careful supervision since, where whole
families are in need, only a small part of such relief may reach
the children concerned ; when providing for illegitimate
children, family responsibility may be undermined rather than
assisted. Institutional care for orphan children has received
attention. Child Welfare Leagues and Maternity Leagues
variously designated, exist in most dependencies and include
in their programmes ante-natal care, day nurseries and general
maternity care.
I n P u e r t o Eico, child welfare assistance is p r o v i d e d u n d e r

the Federal Social Security Act, as noted above, and provision
is also made from insular funds. Arrangements in the Virgin
Islands are at present deficient, but would be decidedly
improved should the projected extension of the relevant
Titles of the Federal Social Security Act be effected.
Federal programmes in Puerto Eico include : (a) assistance
for maternal and child health, aspects of which are mük
stations and pre-natal and child health clinics ; (b) emergency
maternity and infant care for wives and infants of enlisted
men ; (e) appropriations to crippled children's agencies to
locate such children and provide them with medical services
and care, and (d) grants for the protection and care of dependent, homeless and neglected children through child welfare
services. The services provided under Title IV of the Social
Security Act—Aid to Dependent Children—is one of the
additional categories which it is now proposed to extend to
Puerto Eico—and to the Virgin Islands. Two insular laws,
No. 17 of 1933 and No. 267 of 1938, provide for aid to dependent
children, and about $55,000 is now spent annually in accordance with the provisions of the latter law. Institutional care
1

Development and Welfare in the West Indies, 1940-1942, op. cit., p. 69.

SOCIAL SECURITY AND RELATED PROVISIONS

271

is also provided for children under twelve ; only about 5 per
cent, of those in regard to whom application is made for such
care can be accommodated. The activities of the Bureau
of Maternal and Infant Hygiene, Division of Public Health,
include the examination of children by physicians free of
charge and other forms of medical assistance including the
treatment of crippled children. In the Virgin Islands there
were until recently practically no resources for dependent or
delinquent children except of a private character, but the
improved financial position enabled the newly established
Department of Social Welfare to initiate arrangements for
the institutionalisation of delinquent boys.
Under the 1949 estimates, the Government of the Netherlands Antilles made the following provision for subsidies
to religious institutions which occupy themselves with social
welfare work for the purposes stated :
Care of disabled children
Care of orphans

. . . .

20,000 guilders
8,700 guilders

PLANNING AND PROSPECTS

The variety and extent of the social security proposals
at present, or recently, under consideration in the West Indies
indicate the existence of a substantial body of opinion which
regards work in this field as necessary and urgent.
In Jamaica, a Social Security Committee, which has not
yet reported, was appointed in 1943 to examine the Beveridge
Plan, to report on such of its aspects as could be made applicable to Jamaica, and to recommend such schemes of social
security as might be considered advisable and expedient.
This Committee has given special attention to the practicability
of introducing old-age pensions. In June 1945 the Barbados
House of Assembly requested the Government in an Address
" to appoint a Committee to consider and make recommendations for a Social Security Scheme on the lines of the
Beveridge Plan". Such a Committee was appointed but has
not yet repprted. In Trinidad unemployment and health
insurance proposals have recently been examined, although the
conclusions reached have not yet been made public. In the
Leeward Islands a scheme of health insurance on a contributory
basis for non-established Government employees has been
prepared, and a Committee has been appointed to consider
and advise the Government in regard to old-age pensions.

272

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

: A Puerto Eican Senate Bill of 24 March 1944 proposed
a comprehensive and unified social security scheme covering
workmen's compensation, unemployment compensation, contributory health and maternity insurance and old-age, invalidity and survivors' insurance. The whole scheme was to be
administered by a Division of Social Insurance in the insular
Labor Department. The 1948 and 1949 legislation introducing
an employment social security scheme for the sugar industry
provided that enquiries should be undertaken into the possibility of extending similar arrangements to other industries.
The effort to introduce as full a measure of social security
arrangements in the French West Indies as is practicable in
local conditions, is witnessed by the study undertaken by the
mission of enquiry of the French National Assembly, to
Which reference has been made earlier in this chapter.
In the Netherlands Antilles in 1949, a Committee,
under the chairmanship of the Director of Social Affairs, was
appointed to examine the question of the revision and extension of existing arrangements, and a social insurance expert
from the Netherlands visited the territory and prepared a
report to the Governor on the same question. The report
of the expert recommended the setting up of a Social Insurance
Bank, with a Board of Directors of a tripartite character,
to bear the risks of the accident and sickness compensation
schemes in place of t i e Government *, the Bank might, at a
later stage, take over the administration of the schemes.
The expert also recommended that unemployment, old-age
and invalidity insurance should be introduced only on a
contributory basis, but gave no detailed plans for the institution of such schemes because of the absence of adequate
data. The Committee recommended the combination of the
accident and sickness compensation schemes, and made
recommendations on the desirable lines on which a contributory
old-age pension scheme might be introduced.
General economic and social conditions in the West Indies,
however, necessitate a certain degree of caution in applying
to these territories systems devised in the first instance for
industrialised and relatively prosperous communities. Adequate actuarial analysis does not appear to have been utilised
in regard to the wider schemes above noted. Comment by the
Jamaica Economic Policy Committee, 1945, on social security
prospects in that territory suggests other considerations for

SOCIAL SECURITY AND BELATED PEOVISIONS

273

which allowance must be made. The Committee recommended
the introduction of a system of non-contributory old-age
pensions at the rate of 4s. Od. a week to persons over 70,
subject to a means test, but expressed opposition to any
Government schemes for insurance against sickness or unemployment which would involve the payment of money benefits
on the following grounds :
A considerable number of workers, whether from ill-health or
malnutrition or disinclination, seem to aim at a weekly wage of
10s. or 15s., and to do just enough work to earn that amount. It
appears to us that, if money benefits (of, say, 10s. Od. per week)
were available to the sick or the unemployed, there would be a
great increase in the numbers claiming to be sick or unemployed
in order to draw this benefit. It may be urged that in some industries
this would not happen. But if such schemes were introduced in
some industries it would be difficult not to extend them to others,
including agriculture ; and we fear that the consequence would be
to reduce the amount of work done, thereby lowering
output and
thus keeping down the general standard of living.1
The Committee was also opposed to family allowances on
the ground that the population was already large, relatively
to resources, was growing rapidly and should not be encouraged
to grow still faster.
Throughout the West Indies, the administrative and
psychological difficulties of the institution of contributory
schemes has been remarked. The mission of enquiry for the
French territories found that workers failed to turn up for
work in order to avoid paying their social insurance contributions. The alteration of the basis of the original contributory
employment security scheme for Puerto Eico is also significant.
The Netherlands expert in the Netherlands Antilles considered that more advanced arrangements in that territory
would be practicable only when workers were prepared to
share in the costs of their institution.
Clearly, the rate at which more advanced social security
arrangements are introduced into the area will largely depend
on the raising of standards of productivity and of earnings,
since policy in territories other than the French West Indies
does not envisage the subsidisation of local social security
schemes from metropolitan funds.
Detailed and expert
examination of the circumstances of each territory would be
required at different stages, in order to indicate how far
1
Report of the Economic Policy Committee (Kingston, Government Printer,
1945), p. 16.

274

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

increased benefits might be secured with existing resources.
Planning a long-term programme for the progressive adoption
of a comprehensive social security system may well become
a major preoccupation of West Indian Governments, paralleling their efforts to promote economic development and raise
living standards.

CHAPTEE V i l i
LABOUR LEGISLATION
The development in the West Indies of labour legislation
along accepted modern lines is a well advanced, though recent
and incomplete, process.
In the British territories, measures taken to improve
standards of labour legislation since the investigations of the
West India Eoyal Commission and of the Labour Adviser to
the Secretary of State for the Colonies 2 in 1938 and 1939
have been far-reaching.
In the American areas, federal measures which form an
important part of the body of social legislation introduced in
the United States since 1932 have been extended to Puerto
Eico, for example, the Fair Labor Standards Act and the
National Labor Eelations Act, and in some instances to the
Virgin Islands of the United States. Moreover, especially in
Puerto Eico, the awakening of a keener social consciousness
locally has played an important part in the development of
territorial labour legislation. In 1942, the Commissioner of
Labor, Puerto Eico, was able to state—
More fundamental social-labor legislation has been enacted
during this short period (i.e., from February 1941 to August
1942)
than during the last forty years under the American flag.2
Since that date, very much further progress has been made.
In Martinique, Guadeloupe and French Guiana, policy has
been consistently directed towards the application, with minor
modifications, of the labour and social legislation of metropolitan France. This process has been further accelerated
by the attainment of the status of Departments by these
1
Cf. Colonial Office : Labour Supervision in the Colonial Empire, 1937-43,
(London, H.M. Stationery Office, 1943). Cf. also Colonial No. 185, passim, for
a British Government account of some of these developments.
2
Puerto Rico, Department of Labor : Annual Report of the Commissioner of
Labor submitted to the Governor of Puerto Rico for the Fiscal Year ended June 30,1942
(San Juan, P.R., 1942), p. 9.

276

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

territories. Before 1939 a very substantial proportion of
French metropolitan labour legislation had been extended to
all these areas, for example, the parts of the French Labour
Code relating to apprenticeship, contracts of employment, the
protection of wages, family allowances, placement, minimum
age for admission to employment, hours of work, the prohibition of night work for women and young persons, holidays
with pay, weekly rest, trade union rights, labour inspection,
industrial health and safety, conciliation and arbitration and
workmen's compensation. The principal omission at that date
was the group of provisions relating to social security. As
had been noted above 1 , the provisions are now in principle
applied to the three Departments.
The introduction of labour and social legislation in the
Netherlands territories has proceeded at a more rapid pace
since the end of the second world war than previously. I t is,
however, to be noted that, while in some fields relatively
advanced legislation has been enacted, in others the volume
and scope of labour legislation in these territories are smaller
than in other parts of the West Indies. The explanation of
this position would seem to lie in part in the fact that, as is
shown in the annual reports of the Netherlands Government
on the application of International Labour Conventions to
the Netherlands Antilles and Surinam, steps have not been
taken to introduce legislation which appears to have little
or no practical value in the circumstances of these territories
at the present time, for example, legislation prohibiting the
employment of women underground or at night.
The present chapter is designed to trace the general
pattern of labour legislation in the West Indies rather than to
provide an exhaustive digest of such legislation.
BRITISH TERRITORIES

The minimum standard of labour legislation may be
assumed to be that defined in the Colonial Development and
Welfare Act, 1940. Under that Act, the Secretary of State
for the Colonies is required to—
. . . satisfy himself, in a case where the scheme provides for the
payment of the whole or part of the cost of the execution of any
works, that the law of the colony provides reasonable facilities
1

Cf. Chapter VII.

LAB0X7K LEGISLATION

277

for the establishment and activities of trade unions, and that fair
conditions of labour will be observed in the execution of works
and in particular :
(i) that the wages paid will be at not less than the rates recognised
by employers and trade unions in the area where the works are to
be executed, or, if there are no rates thus recognised, at rates approved
by the person for the time being administering the Government
of the colony ; and
(ii) that no children under such age as may be appropriate in
the circumstances, but not in any case
being less than fourteen
years, will be employed on the works.1
In this connection, a 1945 statement by the Secretary of
State is worthy of note :
It is true that both my predecessors and I did give a period of
grace (as regards the trade union provisions of the Act of 1940).
One could not expect, all over the colonial empire, to prescribe
trade union laws to be passed immediately ; and to have enforced
the full rigidity of the law would merely have meant that the
inhabitants of the colonies might have lost some very valuable
assistance. That period of grace is now over and I satisfy myself
that these provisions are carried out before grants are made.2
Contracts of Employment, Entry into Employment
and Migration
Contracts of

Employment.

From the time of the abolition of slavery to comparatively
recent years labour legislation mainly consisted of masters
and servants laws regulating the rights and duties of employers
and workers in a plantation economy where the employer
retained control over much of the living as well as the working
conditions of his labour force. These laws long remained on
the statute book. Many of their provisions, however, fell into
practical disuse with, on the one hand, the development of
freer relations between employer and worker and, on the other,
the absence of any adequate system of enforcement.
The older laws originally contained penal sanctions 3 for
breaches of contract, and usually included provisions prescribing the maximum intervals at which wages were to be
paid, stipulating that wages be paid in cash, the attestation
of written contracts, provision that contracts for an unspecified
1

The Colonial Development and Welfare Act, 1940, Cap. 40 of 1940.
Parliamentary Debates, House of Commons, London, 16 Feb. 1945, Col. 5503
e.g., the Jamaica Law which dates from 1827.

278

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

period were to be regarded as contracts for one month, requiring
a certain period of notice in case of contracts for an unspecified
period, the terms on which contracts might be terminated,
and defined the general obligations of the two parties to each
other. Almost generally the provisions for penal sanctions
have been repealed. In many cases the earlier masters and
servants legislation as a whole has also been repealed, leaving
the regulation of the contract of employment subject to the
ordinary provisions of the civil law and the regulation of details
of employment to laws concerned with these matters as
questions of general labour policy rather than as obligations
under the plantation system.
In some territories, however, legislation on contracts of
employment remains and has been adapted to meet the
obligations of the Contracts of Employment (Indigenous
Workers) Convention, 1939, which was ratified by Great
Britain in 1943. The British Honduras Ordinance and Begulations of 1943 1 are the most notable example of the retention
of the system of contracts subject to adaptation on the lines
of the 1939 Convention. Points in it are the requirements
regarding written contracts ; the administrative details to
implement the broad conditions set out in the Convention ;
and the emphasis laid on the problem of regulating advances
to workers and protecting wages. Article 8 of the Convention
requires regulations to be made concerning the minimum age
and the conditions under which non-adults may enter into
contracts of service. These points are not covered in the
Ordinance or Eegulations, previous legislation having fixed
12 years as the minimum age for general employment
and 14 years for industrial employment and employment
a t sea.2 The present Ordinance requires that every contract
for more than three months shall be in writing ; the corresponding period in the text of the Convention is six months (Article
3), so that in this respect the Ordinance goes beyond the
minimum requirements of the Convention.
While in other fields of employment in British Honduras
contracts for service may be attested by an appointed attesting
officer, a justice of the peace, magistrate, registered medical
1
Employers and Workers Ordinance, 1943, No. 6 of 1943, 17 Apr. 1943 ; Employers and Workers Regulations, 1943, 27 July 1943 (S.R.O., No. 46 of 1943).
2
Of. Employment of Women, Young Persons and Children Ordinance, 1933,
No. 12 of 1933 ; Employment of Children Ordinance, 1940, No. 8 of 1940.

LABOUR LEGISLATION

279

practitioner or clergyman, contracts for service in the chicle,
agricultural and timber industries may be attested only by
an appointed attesting officer and must follow a prescribed
pattern. In the case of workers to be employed outside the
colony, attestation must take place before an attesting officer
at certain named places ; a written application with details
of the proposed employment must be made to the Colonial
Secretary, who at his discretion may grant or refuse permission or add further conditions, and a bond must be furnished
by the employer to the Colonial Secretary for observance of
the Ordinance and Eegulations if such permission is granted.
In all cases where ten or more workers are employed,
medical supplies must be furnished by the employer in accordance with a prescribed scale. When a contract stipulates
that the employer shall furnish a worker with rations, such
rations must as a minimum be those specifically prescribed.
When contracts stipulate, in operations of a temporary nature
either in the chicle or in the timber industry or in agriculture,
that the employer shall provide accommodation, such accommodation must meet certain specific requirements.
Provision is also made in the legislation for the application
of the requirements of the Convention in regard to medical
examination, transport, the duties of attesting officers, and
the termination of the contract. The Convention provides
no set maximum period of contract. The British Honduras
Ordinance, however, prescribes a maximum term of one year
which corresponds with the I.L.O. Recommendation on this
subject.
Important features of the 1943 legislation are those providing for the protection of wages, which will be mentioned
below under that heading.
In 1943 the British Government ratified the Penal Sanctions
(Indigenous Workers) Convention, 1939, which provides for
the immediate abolition of penal sanctions in the case of
non-adults and for progressive abolition in the case of adults.
Previous legislation in British Honduras, repealed by the
present Ordinance, contained a number of penal sanctions,
carrying in some cases the penalty of imprisonment up to
28 days. Nevertheless, the new Ordinance provides that, in
the case of a breach of contract by the worker, he shall forfeit
and pay to the use of the employer reasonable compensation
for any loss or damage suffered by the employer by reason

280

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

of the worker's breach of contract. It also provides that a
worker who has obtained an advance on his wages and unlawfully absents himself before the advance has been repaid shall
be liable to a fine not exceeding 20 dollars or to imprisonment with or without hard labour for a term not exceeding
one month.
In the light of experience in the operation of these provisions the following changes have been under Government
consideration in British Honduras : additional provision for
the care and maintenance of sick or injured workers at the
place of employment ; a requirement that the employer
provides an adequate supply of drinking water at labour
camps ; further curtailment of the system of wage advancement ; generally increased inspection powers for the Labour
Officer including authorisation of the Labour Department to
require statistical returns from the employers ; authorisation
of the Governor-in-Council to make regulations restricting the
hours of work in any industry or occupation ; and provision
enabling Medical Officers to inspect rations, medical supplies
and housing accommodation.
Emigrants'

Protection.

Simple provisions for the protection of emigrants, in
particular of emigrant manual labourers, were widespread in
the British Caribbean prior to the enactment of legislation
to implement the Eecruiting of Indigenous Workers Convention, 1936. 1 Much of this legislation has now been repealed
in territories in which it is considered that the purposes such
legislation was designed to serve are more adequately achieved
in the legislation applying the Convention. I n some instances
the original legislation still remains in force to govern emigration to certain specified countries ; in Jamaica, for example,.
the Becruiting of Workers Law contains express provision
to this effect.
Typical requirements under the various
Emigrants' Protection Laws are written contracts and the
authorisation of the Governor to hire workers. The Leeward
Islands Act empowers the Governor to prohibit emigration
to places outside the colony where labour conditions are
unsatisfactory. 2
1
2

e.g., Dominica, St. Vincent and British Guiana.
No. 9 of 1924.

LABOUR LEGISLATION

281

Recruiting of Workers.
Legislation regulating the recruiting of workers in accordance with the provision of the Eecruiting of Indigenous
Workers Convention, 1936, is in force in the Bahamas, Barbados, Jamaica, Trinidad, all the Windward Islands, the
Leeward Islands, British Guiana and British Honduras.
The recruiting of workers for employment in the United
States was negotiated in the light of these laws and of the
Convention. In regard to Bermuda, the only territory without
such provision, it is stated that " no recruiting of the kind
envisaged by the Convention exists or is likely to be adopted 1 ,"
and no steps have therefore been taken to pass such legislation.
As this body of legislation is designed to enact provisions
already explicitly formulated (in the Convention), and as a
model draft Ordinance prepared in the Colonial Office was
the basis for much of it, the laws adopted bear a close family
resemblance, with divergence only on points of detail. Its
character may therefore be well indicated by a summary of
the Jamaica law, with a note on some points in regard to
which there are differences of substance.
The Jamaica Eecruiting of Workers Law, 1940 2 , states
that—
a person recruits within the meaning of this Law who by himself
or through others, procures, engages, hires or supplies or undertakes or attempts to procure, engage, hire, or supply workers for
the purpose of being employed by himself or by any other person,
so long as such worker does not spontaneously offer his services
at the place of employment or at a public emigration or employment
office or at an office conducted by an employers' organisation and
supervised by the Government of the island.
Persons who recruit workers are to be licensed. A licensing
officer may in his discretion issue a licence—(a) if he is
satisfied that the applicant is a fit and proper person to be
granted a licence, (b) if the prescribed security has been
furnished, and (c) if he is satisfied that adequate provision
has been made for safeguarding the health and welfare of the
workers to be recruited.
Persons under the age of 18 may not ordinarily be
recruited, but the Governor may by regulation permit persons
under that age, but of or above the age of 16, to be
1
2

Labour Supervision in the Colonial Empire, op. cit., p. 23.
No. 30 of 1940.

282

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

recruited, with the consent of their parents or guardians, for
employment upon light work subject to such conditions as he
may prescribe. Becruited workers are to be brought before
a Justice of the Peace who shall satisfy himself t h a t the provisions of the law have been observed, and that the worker
has not been subjected to pressure or recruited by misrepresentation or mistake. Provision is made for the medical
examination of workers and for the payment by the recruiter
or employer of the expenses of the journey of recruited workers
to the place of employment and of their families in cases
where the latter are permitted to accompany them. The
circumstances under which recruited workers and/or their
families are required to be returned to their homes at the
expense of the recruiter or employer are specified. Exemptions
are made in regard to : (i) the recruiting of workers by or on
behalf of employers who do not employ more than ten workers ;
(ii) the recruiting of workers within 20 miles of the place
of employment ; (iii) the recruiting of personal or domestic
servants or non-manual workers, unless such recruiting is
done by professional recruiting agents. The law does not
apply to the recruitment of workers for countries proclaimed
by the Governor under the Emigrants Protection Law. Penalties are provided for contravention of the Recruiting Law.
The chief points on which departure is made from the
above provisions in the legislation of other territories are
concerned with (i) the minimum ages specified, and (ii) the
exemptions permitted. In Barbados the minimum age is
set at 16 ; in Trinidad at 18, with provision for light
work between the ages of 14 and 18 ; in the Leeward
Islands, British Guiana, Dominica and St. Vincent, the
ages set correspond to those in the Jamaica Law.
The
Leeward Islands Act exempts recruiting in any Presidency
for work in the same Presidency. Under the British Guiana
Ordinance, the recruiting (i) of workers by or on behalf of
employers who do not employ more than 50 workers, or
(ii) of personal or domestic servants or non-manual workers is
excepted, unless such recruiting is done by professional
recruiting agents. Some laws, e.g., those of Dominica and
St. Vincent, contain provision requiring shipping agents and
the masters of ships to co-operate in making the legislation
effective and empower police officers to search ships for the
same purpose.

LABOUR LEGISLATION

Employment

283

Exchanges.

Only in a few cases has special legislation been adopted
for the establishment of Employment or Labour Exchanges.
The need for such machinery has in practice brought about its
introduction in other cases. In Trinidad, permissive legislation
was enacted as long ago as 1919.1 Under the Ordinance,
Labour Bureau Eegulations were issued in 1944. Under a
1944 Ordinance in British Guiana 2, the Governor is empowered
to establish and maintain employment exchanges for the
purpose of collecting and furnishing information regarding
employers requiring workpeople and workpeople seeking
engagement or employment. All such exchanges are to be
under the control and general superintendence of the Commissioner of Labour. The expenses of these exchanges are to
be met from funds voted by the Legislative Council. The
Governor in Council may make regulations with regard to the
management of employment exchanges ; or to authorise the
making of advances by way of loan to meet the expenses of
workpeople desiring to travel to places where work has been
found for them by the employment exchange ; to prescribe
limits for any such loans and to attach conditions to such
advances ; and generally to give effect to the purposes of the
Ordinance. Persons knowingly making false statements to
officers of an employment agency for the purpose of obtaining
employment become liable to a fine. I t is specifically provided
that no person shall suffer any disqualification or be otherwise
prejudiced on account of his refusal to accept employment
found for him through an employment exchange where the
ground of his refusal is that a trade dispute which affects his
trade exists, or that the wages offered are lower than those
current in the trade in the district where the employment
was found.
Industrial

Relations

Provisions regarding the conditions of establishment and
legal activities of trade unions and conciliation and arbitration
machinery for the prevention and settlement of trade disputes
are considered here. In addition, there have been a number
1

The Labour Bureau Ordinance, Ch. 22, No. 2.
Employment Exchange Ordinance, No. 21 of 1944, Official Gazette of British
Guiana, 29 July 1944.
2

284

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

of wartime regulations prohibiting strikes and lockouts in
" essential " industries, which, being, it is presumed, due for
early withdrawal, are omitted, although it will be realised
that their operation has necessarily limited the freer procedures
of the peacetime system. 1
Freedom of Association.
There can now be said to be widespread agreement, generally
speaking, as to the minimum legal provision required to ensure
reasonable facilities for the establishment and activities of
trade unions in British non-metropolitan territories.
The
requirements of the Colonial Development and Welfare Act
in this regard have brought about not merely a certain uniformity of legislative practice but a distinct advance in the
standards obtaining. With a few exceptions older legislation
has been amended with these ends in view, and recent legislation has, in general, been comprehensive in character.
The provisions of the Grenada Trades Unions and Trades
Disputes Ordinance, 19432, offer an illustration. The purposes
of a trade union are not to be deemed criminal or unlawful
for civil purposes merely because in restraint of trade. The
registration of trade unions is made compulsory and the
conditions relating to registration are laid down. Trade unions
are guaranteed immunity from actions of tort, and the
Ordinance defines " conspiracy " in relation to trade disputes.
Interference with another person's business " in contemplation
or furtherance of a trade dispute " is not to be actionable
per se. Peaceful picketing is recognised ; intimidation is
defined and prohibited.
As originally drafted, the legislation governing freedom of
association in the British West Indies provided a special
definition of intimidation in relation to picketing and in a
number of cases included express stipulations restricting or
prohibiting the use of general trade union funds for political
purposes. The Grenada Ordinance above cited, for example,
made it lawful for one or more persons to attend at or near
a house or place where a person resides or works or carries
1
It is to be noted, however, that in February 1949, the Government of British
Guiana extended the practical coverage of the British Guiana Trade Disputes
(Essential Services) Ordinance of 1942 by Order-in-Council.
2
No. 6 of 1943, amended by Ordinance Nc. 5 of 1948. A BUI was introduced
in June 1951 to consolidate and amend the trade union and trade disputes legislation of Grenada.

LABOUR LEGISLATION

285

on business or happens to be, if they so attend merely for the
purpose of peacefully obtaining or communicating information
" or peacefully persuade any person to work or abstain from
working ", whereas it was an offence so to attend " in such
numbers or otherwise in such manner as to be calculated to
intimidate in that house or place, or to obstruct the approach
thereto or egress therefrom, or to lead to a breach of the
peace ". With the repeal of related provisions in United
Kingdom legislation, namely, the Trade Disputes and Trade
Unions Act, 1927, amending legislation in the West Indies
has deleted the clauses relating to the use of trade union
funds for political purposes and defining "' intimidation " :
the latter term will henceforth have its Common Law sense,
which is less restrictive in respect of picketing.
The Bahamas law, enacted in 1943 1 , does not conform to
modern conceptions and practice ; for example, it excludes
agricultural and domestic workers from its scope.
Until 1946, Bermuda had no trade union legislation,
properly so called ; in 1941, the House of Assembly rejected
a Trade Union Bill drafted on the advice of the Colonial Office.
At present, while the Bermuda Trade Union and Trade Disputes Act, 1946 2, contains most of the protective provisions
of legislation on this subject in the British West Indies, it
stipulates that strikes and lockouts are illegal if having any
object other than or in addition to the furtherance of a trade
dispute within the trade or industry in which the strikers or
employers locking-out are engaged or if it is designed or calculated to coerce the Government either directly or indirectly
or by inflicting severe hardship upon the community.
Trade Disputes.3
The provisions adopted in Barbados, Jamaica, Trinidad,
the Windward Islands and British Honduras are almost
identical. All this legislation has been enacted in or since
1939. As an example, the British Honduras Ordinance of
1939 4 provides for the establishment of an Arbitration
Tribunal, consisting of one or more arbitrators, with or without
assessors nominated in equal numbers by the employers and
1
2
3
4

The Trades Union Act, 1943, No. 9 of 1943.
No. 61 of 1946.
There is no legislation in the Bahamas covering this question.
The Trade Disputes (Arbitration and Enquiry) Ordinance, No. 3 of 1939.
19

286

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

workers concerned and appointed by the Governor, who is
also to determine the size of the Tribunal. Eecourse to the
Tribunal in the event of a trade dispute is voluntary ; the
Tribunal cannot act until the Governor is notified of a dispute,
existing or apprehended, and thinks fit, with the consent of
both parties, to refer the matter to it for settlement'. The
Arbitration Tribunal, from which there is no appeal, is the
final source of interpretation of its award. The Governor is
also empowered to appoint a special board to enquire into the
causes and circumstances of any dispute and to investigate
and report on any aspect of a dispute. He may also refer
any matter connected with the economic or industrial conditions in the colony to the board for enquiry and report.
In British Guiana, under the Labour Ordinance of 1942,
the Commissioner of Labour is empowered, where a difference
exists or is apprehended between an employer, or any class of
employers, and employees, or between different classes of
employees to (a) enquire into the causes and circumstances
of the difference ; (b) take such steps as to him may seem
expedient for the purpose of promoting a settlement of the
difference, and/or (c) with the consent of both parties to the
difference refer the matter for settlement to the arbitration
of one or more persons appointed by the Governor-in-Council.
In the Bahamas, a 1946 A c t 1 provides for the appointment
of a Labour Board of five members, two of whom are to be
members of the House of Assembly not being members of the
Executive Council nor holding an office of profit under the
Crown. Where any labour dispute, whether existing or apprehended, comes to the notice of the Board, the Board, on the
application of either party, or on its own behalf, should take
steps to make its services available to both parties and shall
enquire into the cause of the dispute with a view to conciliation, especially having regard to the hours and conditions of
work and regulation of wages and to report thereon to the
Governor-in-Council. The Act also empowers the Governor
to appoint a Labour Officer whose functions are defined.
The disputes provisions of the Bermuda Trade Union and
Trade Disputes Act, 1946, have been summarised above.
Two complementary laws relating to the settlement of
labour disputes were enacted by the Government of Bermuda
1

The Labour Board Act, 1946. No. 1 of 1946.

LABOUR LEGISLATION

287

in 1945.1 The Labour Board Act establishes a Labour Board
consisting of not less than five nor more than nine members.
Where any labour disputes, whether existing or apprehended,
come to the notice of the Board, the Board on the application of
either party to the dispute or on their own initiative shall take
immediate steps to make their services available to both parties
and shall take such steps as are practicable to enquire into the
causes of the dispute and to promote a speedy, just and lasting
settlement.
The Board is also required to collect information, to prepare
statistics, acts as an employment agency and to submit reports
when so required by the Government, " relating to the rates
of wages, working hours and other terms and conditions of
employment prevailing from time to time . . . with respect
to the employment of workmen of various classes or grades ".
The Labour Disputes (Arbitration and Enquiry) Act is similar
in substance to t h e t r a d e disputes legislation n o t e d above as

in force in Barbados, Jamaica and other Caribbean territories.
The emphasis placed on conciliation in labour disputes
and some of the operations undertaken with a view to conciliation have been treated in Chapter IV on the machinery of
industrial relations.
Industrial Health and Safety
A British Government White Paper summarises the pre-war
factories legislation position in British territories in the following terms :
Prior to the war, legislation, as such, had been enacted in only
a small number of colonies, and not many full-time factory inspectors
had been appointed. Provision for the inspection of factories and
for their proper cleansing, ventilation and lighting was made in the
Public Health Ordinance of most colonies. There were numerous
simple laws dealing with such matters as the inspection of boilers
and the fencing of dangerous machinery, and nearly every colony
has passed legislation regulating the employment of women, young
persons and children in industry on the lines of the international
labour Conventions on the subject. In some colonies, regulations
dealing with employment in dangerous, offensive or unhealthy
occupations had been passed.2
1
The Labour Board Act, 1945, No. 42 of 1945 ; the Labour Disputes (Arbitration and Enquiry) Act, 1945, No. 43 of 1945. In 1951, under the Public Utility
Undertakings and Public Health Services Arbitration Ordinance, No. 3 of 1951,
a system of compulsory arbitration was introduced in Grenada in the case of trade
disputes occurring in the Services mentioned.
2
Labour Supervision in the Colonial Empire, op. cit., p. 21.

288

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

Both Major Orde Browne and the West India Eoyal Commission drew attention in 1939 to the need for improved
factories legislation. On 6 November 1939 a circular despatch
was addressed to all British Colonial Governments emphasising
the importance of the question, and asking them to re-examine
their legislation in the light of the United Kingdom Factories
Act of 1937.
In 1940, the first Factory Law along the proposed new
lines was enacted in Jamaica. Legislation has subsequently
been enacted in Dominica (1941), British Honduras (1942),
St. Lucia (1943), St. Vincent (1943 and 1947), Trinidad (1946),
British Guiana (1947), Barbados (1947), Grenada (1948) and
the Leeward Islands (1948). The laws of the last three territories named are not yet in force.
In Bermuda and the Bahamas, legislation regarding factories is limited to provisions regarding their cleanliness and
sanitation contained in the Public Health Acts of the two
territories.
The Dominica Factories Ordinance, 1941, is simpler than
the legislation so far adopted in the other territories. I t
provides for the appointment of a Factories Board, which is
to include in its membership the Senior Medical Officer of the
colony and the Colonial Engineer, with a Factories inspector
as secretary. The supervision of all factories and machinery
in the colony is to be exercised by the Board, and, subject to
their directions in writing, by any accredited inspector or
inspectors. The Governor is empowered to make rules covering the health and safety of persons engaged in factories or
on machinery, the prevention of accidents, hours of employment in factories, the regulation of dangerous trades, the
construction of factories, and the appointment of inspectors
to carry out the provisions of the Ordinance.
The Factory Laws enacted in the other territories mentioned are largely similar in substance. A summary of the
Jamaica Factories Law, 1940, will illustrate the content of
this body of legislation.
The law provides for the appointment of a Chief Factory
Inspector and other inspectors whose task will be the supervision of all factories and of all machinery in the island. A
Factories Appeal Board is established for the purpose of
hearing and determining appeals from the decision of the
Chief Factory Inspector in accordance with the provisions of

LABOUR LEGISLATION

289

the law. The most significant difference from the requirements
of the Dominica Ordinance is the provision for compulsory
registration of factories. Every existing factory and every
new factory is to be registered. From and after the coming
into operation of the law, every person intending to erect or
cause to be erected a new factory is required to obtain a permit
from the Chief Factory Inspector by means of a written application, which must be accompanied by certain stipulated
information in regard to its structural arrangements and the
machinery to be installed. The Governor-in-Executive-Council
is empowered to make regulations for giving effect to the
purposes of the law, and for the purpose of ensuring the
health or safety of persons who are employed in any factory
or in connection with machinery. Provision is also made for
the right of entry of accredited inspectors, the reporting of
accidents to the Chief Factory Inspector is made compulsory,
and penalties are provided for infringement of the law's
requirements.
Under the terms of the recently enacted Factory Laws
which have come into force, regulations regarding safety
requirements in specific industries have begun to be issued.
The position in Trinidad, the most industrially developed of
the British West Indian territories, may be noted. In December
3948 there were issued the Boilers Regulations and the Air
Pressure Containers Regulations, providing for the appointment of persons competent to make periodic examinations
and report on the condition of steam boilers and air pressure
containers and making other provisions relating to the safe
operation of these vessels. Early in 1949, the Factories
(Cleaning of Machinery in Motion) Order was made and the
Government gave notice of its intention to issue Woodworking
Machinery Regulations. Under the Oil Mining and Refining
Ordinance and the Petroleum Ordinance, Oil Tanks Regulations were also issued in 1949, replacing 1935 Regulations.
Social Insurance and Assistance
Legislation falling within this category is examined in
connection with the problems of social insurance and assistance
in Chapter VII.

290

LABOUR POLICIES IN T H 3 WEST INDIES

Employment

of Women and

Juveniles

In the territories under survey the most usual provisions
relating to children and young persons concern their minimum
age for entry into various forms of employment and the
prohibition of night work until a fixed minimum age has been
reached. The most usual provision regarding women is the
prohibition of their employment on night work. Legislation
stipulating a minimum age in connection with, for example,
the recruiting of workers, is noted under the relevant heading.
Juveniles.
The following table summarises the principal standards in
force under existing provisions.
MINIMUM

AGE

REQUIREMENTS

UNDER

IN BRITISH WEST

Colony

General
employment
14

—
—
Leeward Islands

12
12
12
14
14
14
14
14
12

PRESENT

LEGISLATION

INDIES

Sea

Industry

14
14

—

15
14
14
14
14
14
14
14
14

Night
work
(industry)
16
16
16
18 l
18 !
18 !
16
16
16
16
18 !

1
It should be noted that, in these territories, the minimum age is reduced to sixteen
where continuous processes are involved, for example, the manufacture of raw sugar.

The provisions for a general minimum age may allow, either
explicitly or implicitly, for regulations permitting light agricultural employment for the parents. Other general limitations
fix a minimum age of eighteen years for admission to employment as trimmers or stokers and provide for compulsory
medical examination for employment at sea of young persons
under eighteen. These maritime provisions result not from
local legislation but from extension of the United Kingdom
Merchant Shipping Acts by Imperial Orders-in-Council to the

LABOUR LEGISLATION

291

territories concerned. In various territories there are special
provisions concerning a particular industry, dangerous operations or the relation of employment to school work. Thus, in
the Bahamas the employment of children under 14 years
of age is prohibited in sponge and turtle fishing ; in Trinidad
the employment is prohibited of young persons under 18
on oil tanks and of male young persons under 16 on derricks
during drilling operations ; in St. Vincent no young person
under 18 may clean any dangerous part of a machine in
motion ; in St. Lucia and British Honduras there are detailed
provisions regarding the employment of children between 12
and 14 on school days. Some of these points have been
taken up in the chapter on Women and Children.
Women.
Provision for the prohibition of night work in industry
exists in the legislation of the following territories : Barbados,
Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, the Leeward Islands, all the
Windward Islands, British Guiana and British Honduras. In
Barbados the prohibition does not apply to night work in
the sugar industry, but such employment is relatively infrequent.
The general character of this legislation may be illustrated
by a summary of the Jamaica Law, ïfo. 33 of 1941. This law
defines night work as work in an industrial undertaking during
any portion of a period of 11 consecutive hours including
the hours of ten o'clock in the evening and five o'clock in the
morning. It prohibits the employment of women in night
work except in the following cases : (a) where it is necessary
to complete work commenced by day and interrupted by some
unforeseeable cause ; (b) where it is necessary to preserve
raw materials, subject to rapid deterioration, from certain
loss ; (o) a responsible position of management held by a
woman who is not ordinarily engaged in manual work ; (d)
work carried on in connection with the preparation, treatment,
packing, etc., of fresh fruit ; (e) nursing ; (f) work in a cinematograph or other theatre ; (g) work in connection with a hotel
or similar estabfishment ; (h) work carried on by a druggist.
The law empowers the Governor to make regulations which
may—(a) restrict or prohibit the employment of women in
any specified class of industrial undertaking ; (b) restrict,
prohibit or regulate the employment of women before or after

292

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

childbirth ; (c) provide for the health and safety of women
employed in industrial undertakings ; (d) prescribe the hours
of work and other general conditions relating to the employment of women.
The latter provisions of the Jamaica Law go beyond the
other examples of this particular type of legislation *, but, as
may be seen, are as yet only permissive in character, although
1942 regulations provide for special records of the hours
worked by women.
Laws also prohibit certain occupations to women in cases
particular to the territory. In British Guiana and British
Honduras the underground employment of women is prohibited. In Trinidad employment was prohibited on oil tanks
and on any derrick floor during drilling operations, but, by a
1949 amendment to the relevant regulations, the first prohibition is limited only to women under 18 years of age. In St.
Lucia no woman may be allowed to any dangerous part while
machinery is in motion, and generally the more recent factory
laws contain provisions permitting special measures of
protection for women.
Apprenticeship.
In the British West Indies the opportunity for young workers to graduate in a craft by way of apprenticeship is generally
very limited. Apprenticeship is provided for in law, in some
cases antiquated, in several territories, but in only one (Trinidad) is there an effectively applied indenture system accompanied by organised evening classes and a junior trade school
under a Board of Industrial Training. Barbados has a Board
of Industrial Training but no classes ; the entire status of
vocational training in this territory has for some time been
under examination by a Committee. Jamaica provides classes
in a technical school but the indenture system has not been
universally applied. Provisions relating to apprenticeship also
exist in the legislation of the Bahamas, Bermuda, British
Guiana, British Honduras and the Leeward Islands. The
British Honduras Act dates from 1868. I t refers only to the
settlement of disputes between master and apprentice. The
1
An exception is St. Lucia. In this territory, the Employment of Women
Ordinance, 1946 (No. 8 of 1946), gives the Governor similar powers and in addition
includes imposition on the employer of the requirement to pay fees for medical
examination of employed women where necessary.

LABOUR LEGISLATION

293

regulation of apprenticeship is under the common law. The
Bermuda Apprenticeship Bonus Act of 1937 is very limited
in its scope. In British Guiana, the Labour Ordinance of 1942
specifically includes apprentices along with other workers in
its general provisions regarding wages and hours and the
Industrial Training Ordinance, 1910 (Cap. 194), provides for
the establishment of a Board of Industrial Training. This
Board, however, is not functioning at present.
A committee which examined apprenticeship problems in
Jamaica and reported in 1944 recommended the enactment of
a new and comprehensive Apprenticeship Law which should
include provisions for the establishment of an Apprenticeship
Board in which would be vested responsibility for the administration of the law and necessary regulations thereunder. 1
Hours and Wages
Minimum

Wage Fixing.'1

The British Government's latest policy announced in 1944
on minimum wage fixing is contained in the following statement :
The policy adopted in the colonies generally speaking has been,
as in this country, to encourage the effecting of wage adjustments
by means of collective bargaining and any domestic machinery for
this purpose set up within the industry concerned, and only to have
recourse to the powers conferred by the minimum wage legislations
when negotiations between employers and employees have failed.
Minimum wage fixing legislation exists in all the territories
under consideration except Bermuda. Much of this legislation
is recent, repealing earlier and simpler permissive legislation
which merely, in effect, empowered the Governor to fix a
minimum wage for any occupation in any district in which
he was satisfied that the wages paid were unreasonably low.
This power in practice was little used, partly in the belief
that the development of collective bargaining might be prejudiced. Some of the new legislation represents only a slight
advance over the earlier situation, and was apparently designed
to make provision in this connection for the utilisation of
newly formed or reconstituted Labour Departments.
1
A Bill designed to give effect to the recommendations of this Committee
(cf. Chapter VI above) was introduced in the Jamaican Legislature in January 1951.
2
Cf. Chapter V for an account of orders and regulations applying the general
legislation here summarised.
3
labour Supervision in the Colonial Empire, op. cit., p. 13.

29á

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

The machinery and procedures under present arrangements
may be divided into three classes : (i) simple permissive legislation related to the work of the general Labour Advisory
Board for the territory with no provision for special Boards
for particular industries ; (ii) permissive legislation with procedures based on the investigations of Advisory Boards or
Committees set up for particular industries or occupations,
and (iii) Wages Boards legislation under which ad hoc Wages
Boards fix rates for particular occupations, subject to the
approval of the Governor.
(i) Grenada, St. Lucia and St. Vincent have legislation of
this kind. The St. Vincent provisions are typical. 1 The
Governor-in-Council may by order make provision for the
fixing of rates of wages in any industry or occupation and all
other matters connected with the payment of wages. The
Ordinance further provides that the Governor shall appoint
a Labour Advisory Board to advise upon all questions connected with labour in the colony, including wages and conditions of work generally, and in any industry or occupation.
Provisions are included to ensure that minimum wage rates
fixed are in practice paid and that any agreement for the
payment of wages in contravention of these provisions shall
be void. Eequirements in regard to inspection and the furnishing of statistical information to the Department of Labour
are included. The St. Lucia legislation includes an amendment
enabling a differential wage to be paid to non-able-bodied
persons in an occupation for which a minimum wage has been
prescribed.
(ii) The legislation of the Bahamas, Jamaica, the Leeward
Islands 2, British Guiana and British Honduras falls within
this category. The relevant British Guiana Ordinance 3 is an
illustration. Whenever the Governor-in-Council deems it
expedient that steps should be taken to regulate the wages
paid in any occupation in the colony he may appoint an
Advisory Committee to investigate the conditions of employment in such occupation and to make recommendations as to
the minimum rates of wages which should be payable. The
Advisory Committee is to include representatives of both
1
2
3

The Department of Labour Ordinance, 1942, No. 14 of 1942.
Including in this case Dominica.
The Labour Ordinance, 1942, No. 2 of 1942.

LABOUR LEGISLATION

295

employers and workers. On considering the recommendations
of the Committee the Governor-in-Council may, if he thinks
fit, make an order prescribing the minimum rates of wages
payable. Miscellaneous provisions cover such questions as the
examination of witnesses on oath, the obligation of employers
in an occupation for which minimum rates have been fixed to
keep a record of wages, conditions of employment of persons
incapable of earning wages at prescribed rates, inspection
and penalties for the non-payment of prescribed rates.
(iii) The Barbados Wages Boards Act of 1943 1 falls clearly
within this category and the Trinidad Wages Councils Ordinance 1949 2 follows principally the same tendency. Both
apparently represent a realisation that minimum conditions
of employment cannot be neglected pending the development
of collective bargaining, and that collective bargaining itself
sometimes requires fostering and may reflect a change in
policy. 3
The Act empowers the Governor-in-Executive-Committee
to establish one or more wages boards for any trade. Every
wages board is to consist of the Labour Commissioner as
chairman, an equal number of employers' and workers' representatives, and not more than three nominated members
appointed by the Governor. Eepresentative members of a
wages board need not be employers or workers in the trade
for which the board is established ; they are to be appointed
by the Governor, who is also to determine their number. The
Labour Commissioner is not entitled to vote on any question
brought before a board ; the number of members who vote as
representing employers and the number of members who vote
as representing workers are to be equal. The Labour Department provides the necessary secretariat.
The wages boards are required to furnish a report upon
any matter regarding the conditions of the trade referred to
them by the Governor-in-Executive-Committee or by the
Labour Commissioner. They are empowered to fix hours of
work and minimum rates of wages, to make differential determinations within a given trade to suit special circumstances,
and to exempt the employment of non-able-bodied workers
1

No. 25 of 1943, 17 Sept. 1943.
No. 20 of 1949, 3 J u n e 1949.
3
Similar legislation was enacted in 1951 in Grenada : The Wages Council
Ordinance, 1951, Ordinance No. 4 of 1951.
2

296

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

from the general rulings. No decision of a wages board is to
have effect unless it has been approved by the Governor-inExecutive-Committee ; this authority may also refer back to
it any of its decisions for reconsideration. Nevertheless, the
Barbados boards are not advisory as in the other British
territories. Eather, they make decisions subject to approval
and review. The administrative provisions of the Act include
the allocation of powers of inspection to the Labour Commissioner and regulations as to legal proceedings.
The Trinidad Ordinance empowers the Governor-in-Council
to set up a Wages Council to cover a given group of workers,
when he is satisfied that no adequate machinery exists for
the effective regulation of the remuneration of such workers
or that the existing machinery is likely to cease to exist or to
be adequate for that purpose and that, having regard to the
remuneration prevalent among such workers, it is expedient
to establish such a council. For the purpose of assisting him
in taking a decision on the establishment of a Wages Council,
he may seek the recommendation of a Commission of Enquiry
as provided for in the Ordinance.
A Wages Council is to consist of not more than three independent persons (one of whom shall be chairman) and equal
numbers of representatives of employers and workers in the
industry, occupation, establishment or part thereof covered by
the operations of the Wages Council concerned. The Governor
is required before appointing representatives of employers and
workers to consult their appropriate organisations. A Commission of Enquiry is to consist of persons chosen and appointed
by the Governor; of these, not more than three are to be
independent persons, not more than two employers' representatives and not more than two workers' representatives.
Wages Councils are empowered to submit to the Governor
wages regulation proposals for (a) fixing the remuneration
to be paid, either generally or for any particular work, by their
employers to all or any of the workers in relation to whom
the Council operates, and (b) requiring all or any such workers
to be allowed holidays by their employers. The Governor,
unless he decides to refer the proposals back to the Wages
Councils concerned, shall give effect to these proposals through
a Wages Eegulation Order.
Detailed provisions cover the field of reference of Commissions of Enquiry, the principles on which proposals regarding

LABOUR LEGISLATION

297

holidays with pay are to be based, publication of proposed
Wages Regulation Orders before their submission to the
Governor and methods of enforcement of Wages Eegulation
Orders.
Maximum

Hours.

Legislation for the regulation of hours of work in the
British West Indies is much more limited in its scope than
minimum wage fixing legislation. A number of laws are in
force limiting the hours of work of shop assistants. Some
minimum wage fixing laws provide for the regulation of hours
of work through the same machinery used for the fixing of
minimum wages. The statutory powers of Labour Advisory
Boards in some instances include advising the Governor on
hours of work and a number of miscellaneous ad hoc provisions
exist. On the whole, however, legislation has not yet concerned itself with the question.
Legislation limiting the number of hours of work of shop
assistants or the hours of opening of shops is in force in Barbados, Jamaica, Trinidad, Dominica, Grenada, St. Lucia,
St. Vincent, Antigua, St. Kitts-Nevis, British Guiana and
British Honduras. No single law can be regarded as typical,
but a few illustrations of the type of provision made may be
given. Some of the laws are simply permissive in character,
e.g., the Dominica and St. Vincent Ordinances. The most
recent law, the British Honduras Law of 1943, limits shop
opening hours to nine a day and 45 a week. The St. Lucia
Law (1941) limits the hours of work of shop assistants to 41
ii week, although in the case of small shops, 56 is made the
maximum. A Shop Order under the Barbados Act, No. 27
of 1945, sets limitations on working hours ranging from 44 to
51 hours a week according to the category of worker ; a number
of exceptions are permitted and minimum overtime rates
prescribed.
The Barbados Wages Boards Act, summarised above,
includes provision for the regulation of hours of work as well
as for the fixing of minimum wages. Under the British Guiana
Labour Ordinance of 1942, the Governor-in-Council may make
regulations prescribing the number of hours which may normally be worked by an employee in any week or on any day
in any occupation, and the time to be allowed by an employer
to an employee for his meals. Under the St. Vincent Ordi-

298

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

nance which provides for minimum wage fixing, the Governorin-Council is empowered by Order to make provision for " the
stabilising of hours oí employment ".
Miscellaneous provisions include the British Guiana Immigration Ordinance regulating the hours of work of immigrant
agricultural labourers x and the empowering of the Governor
of Trinidad to regulate the hours of work of the drivers of
motor vehicles. Under some Factories Laws, e.g., the British
Honduras Ordinance of 1942, the number of hours to be worked
in factories may be regulated by the competent authority,
and similar provision is made under the 1946 British Guiana
Bakeries Ordinance. In some cases special limitations may be
prescribed for young persons. Eecent legislation in British
Guiana limits the hours of work of watchmen. 2
Protection of Wages.
The territories in which legislation for the protection of
wages is in force include the Bahamas, Trinidad, the Windward
Islands, Antigua, British Guiana and British Honduras. 3
Provisions in British Guiana and British Honduras are the
most detailed.
In British Guiana, except in certain circumstances specified
in the Ordinance, wages are to be paid entirely in money.
Contracts to pay wages otherwise than in money are declared
illegal. Every employee is entitled to recover from his
employer all wages due. ÏTo employer may impose conditions,
in contracting with any employee, as to the place or manner
in which any part of the wages shall be spent. Within limits
provided by the law, employers may advance money to
employees in anticipation of wages. A contract with an
employee to provide him with other forms of remuneration in
addition to his money wages is permissible. Deductions may
be made only in respect of : (a) any unpaid rent of any land,
house, cottage, tenement or room demised or let by the
employer to the employee ; (b) any grazing fee due by the
1
With the end of t h e indentured labour system, this stipulation no longer has
any practical effect.
2
Hours of Work (Government and New Amsterdam Watchmen) Regulations,
1948. No. 6 of 1948.
3
I t is, however, possible t h a t in some territories legislation has not been
considered necessary in view of the general acceptance and long tradition of the
principle of cash payment of wages. Similar reasons apparently explain the absence
of, for example, legislation on weekly rest periods in all but three dependencies,
viz., Barbados, British Guiana and Jamaica.

LABOUR LEGISLATION

299

employee to the employer ; (c) any medicine or medical
attendance supplied by the employer to the employee at the
latter's request ; (d) the actual or estimated cost to the
employer of any materials, tools and implements supplied by
the employer to the employee at the latter's res quest to be
employed by him in his occupation ; (e) any victuals supplied
by the employer to the employee at the latter's request ; (f)
the actual or estimated cost to the employer of any goods
supplied by the employer to the employee for the personal
use of the employee ; or (g) any money advanced by the
employer to the employee (whether paid to the employee
himself or to some other person at his request) in anticipation
of the regular period of payment of his wages. However, the
total amount which may be stopped or deducted from the
wages of an employee in any one month under these provisions
may not exceed one third of the wages of the employee in
that month.
The payment of wages within retail spirit shops is also
prohibited.
In British Honduras the problems connected with making
advances of wages to workers are of special importance ; in
Belize " advances of wages are virtually the recognised rule
in every form of employment ". 1 The new legislation provides
that when the contract of service exceeds three months the
employer may make an advance on account of unearned wages
subject to the following conditions :
(1) the advance shall not exceed the amount of one month's
wages, or, where the contract is for the performance of a
specified task or service remunerated by results, one tenth of
the estimated total earnings of the worker under the contract,
subject in the latter case to a maximum of $25 ;
(2) the employer shall deduct from the wages due to the
worker a sum equal to one fourth of the amount of the advance
at the end of each of the first four months of service ;
(3) the employer shall not make any additional charge on
account of interest, commission, or any similar charge in
respect of any advance ;
(4) no advance shall be made earlier than one month
before the agreed date of commencement of service.
1

O R D E B R O W N E : op. cit.,

194.

300

LABOiœ POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

Goods may not be advanced to the value of more than
one tenth of the wages to be earned. Illegal advances are
irrecoverable, and penalties are prescribed for making illegal
advances and obtaining advances by fraud.
Wages are to be paid in money, but food, a dwelling place
or other allowances or privileges may be given in addition to the
wages as a remuneration for the worker's services. Unauthorised deductions are made illegal, likewise direct or indirect
conditions as to expenditure of wages or advances ; wages are
not to be paid on licensed premises. The prices of goods sold
at an employer's commissary—only to be established when
the place of employment is more than three miles distant from
any town or village—may differ from prices elsewhere only
by the cost of transport or delivery, plus a certain percentage
to allow for deterioration or depreciation. A bist of prices
must be posted each month in a conspicuous place and a copy
of the list sent to the Labour Officer by the employer. The
regulations define the periods witliin which wages due to
various classes of workers must be paid on demand.
The circumstances of British Guiana and British Honduras,
often involving employment in remote districts, have dictated
the details of these laws.
Labour Administration

and General Conditions of WorJc

Only three categories are here considered : legislation
regarding labour supervision, provisions empowering the
competent authority generally to regulate conditions of work
other than hours or wages, and a number of relevant miscellaneous provisions.
Labour

Administration.

The question of adequate labour supervision has received
considerable attention since 1939. The West India Eoyal
Commission, 1938-1939, referred to the need for Government
action, through the medium of Labour Departments or Officers,
in the regulation of wages and conditions of employment until
trade unions were developed to the point at which they could
play a decisive part in this regard. 1 British Government
policy is indicated by the content of a circular despatch to
1

Cf. Recommendations,

op. cit., p. 15.

LABOUR LEGISLATION

301

Colonial Governments of December 1939. This despatch
emphasised the necessity for Colonial Administrations doing
their utmost to ensure that—
. . . labour conditions were properly supervised during the period
of the war and the still more critical period likely to follow it, and
to make every endeavour to see that the relations between employers
and workers were maintained in as harmonious an atmosphere as
possible. 1
Legislation specifically enacted to set up or define the
general powers of labour supervision services exists in the
Bahamas, Barbados, Dominica, Jamaica, Grenada, St. Lucia,
St. Vincent, the Leeward Islands, Trinidad and British Guiana.
The provisions contained in the legislation vary widely in
character, and afford only the most superficial and general
indication of the work the labour supervision services are at
present able to perform. A few illustrations of the statutory
powers may, however, be useful. Under the British Guiana
Law 2, as amended, the Commissioner of Labour, the Deputy
Commissioner of Labour, Inspectors of Labour and Assistant
Inspectors of Labour are empowered (a) to visit and inspect
any premises in which labour is employed, and to obtain and
to require from any employer information as to the wages,
hours and conditions of work of those so employed, (b) to
require from employers generally returns giving information
as to the wages, hours and conditions of work of their employees
and (o) to inspect the register of accidents kept (as required
by the Ordinance) and to require from an employer information as to the causes and circumstances relating to any accident
which may have occurred on his premises.
Penalties are provided for failing to furnish required information without good reason and for the obstruction of accredited labour officers in the execution of their duty. The Jamaica
Law 3 empowers a labour officer to enter upon any premises
other than a dwelling house for the purpose of carrying out
any inspection or enquiry in relation to the laws for the administration of which the Labour Department is responsible. A
penalty is provided for obstruction. In the Barbados Act 4 , in
addition to the usual provisions regarding the right of inspec1

Labour Supervision in the Colonial Empire, op. cit., p. 6.
The Labour Ordinance, 1942, No. 2 of 1942.
3
The Labour Officers (Additional Powers) Law, 1943, No. 8 of 1943.
4
The Labour Department Act, 1943, No. 21 of 1943.
2

302

LABOTJE. POLICIES IN THE, WEST INDIES

tion and penalties fcr obstruction, the duties of the Labour
Commissioner are declared to be as follows :
(a) to receive and investigate all representations whether
of employers or of workers made to him concerning any
business, trade, occupation, or employment with a view to
the settlement of disputes and grievances and of conciliation
especially regarding hours and conditions of work and regulation of wages and to report thereon to the Governor-inExecutive-Committee ;
(b) to advise the Government with regard to the betterment of industrial relations and generally on all labour
matters ;
(c) to ensure the due enforcement of the Acts mentioned
in the Schedule hereto and of any enactments amending the
same and of any other Acts of this island which he may from
time to time be required to enforce ;
(d) to prepare cost-of-living indices and statistics of
earnings and conditions of employment ;
(e) to perform such further or other duties as may from
time to time be required of him by any Act of this island or
by the Governor-in-Executive-Committee.
The legislation of Trinidad x makes the following provision
for labour inspection. The Industrial Adviser 2 and officers
of his department are authorised at all reasonable times to
enter and inspect any premises or place in which workers
are employed and to require from the employer information
as to the number, wages, hours and conditions of work of the
workers so employed or returns giving such information.
He is authorised to prepare and publish comparative statements on the basis of information so received subject to the
usual restriction on the publication of individual returns.
I t is made an offence to hinder, obstruct or molest the Industrial
Adviser or his officers in the exercise of the powers conferred
by the Ordinance ; to refuse or wilfully neglect to furnish
within a reasonable time any information or return required
by the Industrial Adviser's department or to furnish false
information or returns.
. Similar legislation has been enacted in Dominica.
1
2

The Labour Statistics Ordinance, 1947, No. 6 of 1947.
Now the Labour Commissioner.

LABOTTE LEGISLATION

303

Other Provisions.
Although the 1938-1939 Eoyal Commission recommended
Government action to regulate conditions of employment as
well as rates of wages, and although recent developments
have taken place elsewhere along such lines1, there is little
legislation of this type in the British West Indian dependencies,
even of a simple empowering character. The St. Vincent
Department of Labour Ordinance, 1942, permits the Governorin- Council by Order to make provision for, inter alia—
(i) the stabilising of hours of employment and other conditions (i.e., other than in regard to wages or hours) in any
industry or occupation ;
(ii) the control of the labour market and the distribution
of employment ; and
(iii) the co-ordination of all activities designed to improve
the condition of wage earners.
Most of the shop assistants legislation in force limits
hours and requires the provision of seats for shop assistants 2 ;
all specify half-holidays, and the St. Vincent Law requires
that all shop assistants be given two weeks' holiday with
pay every year.
A Holidays with Pay Law was enacted in Jamaica in 1947.3
The Governor-in-Executive-Council may, where he considers
it advisable, appoint Advisory Boards to make recommendations in relation to the grant of holidays with pay to workers
in any occupation. Advisory Boards appointed under the
Minimum Wage Law, 1938, are empowered to include in
their reports recommendations relating to holidays with pay
for workers in the occupation in relation to which the Board
was appointed. The Governor may then by Order fix the
duration of holiday with pay and the minimum holiday
remuneration to the category of worker concerned. Employers
are required to keep records and provision for inspection is
made.
Early in 1949 a Bill for an Act to make provision for
holidays with pay for employees was introduced into the
1
Cf. " Conditions of Work in Nigeria ", in International Labour Review, Vol. LI,
No. 1, Jan. 1945, p. 101.
2
In British Guiana, only female assistants.
3
Law No. 2 of 1947, 17 Mar. 1947.

304

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

Barbados House of Assembly. 1 Under its terms, workers
were to be entitled at the end of each year of employment to
an annual holiday with pay of two weeks ; provision was also
included for a proportionate period of holiday for a shorter
period of service, provided that the worker had been employed
for at least three months. The Bill was passed by the House
of Assembly but rejected by the Legislative Council.
UNITED STATES TERRITORIES

Federal Legislation Applicable to Puerto Rico
and the Virgin Islands of the United States
The constitutional relations which exist between the
United States and Puerto Eico permit the direct application
of federal legislation to Puerto Eico. This result may be
achieved in one of several ways, of which the three following
are the most important in practice :
(i) a federal law may explicitly include Puerto Eico
within its scope ;
(ii) a federal law may be ambiguous on this point and
may by decision in the courts be construed to apply to Puerto
Eico ; or
(iii) an amendment to a federal law may extend that
law to Puerto Eico if it had been previously determined that
the law did not so extend.
There are at present four federal Acts of importance
directly affecting labour standards in Puerto Eico—the Social
Security Act, 1935, the National Labor Eelations Act, 1935,
the Sugar Act, 1937, and the Fair Labor Standards Act, 1938.
One further point of general interest may be noted in
connection with the relative standards set by Federal and
Insular legislation covering the same question—minimum
wages. The Insular Minimum Wage Act states—
In no occupation, business, or industry shall the Board (i.e., the
Minimum Wage Board) establish a wage lower than that fixed in
said occupation, business, or industry by the laws of Puerto Eico
or of the United States or by collective agreements, conciliation
minutes, or arbitration awards or a maximum of working hours
1

Official Gazette, Barbados, 7 Apr. 1949.

LABOUR LEGISLATION

305

greater than that established in said laws, collective agreements,
conciliation minutes, or arbitration awards, while the same are in
force.
Any collective agreement, award, or other labor contract made
with workers, by virtue of which any employee may agree to accept
a wage lower than that fixed in the final Order of the Minimum Wage
Board, shall be invalid.
Nor shall any reduction be made in the wages of workers who,
at the time the Board issues a Mandatory Decree, may be receiving
wages higher than those fixed in said Decree.
The Fair Labor Standards Act provides that—
No provision of this Act or of any Order thereunder shall excuse
non-compliance with any federal or State law or municipal ordinance
establishing a minimum wage higher than the minimum wage
established under this Act or a maximum work week lower than a
maximum work week established under this Act and no provision
of this Act relating to the employment of child labor shall justify
non-compliance with any federal or State law or municipal ordinance
establishing a higher standard than the standard established under
this Act. No provision of this Act shall justify any employer in
reducing a wage under this Act or justify any employer in increasing
hours of employment maintained by him which are shorter than the
maximum hours applicable under this Act.
The Social Security Act.
This legislation is examined in Chapter VII.
The National Labor Relations Act.
The conclusion that Congress intended this Act to apply
to Puerto Eieo was reached as a result of a Supreme Court
decision1, and was officially expressed in a decision of the
National Labor Eelations Board in a case arising in Puerto
Eico. 2 The Act applies only to workers producing goods for
inter-State commerce and excludes agricultural workers from.
its scope. It provides that—
. . . employees shall have the right to self-organisation, to form,
join or assist labor organisations, to bargain collectively through
representatives of their own choosing, and to engage in concerted
activities, for the purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual
aid and protection.
Unfair labour practices are defined, and procedures for their
prevention adumbrated, employers are required to recognise
accredited representatives and federal officials are made
1

Puerto Rico v. Shell Oü Company (302. U.S. 253).
In the matter of Bonrico Corporation and Puerto Bico Distilling Company
(53, N.L.R.B. No. 160).
2

306

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

responsible for the supervision of elections designed to select
such representatives.
The Sugar Act.
The general provisions of the Sugar Act of 1937 stem from
the situation which induced the introduction of a similar Act
in 1934 (the Jones-Costigan Act). The situation in 1934 is
thus summarised in the President's Message to Congress on
Sugar of 8 February 1934 :
The steadily increasing sugar production in the continental
United States and in insular regions has created a price and marketing
situation prejudicial to virtually everyone interested. Farmers
in many areas are threatened with low prices for their beet and
cane, and Cuban purchases of our goods have dwindled steadily
as her shipments of sugar to this country have declined . . .
I do not at this time recommend placing sugar on the free list.
1 feel that we ought first to try out a system of quotas with the threefold object of keeping down the price of sugar to consumers, of
providing for the reduction of beet and cane farming within our
continental limits, and also to provide against further expansion of
this necessarily expensive industry. 1
The purposes of the 1937 Act were thus outlined by the
House of Representatives Committee on Agriculture on
2 July 1937:
. . . that adequate safeguards to protect all interests be provided in the legislation, that the consumer be protected against unreasonable prices, that our foreign markets be protected by retaining
the share of foreign coiintries in the established quotas ; that if the
domestic sugar industry is to obtain the advantage of a quota system
it ought to be a good employer and to carry this out, legislation should
prevent child labor and assure reasonable wages ; that the small
family-sized farm should be encouraged by the payment of higher
benefits ; and that an 2excise tax should and ought to be imposed on
sugar manufacturing.
Under the Act the Secretary of Agriculture is empowered
to make benefit payments to sugar producers subject to
certain requirements. Conditions for the payment of full
rates of benefit, include certain requirements in regard to
labour standards. Before such rates may be paid, all persons
employed by an employer who makes application for such
benefits shall have been paid in full for all work done in the
production, cultivation or harvesting of sugar beets and sugar
1

Cf. ZIMMERMAN : op. cit., pp. 148-149.

Ibid., p. 149.

LABOUR LEGISLATION

307

cane at wage rates determined to be faix by the Secretary.
With respect to child labour it is specified that—
. . . no child under the age of fourteen years shall have been
employed or permitted to work on the farm, whether for gain to such
person or to any other person, in the production, cultivation, or
harvesting of a crop of sugar beets or sugar cane with respect to
which application for payment is made, except a member of the
immediate family of a person who was the legal owner of not less
than 40 per cent, of the crop at the time such work was performed ;
and that no child between the ages of fourteen and sixteen years
shall have been employed or permitted to do such work whether for
gain to such child or any other person for a longer period than eight
hours in any one day except a member of the immediate family of
a person who was the legal owner of not less
then 40 per cent, of the
crop at the time such work was performed. x
This Act may be compared with the more general provisions of the British Colonial Development and Welfare Act.
Both enable assistance to be granted subject to labour safeguards, and represent an attempt, with which further experimentation is likely, to promote development and welfare.
The Fair Labor Standards Act.
The Act was designed " to correct and as rapidly as practicable to eliminate . . . without substantially curtailing
employment or earning power " such labour conditions as
were " detrimental to the maintenance of the minimum
standard of living necessary for health, efficiency and general
well-being of workers". Certain standards relating to minimum
wages, overtime rates, and the employment of children were
set forth and a Wage and Hour Division was created within
the United States Department of Labor to administer the
Act. These provisions include a minimum wage of 30 cents
an hour, to be increased to 40 cents by 1945 ; a 40-hour week
from 1940, and time-and-a-half for overtime. Like the Labor
Eelations Act, its scope is confined to workers producing
goods for inter-State commerce and agricultural workers are
excepted.
The Act, as adopted in 1938, was applicable to Puerto
Eico without any distinction as to minimum rates. Various
interests in the island claimed the application of the wage
provisions to Puerto Eico would force many Puerto Eican
industries, in particular the needlework industry, to close
1

Cf. ZIMMERMAN : op. cit., p. 151.

308

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

down, would act as a bar to further industrialisation and would
tend to perpetuate chronic unemployment.
This line of
reasoning was accepted and a 1940 amendment to the principal
Act—
(1) empowered the Administrator 1 to appoint one or
more industry committees for inter-State industries in Puerto
Eico to investigate such industries and recommend to him
the minimum wage rates which such industries should pay,
the Puerto Eican industry committee or committees to be
composed of residents of Puerto Eico and the continental United
States ;
(2) required Puerto Eican industry committees and the
Administrator to conform to the provisions of Section 8 of
the Act in determining the minimum wage rates which
industries in Puerto Eico should pay ;
(3) forbade Puerto Eican industry committees to recommend and the Administrator to approve a minimum wage
rate for an industry in Puerto Eico which will give the industry
in Puerto Eico a competitive advantage over any industry
in the United States outside of Puerto Eico ;
(4) made inoperative with respect to Puerto Eican
industries all wage orders issued prior to the adoption of the
Puerto Eican amendment ;
(5) exempted from the minimum wage provisions of the
Act only such industries in Puerto Eico, and only for so long,
as were covered by wage orders issued pursuant to the Puerto
Eican amendment. 2
Considerable use has been made of the powers provided
by this amendment. 3
Of the above four Federal Acts only the Fair Labor Stand- '
ards Act and the Sugar Act of 1937 apply to the Virgin
Islands of the United States, but there are, however, prospects
that certain titles of the Social Security Act may be extended
to this territory. 4 As in Puerto Eico and for similar reasons,
rates under the Fair Labor Standards Act have been determined by means of Special Industry Committees.
1

Of the Wage and Hour Division, United States Department of Labor.
Investigation of Political, Economic, and Social Conditions in Puerto Eico,
pursuant to H. Res. 159, Part 19, Washington, 1944, p. 1825.
3
Cf. Chapter V.
* Cf. Chapter VII.
2

LABOUR LEGISLATION

309

Puerto Rico Insular Labour Legislation
Contracts of Employment, Entry into Employment and Migration.
Contracts of employment. Articles 1473-1478 of the Civil
Code provide that the services of servants and workmen may
be hired either for a fixed or a non-stipulated period but that
a contract for life is null. Payment for Services is to be by
agreement between the parties ; differences are to be settled by
the court of competent jurisdiction. Domestic servants engaged
for a specified period may be dismissed or give up their work
before the end of that period ; if dismissal is without just cause,
an indemnity equivalent to fifteen days' wages is to be paid in
addition to other wages due. 1 Farm employees, tradesmen,
artisans and other salaried workers engaged for a particular
project are not to be dismissed nor give up their work until the
contract has been completed, but dismissal in such cases
includes their dispossession of any tool or building in their possession by reason of such contract. Workers paid monthly,
half-monthly or weekly who are dismissed without at least
15 days' notice shall be entitled to an indemnity equivalent
to pay for a month, 15 days or a week, as the case may be.
Articles 217-220 of the Commercial Code provide that a contract
of employment for a fixed period in a commercial undertaking
may not be terminated before being completed by either
party.
Law No. 76 of 1931, as amended, specifies the practices
which fall within the category of share-cropping. Under its
terms a share-cropping contract for time unspecified is to be
deemed to last until such time as is necessary for the harvesting
and the utilisation of the first crop from all produce planted.
Where no special arrangements have been made, the tenant is
entitled to a moiety of the produce of the land in question.
The general rights and duties of landowner and tenant are
defined.
lío landowner is entitled to any compensation
because of the sterility of land or for the loss of produce caused
by act of God. The conditions under which ejection is legally
permissible are stated.
Law No. 89 of 9 May 1947 makes the following provision
in regard to the regulation of contracts for workers whose
1

Act No. 84 of 1943 substitutes an indemnity equivalent to one month's wages.

310

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

services are to be used outside of Puerto Eico. The Commissioner of Labor is authorised to intervene in all matters concerning such contracts and is required to take all appropriate
steps to supervise and enforce compliance with their terms.
Persons or employment agencies charged with contracting for
the services of workers from Puerto Eico for employment
elsewhere are required to provide the Commissioner with all
pertinent facts and information. Contracting for the services
of minors under 16 or of adults over 70 years of age is prohibited unless they are accompanied by their parents or legal
guardians, or by their children or relatives.
Emigrants protection. Law No. 25 of 5 December 1947
makes provision for the regulation of migration and replaces
1919 legislation 1 which gave the Commissioner of Labor general
powers in regard to the supervision of all questions connected
with the emigration of Puerto Eican workers.
The 1947 Law creates a Migration Section within the
Employment Service Bureau in the Department of Labor.
This Section has charge of all matters pertaining to the employment of workers who wish to migrate : training, guidance,
supervision and a follow-up. The statement of motives in the
law explains the Government's policy—
(2) Puerto Bican workmen who wish to emigrate will be guided
so that they will go only to those places where a real demand for
labor exists, and where their presence will not contribute to any

depression of prevailing wages or to any disruption of working
conditions ;
(3) Wherever Puerto Eican workers go they are to earn the
prevailing wages and have the same working conditions as the
native or resident workmen of these places ;
(4) It is the duty of the Government of Puerto Eico in the case
of Puerto Eican workmen who wish to migrate to the United States
or other countries, to instruct them adequately, before they leave
the Island, concerning their responsibility to industry and organized
labor.
Employment exchanges. Law No. 51 of 1923 provides for
the setting up of a general employment exchange system and
defines its functions in detail.
Private employment exchanges are regulated by Act
No. 417 of 14 May 1947, as amended. 2 All such agencies
1

Act No. 19 of 29 May 1919.
Amendments No. 2 of 3 Deo. 1947 ; No. 28 of 21 Apr. 1948 ; No. 114 of 7 May
1948.
2

LABOim LEGISLATION

311

must be licensed and a bond posted to cover any loss or damage
to the public arising from non-observance of the Act or Eegulations made under it. A number of restrictions are laid down
in regard to the methods of operation oí agencies. Further
requirements include the keeping of records and provision of
facilities for inspection and supervision by the Commissioner
of Labor.
Industrial

Relations.

The right of the worker to freedom of association, in
accordance with the United States legal system, is stipulated in
legislation enacted early in the century. 1 In 1947, complementary legislation was adopted restricting the use of injunctions in labour disputes. 2
The basic principles and machinery for the promotion of
collective bargaining are laid down in the Puerto Eico Labor
Relations Act 1945 as amended. 3 Its preamble includes the
following statement :
(4) It is the policy of the Government to eliminate the causes of
certain labor disputes, by developing the practices and proceedings
of collective bargaining and by establishing an adequate, efficient,
and impartial tribunal which will carry out this policy.
(5) All existing collective bargaining practices, as well as those
hereafter executed, are hereby declared to be instruments for the
promotion of the public policy of the Government of Puerto Eico,
in its efforts to develop protection to the maximum ; and it is declared
that as such they are invested with a public interest. The exercise
of the rights and the performance of the obligations by the parties
to such collective bargaining contracts are therefore subject to such
reasonable regulations as may be necessary to effectuate the public
policies of this Act.
The Act creates a Puerto Eican Labor Eelations Board
composed of a full-time chairman who is to be the executive
officer of the Board and two associate members on a per diem
basis. The Board is authorised to make, amend and repeal
regulations necessary for carrying out the provisions of the
Act. The rights of employees " to form, join or assist labor
organizations ; to bargain collectively through representatives
of their own choosing ; and to encourage any concerted activities for the purpose of bargaining collectively or for other
1

Act of 1 Mar. 1902.
Act No. 50 of 4 Aug. 1947.
3
No. 130 of 1945 amended by No. 6 of 1946.
2

312

LABOUR POLICIES IK THE WEST INDIES

mutual aid and protection " are asserted. The arrangements
under which collective bargaining units are determined and
elections for the selection of workers' representatives held are
detailed. All labour organisations and employers' associations
are required to file with the Board statements as to their
official titles and addresses and to provide copies of all collective agreements contracted. The Board is empowered to take
steps, according to procedures outlined by the Act, to prevent
unfair labour practices and to conduct investigations into
charges of unfair labour practices. Such practices on the part
of the employer are defined to include interference with the
self-organisation of employees, action designed to secure
control of workers' organisations, discouragement of union
membership by discriminatory employment practices, refusal
to bargain collectively with accredited workers' representatives, collective bargaining with an organisation not representing the majority of workers, violation of the terms of a
collective agreement, attempting to influence elections for the
selection of workers' representatives, failure to reinstate a
discharged employee if so required under the terms of the Act
and discrimination against supervisors refusing to participate
in an unfair labour practice. Labour organisations are prohibited from engaging in the following unfair labour practices :
violation of the terms of a collective agreement and the unjustifiable inclusion or suspension from membership of any
employee in a collective bargaining unit on whose behalf the
labour organisation concerned has included an all-union or
maintenance of membership agreement. Provision is made
precluding employers found to have committed unfair labour
practices from being utilised in connection with public contracts. I t is explicitly stated that nothing in the Act " shall
be construed so as to interfere with, hinder or in any way
restrain the right to strike ". Penal provisions for violation
are included.
The Act replaces Act No. 143 of 1938 which had the same
general objectives and a similar title but proved inoperative.
Previous to 1943, the basic law pertaining to the settlement
of trade disputes was the law constituting the Mediation and
Conciliation Commission and designated " an Act to prevent,
and aid in the settlement of, strikes and lockouts ". 1 Under
1

Act No. 36 of 1919, amended 1927, 1932 (twice) and 1936.

LABOUR LEGISLATION

313

this Act was set up a Mediation and Conciliation Commission
consisting of five members, two representing workers' organisations, two employers' organisations and one representing the
public interest. The last-named was chairman of the Commission and employed full-time in this capacity. The Commission was to advise the Government as to the best means
of performing its functions and was convened by its chairman
whenever the occurrence of a dispute rendered this necessary.
In the case of disputes not affecting the public service, the
Commission was empowered to offer its services to procure an
amicable settlement if requested by a competent Governmental authority or at the instance of one of the parties to
the dispute. If the two parties to the dispute consent, the
Commission could arrange for the constitution of an ad hoc
Arbitration Board consisting of one employers' representative,
one workers' representative and one other person acceptable
to both parties. If the Board's deliberations failed, or if
either party refused to accept its conclusions, the Commission
itself might undertake investigation and require a report from
the Board, including recommendations for a solution. The
Commission might, at its discretion, publish such report and
recommendations. The necessary legal powers to conduct an
investigation were accorded the Commission.
In November 1942, however, the Commission was abolished.
It was considered that a tripartite Commission of a deliberative
character, where opposing interests clashed, was an inadequate means, in practice, of preserving industrial peace. In
its place a Mediation and Conciliation Service patterned after
the United States Federal Conciliation Service was established
in the Department of Labor under the direction of a Conciliation Commissioner. The 1943 amendment to the Organic Act
of the Department of Labor x defined his duties as—
. . . to intervene and mediate, for the purpose of keeping industrial peace, in such disputes, conflicts, or controversies, both industrial
and agricultural or otherwise, connected with the application of
labor laws, as may arise between laborers and employers.
The Labor Organizations Accounting Service is a new unit
of the Department of Labor created by Act ~No. 177 of 1946
to provide aid to labour organisations in the establishment
and maintenance of adequate and efficient accounting systems.
1

No. 144 of 1943.

314

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

Application for such assistance may be made to the Commissioner of Labor and is provided only on request.
Industrial Health and Safety.
A law of 1917 provides for the maintenance of a medicine
chest, a doctor and a dispenser or nurse in sugar factories,
electrical or hydraulic plants and certain other specified
industrial undertakings. Under Act No. 112 of 1939, a Board
of Industrial Safety was set up which is empowered to make
regulations. The administration of these and other measures
is assigned under the 1943 amendment to the Organic Act of
the Department of Labor, to the Hygiene and Industrial
Safety Division of the Department ; this Division " shall have
charge of the supervision and oversight of measures of safety
and industrial hygiene applicable to any industry, business or
occupation ".
Under Act No. 317 of 1938 there is created an Accident
Prevention Council " to promote the protection of human life
in industry " and to prevent accidents in general. The Council
is authorised to establish rules and formulate regulations for
these purposes, and its members and officers are accorded
powers of inspection and investigation.
Other laws are in force dealing with particular aspects of
safety problems. Act No. 61 oí 1936, for example, provides
that scaffolding must be constructed in a manner designed to
afford adequate protection to those working, makes notification to the Commissioner of Labor compulsory when scaffolding
is set up and prescribes penalties for contravention.
Social Security and Assistance.
Legislation falling within this category is examined in
connection with the problems of social insurance and assistance
in Chapter VII.
Employment of Women and Juveniles.
Juveniles. A comprehensive law 1 was enacted in 1942
making provision for the regulation of the employment of
minors (i.e., persons under 21). Under this Act, no minor under
16 is to be employed in any gainful occupation. One exception is
1

Act No. 230 of 1942, approved 12 May 1942.

LABOUR LEGISLATION

315

permitted : minors between 14 and 16 may be employed
outside class hours and during school vacations but not in a
factory or in any occupation prohibited by the Act. Minors
aged 14 to 18 years are not to be employed in any gainful
occupation for more than six consecutive days in the week,
more than 40 hours a week, or more than eight hours a day.
Mght work for minors between the ages of 14 and 16 is prohibited from 6 p.m. to 8 a.m. and between the ages of 16 and
18, from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. Minors between 14 and 18 are not
to work for more than four consecutive hours without a rest
period of at least one hour.
A minor between the ages of 14 and 18 may not be employed
unless the employer involved obtains an employment certificate or special permit from the Child Bureau of the Department
of Labor. Detailed administrative provisions regarding the
issuance of employment certificates are included.
Boys under 14 and girls under 18 are prohibited from
engaging in peddling ; certain exceptions are, however,
permitted. I t is provided that in the case of minors aged 14
to 18 who attend school and work after school hours, the total
number of school and working hours shall not exceed eight.
Schedules of prohibited occupations are included in the text
of the law in regard to (a) minors under 16, (b) minors under
18, and (c) girls under 18. îfo minor under 18 may be
employed in any establishment or occupation injurious to his
health, safety and welfare whenever such occupation is so
certified by the Insular Industrial Safety Board.
Women. Under legislation governing the employment of
women 1 no woman is to be engaged in any gainful occupation
between the hours of 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. for more than eight
hours in any one day, or for more than 48 hours a week. Up to
one hour overtime per day at double rates is, however, permitted, provided that the weekly limit of 48 hours is not exceeded.
Two exceptions are permitted in the case of night work.
Women over 16 may be so employed in the packing or storage
of fruit and vegetables ; and women switchboard operators,
artistes, nurses and domestic servants. The Act includes a
number of provisions regarding safety and sanitation, requires
the provision of seats for female employees and obliges
employers to display notices regarding hours of work in their
1

Act No. 73 of 1919, amended 1930.

316

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

establishments and to furnish returns regarding their female
employees to the Department of Labor.
Minimum wages for working women in industrial occupations, commercial undertakings and public service undertakings (but not agriculture) are prescribed in a 1919 Act
which is still enforced. Employers are required to pay at
least $4 a week to women under 18 and $6 a week to women
over 18. The first three weeks of apprenticeship are exempted
from this requirement. 1
Act No. 3 of 13 March 1942, as amended by Act No. 398
of 13 May 1947, contains provision for maternity protection
and benefit. Under the terms of this legislation working
women are entitled during pregnancy to a period of rest which
shall include four weeks before and four weeks after the birth,
and are prohibited during this period from working in offices,
commercial and industrial establishments and public utilities.
During this period the employer is required to pay the woman
concerned one half of the remuneration she has been receiving,
to keep her position open for her and not to discharge her
without just cause. Where, as a direct physical consequence
of childbirth, the woman is unable to resume work within
four weeks of the birth, the employer shall extend the period
of rest for a further period, not exceeding four weeks, under
the same conditions with the exception that he is not required
to pay maternity compensation in respect of the additional
period. Appropriate medical certificates are required for
obtaining benefits provided by the Acts.
Apprenticeship. Act No. 27 of 1931 deals with the question
of vocational training. Under the Minimum Wage Act, 1941,
it is provided that—
. . . apprentices and learners shall obtain a special licence from
the Board 2, and their wages shall not be less than 50 per cent, of the
minimum rates established ; provided that the Board shall fix the
maximum term of employment that shall be permitted to such
apprentices or learners in the occupation or industry in question ;
it being understood that the maximum term of employment should
be uniform in each occupation.
Under the terms of Law No. 483 of 15 May 1947 an
Apprenticeship Council is established for the purpose of
1
2

Act No. 45 of 9 June 1919.
Minimum Wage Board.

LABOUR LEGISLATION

317

organising a permanent training programme for apprentices,
" under adequate apprenticeship and reasonable compensation
standards ". The Council has already approved minimum
standards of apprenticeship and a list of apprenticeable
trades. 1
Hours and Wages.
Minimum wage regulation. The Minimum Wage Act of
1941 is one of the most important measures affecting labour
adopted in a West Indian territory in recent years. Its effect
is to extend, to workers not coming within the scope of the
Federal Fair Labor Standards Act, an improvement and stabilisation of their conditions of work analogous to those which
the Federal Law seeks to attain for the groups it covers. Its
importance has a two-fold aspect : on the one hand there has
been its application in practice, a vital development which is
discussed elsewhere 2 ; on the other the more formal, but
equally important, aspect of its provisions which give mandatory effect to the decisions of the Minimum Wage Board which
it establishes.
The Act, as amended 3, provides for the creation of a Minimum Wage Board of three persons in the Insular Department
of Labor, of whom one is to represent employers' interests, one
workers' interests and one the public interest ; the last-named
is to be chairman of the Board. The Board is required to
study wages, working hours and labour conditions, and to
make investigations regarding the health, safety and well-being
of workers. In pursuance of its functions it is authorised to
summon witnesses, to administer oaths, and take testimony
and it may compel the appearance of witnesses and the presentation of documentary and other evidence. The Board or
any of its members or agents is allocated certain powers of
inspection designed to enable it to collect any necessary data
for statistics, surveys and investigations. Government and
municipal agencies or officials, as well as any person, firm,
partnership or corporation employing workers in Puerto Eico
1
Information on Puerto Rico transmitted by the United States to the SecretaryGeneral of the United Nations pursuant to Article 73(c) of the Charter. Washington, D.C., June 1948, p. II.
2
Cf. Chapter V.
3
Act No. 8 of 1941 ; substantive amendments No. 1 of 12 Nov. 1941 ; No. 9
of 20 Mar. 1942 ; No. 44 of 23 Apr. 1942 ; No. 217 of 1945.

318

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

are required by the Act to provide the Board with any information needed for its operations. It is the duty of the Board
to appoint a Minimum Wage Committee—
. . . whenever the wages paid in any industry, business, or
occupation are insufficient to satisfy the normal needs of the workers
or are detrimental to the maintenance of the reasonable standard
of living necessary for their health, efficiency and general well-being.
Such a Committee is to consist of one or more employers'
representatives, the same number of workers' representatives,
and one or more members in representation of the public
interest, provided the number of the latter does not exceed
that of each of the other two groups. The member or members
of the first and second groups are to be selected from a list of
candidates submitted by the employers and workers, respectively, of the industry, business or occupation concerned.
Subject to direction by the Board it shall be the duty of
any such Committee to investigate the labour conditions
prevalent and formulate its findings to the Board—
. . . including with respect to the employees or laborers of the
particular industry, business or occupation concerned, the following :
(1) an estimate of the minimum wage for regular or extra periods
of work indispensable to satisfy their normal needs and to
maintain the reasonable standard of living necessary for their
health, efficiency, and well-being ;
(2) the maximum number of working hours per day, per week,
per a longer period, or per any periods consistent with their
health, safety, and general well-being ;

(3) labor conditions required for the maintenance of their health,
safety, and general well-being.
On the basis of the Committee's report and after a public
hearing the Board is empowered to issue a Mandatory Decree
having the force of law establishing minimum wage rates and
maximum hours of work and regulating labour conditions.
Administrative provisions are included to prevent evasion of
the stipulations of these Decrees. The Board may fix special
rates for persons of impaired earning capacity and for apprentices or learners, but in neither case are such special rates to
be less than one half of the ordinary rates ; it may also fix
the minimum rates to be paid to minors aged 14 to 18 years
in those cases in which their employment is permitted by
law.
In fixing minimum wages, the Board is to take into consideration the cost of living and the needs of workers, but it

LABOUR LEGISLATION

319

must also see that the fixing of the highest minimum wages
that can be afforded by the industry or occupation in question
does not bring about a substantial decrease in employment.
In the classification of categories of workers, the cost of production, the financial and economic condition of the industry,
market fluctuations and local conditions should be taken into
account ; flexibility in classification is thereby permitted
through zoning. Provision is also made for the protection of
wages where employers provide meals or land. The Governor
is empowered to set the Board's machinery in motion where a
strike or lockout has existed within the previous six months.
Maximum hours. The empowering provisions of the Minimum
Wage Act have been noted above. Other Puerto Eican legislation
on hours includes a law for the general regulation of hours of
work, legislation regarding the hours of work of certain classes of
Government employers as well as provision in the Penal Code.
Act No. 379 of 15 May 1948 makes general provision for
an eight-hour day and a 48-hour week as well as for a maximum number of working days per month. Hours worked in
excess of those stipulated are to be remunerated at double
time rates. The number of normal monthly working hours
is periodically indicated by Notice of the Department of Labor.
Thus a Notice of 21 December 1948 informed employers and
workers that, making allowances for statutory holidays, the
number of working hours per month in excess of which overtime rates should be paid would be as follows during the
months of the year 1949 for the undertakings covered by
Article 553 of the Penal Code : 196 in January, 188 in February,
212 in March, 200 in April, 204 in May, 208 in June, 188 in
July, 216 in August, 200 in September, 204 in October, 196
in November and 212 in December. For undertakings in
respect of which Article 553 of the Penal Code provides certain
exemptions, the maximum hours are to be 192 in February
and 208 in other months of the year.
A law of 9 August 1930 provides for an eight-hour day for
Public Works employees of the Insular Government or of any
municipality or Government Board. Similar provision for
the Insular Police is contained in a 1941 law. 1 Act No. 41 of
1942 authorises the Commissioner of Interior to fix the daily
working hours in the telegraph and telephone offices of the
1

Act No. 28 of 1941.

320

LABOTJB, POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

Insular Telegraph Company and provides for an eight-hour
day except in extraordinary circumstances.
Article 553 of the Penal Code, as amended, specifies the
statutory holidays on which the opening of commercial
and industrial undertakings is prohibited subject to certain
scheduled exceptions.
Protection of wages. A considerable volume of legislation
for the protection of wages exists in Puerto Rico.
A law originally enacted in 1908 x requires that daily
labourers be paid in legal currency. Another early l a w 2
prescribes special simple legal procedure for the recovery of
wages due. A law of 1930 3 fixes the compensation rates due
to an employee in case of termination of employment without
reasonable cause or previous notice ; an amending law, Act
No. 84 of 1943, requires the payment of one month's wages as
indemnity under these circumstances, where the terms of the
contract are indefinite. These provisions are supplemented by
Act No. 17 of 1937, declaring any contract of employment,
which authorises the employer to discharge the employee
without previous notice or just cause, void in regard to that
stipulation, and further penalises an employer who induces or
allows an employee to enter into such a contract. Another
law 4 requires that Public Works contractors shall pay their
employees their full wages at intervals not exceeding one week.
Such wages shall constitute the first charge on contractors apart
from any monies due to the Government or municipalities.
The Minimum Wage Act, as amended, stipulates that—
. . . by reason of bhe enforcement of this Act, no employer shall
impose rent of any kind on workers or employees who five in, or
occupy, dwellings, houses, lots, or tracts of land belonging to him ;
nor shall he increase the rent which, at the time this Act takes
effect, he may be charging them for said dwellings (etc
) nor shall
he collect nor deduct any amount from the wages of said workers
or employees for meals served in the course or duration of employment.
Finally, Act No. 27 of 1942, which applies to undertakings
employing more than ten persons, contains provisions directed
against the truck system or advances which would limit
workers' freedom of choice in making purchases.
1

Act
Act
3
Act
4
Act
2

No.
No.
No.
No.

12 of 1908, amended 1931.
10 of 1917, amended 1931.
49 of 1930.
31 of 23 Apr. 1931.

LABOUR LEGISLATION

321

Labour Administration and General Conditions of Work.
Labour supervisions. The 1931 Organic Act of the Department of Labor, as amended, is a comprehensive law defining
the machinery for labour supervision more elaborately than is
customary in the British Caribbean territories. I t constitutes a
Department of Labor, headed by a Commissioner of Labor, and
including the following commissions, services, bureaux and divisions : Office of the Commissioner ; Administrative Office ; Service of Industrial Supervision ; Division of Hygiene and Industrial Safety ; Bureau of Labor Statistics ; Child Bureau ; Employment Service ; Legal Division ; Mediation and Conciliation
Service ; Bureau of Publications and Education of Laborers ;
Women's Bureau ; Member of Examiners of Social Workers ;
Industrial Commission ; Minimum Wage Board ; Labor Relations Board; Board of Industrial Safety; Commission of Social
Security; Labor Organizations Accounting Service; Employment Security Division. The Act states the purposes of the
Department in general terms as being : to protect and to promote
the interests and well-being of Puerto Eican workers, to direct
its endeavours to improve their living and working conditions
and increasing their opportunities of obtaining gainful employment. In defining the functions of the Commissioner of Labor
these general principles are restated in terms of rather more
precise methods and procedures: these include improving
relations between employers and workers by mediation and
conciliation, inquiry into the causes producing dissatisfaction
among workers, the study of the living and working conditions
of the labouring class as regards hours and work, wages,
hygiene, and safety, and the study and codification of labour
legislation. The Commissioner (or his deputy) is to be an
ex-officio member of—
. . . all bodies, members, or commissions that have been, or
may be, hereafter legally constituted for developing and preserving
the welfare of the laborers of Puerto Eico, for improving their living
and working conditions, for furnishing and amplifying their opportunities for employment, for protecting the life, health, and safety of
workmen and employees and for intervening in the solution of industrial and agricultural conflicts, and all such bodies are to be under
the jurisdiction of the Department of Labor.
Provision 1 regarding the right of entry, inspection, receiving
testimony and securing documentary evidence in pursuance
1
These provisions are similar to those cited in connection with the Minimum
Wage Act.

322

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

of the Department's functions, is included. The spheres of
competence of the more important divisions and services are
defined in detail.
Other provisions. The most important provision in this
category is the power residing in the Minimum Wage Board
under the Minimum Wage Act to regulate conditions of work,
other than hours or wages, as part of its general procedure. A
number of provisions discussed above, e.g., those relating to
safety, also fall under this head.
An Industrial Homework Act of 1939 1 contains provisions
regulating this form of employment. The manufacture of
several types of articles in a home are prohibited ; these
include articles of food or drink, explosives, drugs and poisons,
tobacco, cigarettes or cigars and any articles the processing
of which requires exposure to substance determined by the
Department of Labor to be hazardous to the health or safety
of the persons exposed thereto. The Department of Labor is
empowered to perform inspections designed to determine
whether conditions of employment are injurious to the health
and welfare of workers and whether wages and conditions of
employment prevailing are fair and reasonable and fulfil legal
requirements and to take prescribed steps to remedy any
irregularities discovered. Employers, contractors and subcontractors must obtain permits before engaging workers in
industrial homework. Industrial homework shall be performed
only by persons over 16 possessing a valid home-worker's
certificate and resident in the home in which the work is
done ; it shall be performed only during the hours fixed by
law as permissible hours of work in factories by persons of
the same age and sex as the home-worker and only in a home
that is clean and sanitary and free from communicable disease.
Penalties are provided for violation and necessary general
inspection and investigation facilities accorded.
There are, in addition, a few miscellaneous items of legislation on specific occupations which deserve brief notice. Act
íío. 64 of 1931 provides for the regulation of loads to be removed
by porterage, and Act No. 117 of 1936 prohibits the stripping
of tobacco in dwelling-houses.

No. 163 of 1939.

323

LABOUR LEGISLATION

Local Labour Legislation of the Virgin

Islands

The labour legislation of the Virgin Islands is on a modest
scale. No legislation exists, for example, in the field of industrial relations, contracts of employment and cash payment
of wages or regulating the employment of women, the only
legal restriction on the employment of children under specified
ages is derived from an Education Act designed primarily for
other purposes and labour inspection is limited to arrangements necessary for the effective enforcement of federal and
local minimum wage legislation.
The Education Law of 1940, which requires children of
six to 15 years of age to attend school, makes it illegal to
employ a child of compulsory school attendance age during
school hours. The employment of juveniles in hazardous
occupations is also prohibited in St. Thomas.
Local legislation in respect of minimum wages and
maximum hours is in force in the municipality of St. Thomas
and St. John, but not in St. Croix.
The Hill Wage and Hour Act of 17 November 1941, as
amended, does not apply to employees engaged in agriculture
or in domestic employment in a private home or to employees
paid a salary of $100 a month or more. Five categories of
workers are defined—utility workers, sales or service clerks,
unskilled labour, semi-skilled labour and skilled labour—and
employers are required to pay minimum hourly rates according
to the grade of worker employed—respectively 10 cents, 15
cents, 20 cents, 30 cents and 40 cents. Provision is made for
overtime at time-and-one-half rates for hours in excess of
eight hours a day or 48 a week ; in establishments where overtime was calculated on the basis of night work prior to the
enactment of the ordinance, that arrangement was to continue,
subject to the condition that the usual overtime rate was paid.
The Act creates an Office of Wage Commissioner, and this
official is responsible for its administration. His powers
include classification of workers in the categories specified and
determination of the rates to be paid to apprentices, learners
and non-able-bodied workers. Employers are required to
keep and supply such records as to wages, hours and other
conditions of work as are prescribed by the Wage Commissioner.
Apart from the Kean Workmen's Compensation Act of

324

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

the Municipality of St. Thomas and St. John 1, there is little
other labour legislation in the accepted sense of the term in
force in the Virgin Islands.
The Full Employment Act of 1945 states the policy of the
Government of the Virgin Islands in this field in the following
terms :
It is the responsibility of the Government of the Virgin Islands to
foster free competitive private enterprise and the investment of
private capital. All Virgin Islanders able to work and seeking work
are entitled to an opportunity for useful, remunerative, regular, and
full-time employment, including self-employment in agriculture,
commerce, industry or the professions.
In order to assure the free exercise of the opportunity for employment set forth above, the Government of the Virgin Islands has the
responsibility, with the assistance and concerted efforts of industry,
agriculture, labor and municipal governments and consistent with
the needs and obligations of the Government of the Virgin Islands,
to assure continuing full employment, that is, the existence at all
times of sufficient employment opportunities for all Virgin Islanders
able to work and seeking work.
FRENCH TERRITORIES

The essential principles and general provisions of the labour
legislation of Guadeloupe, Martinique and French Guiana are
virtually identical. 2 For this reason, the summary that
follows is to be regarded as relating to all three Departments,
unless the provisions concerned are specifically noted as
applying to particular areas. Examples are also given of
specific local measures of application where these measures
present a particular interest.
The continued and accelerated process of application of
French metropolitan legislation to the new Overseas Departments makes the establishment of a definitive summary of
the labour legislation of those areas particularly difficult at
the present time. The situation in regard to the application
of the uncodified legislation of metropolitan France presents
the most serious difficulties in this respect. Because of this
process of legislative change and the incomplete information
available to the International Labour Office, the account here
1

Cf. Chapter VII.
Por purposes of convenience, reference is made to the Labour Code of
Martinique, 1939, which presents in codified form the body of provisions common
to the three areas, as well as to measures of specific application to Martinique.
Cf. Code du Travail de la Martinique et Réglementation Annexe, Fort-de-France,
1939 (hereinafter referred to as Code).
2

LABOUR LEGISLATION

325

given of the labour legislation of the French West Indies must
be regarded as being of a more provisional character than that
provided for other parts of the West Indies. It can, however,
be asserted in principle that metropolitan legislation is almost
entirely in force in the three Departments, with the notable
exception of the texts relating to foreign workers.
Contracts of Employment, Entry into Employment
and Migration
Contracts of

Employment.1

Contracts of employment are subject to the common law
and may be set out in the form deemed appropriate by the
contracting parties. Where there is no proven agreement to
the contrary, the length of time for which services are hired
is to be deemed that customary in the locality. With certain
specified exceptions, the duration of contracts may not exceed
one year. Fines for infraction of the internal working rules
of an undertaking may only be inflicted if the employer has
fulfilled certain conditions designed to ensure that the worker
is aware of these rules. For any given infraction, such a fine
may not amount to more than a quarter of the worker's daily
wage and may only be deducted for violation of rules in regard
to discipline, health or safety.
Contracts for an indeterminate period may be terminated
at the will of either party. The period of notice necessary is to
be in accordance with local practice in the occupation concerned or by the terms of a collective agreement, where such
exists. The liquidation of an undertaking does not absolve an
employer from fulfilling his obligations in this regard.
Provision is made in regard to the damages which may be
claimed in the event of a contract being broken without fulfilment of the necessary conditions fixed by law.
On the termination of a contract, a worker is entitled to
require from his employer a certificate showing only the date
of entry into employment, the date of leaving employment,
and the type of work performed.
Special provision is made in regard to workers required for
military service and in regard to maritime workers.
1

Code, Book I, Title I I , pp. 8 et seq.

326

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

Employment

Exchanges.1

Provision is made in regard to both public and private
placement arrangements. The body of arrangements noted
immediately below was previously applicable to all three areas,
but legislation summarised below has altered the position in
Martinique.
Every employment exchange is required to submit weekly
returns on its placement activities and applications. Recruiting for work outside the territory concerned or the recruiting
of workers abroad for work inside the territory may only be
effected by special permission of the competent authority.
Detailed provision is made defining the responsibilities of
the principal municipalities in regard to the maintenance of
free public employment exchanges and the conditions of operation of fee-charging employment agencies.
In Martinique, Administrative Orders of 19 January 1937
and 20 March 1938 set up municipal employment exchanges
in Lamentin and Fort-de-France respectively.
Two Administrative Orders of 16 January 1947 2 made
further provision in regard to the establishment of an Employment Service in Martinique. The Employment Service set up
is attached to the Labour Inspection Service. Its principal
functions are stated as being (a) the placing of unemployed
workers ; (b) controlling engagement and (c) compiling
statistics in regard to labour demand and supply.
With the establishment of the Employment Service, the
entire previous system of placement is profoundly altered.
Placement is stated to be the exclusive province of the Service ; all workers seeking employment and all employers
seeking to engage workers are required to act through the
Service ; newspaper advertisements in this regard must be
authorised by the Service. Exception is made only in the
case of workers engaged for short periods in the agricultural
or forest industry.
Immigration.
Legislation was adopted in 1948 in French Guiana for the
promotion of immigration. Administrative Order iio. 67/IT
of 13 January 1948 assigns the Inspector of Labour of the
1
2

Code, Book I , Title IV, pp. 32 (i) et seq.
Arrêtés Nos. 82 and 83. Journal Officiel de la Martinique,

23 J a n . 1947.

LABOUR LEGISLATION

327

Department of Guiana the task of co-ordinating all activities
in regard to immigration at the Departmental level. His
tasks are stated as being in particular : (1) investigating continuously the opportunities for recruiting workers from outside
the Department ; (2) publicity to promote immigration and
the provision of information to prospective immigrants and
(3) assistance to immigrants.
Industrial

Relations

Freedom of Association.
The basic legislation of the French West Indies in regard
to freedom of association consists of the relevant Articles of
two laws of metropolitan France. 1
The purposes of occupational organisations are stated to
be exclusively the study and protection of the occupational
interests of their members in industry, commerce or agriculture.
Such organisations are to consist of persons engaged in the
same type of occupation or related occupations. They are
accorded legal personality and the right to engage in a wide
field of activity related to their functions, for example, providing information in regard to placement, establishing
mutual aid funds and retirement funds. They are exempted from
a number of provisions of the penal code and of other legislation which would preclude their proper functioning.
Collective Agreements.2
Very detailed provision is made in the legislation of the
three Departments establishing the status, effective duration,
methods of termination and sanctions against the infringement
of collective agreements. For the most part these provisions
concern procedure.
Conciliation and

Arbitration.3

Provision is made in the first place, for the establishment
of a system of elected Arbitration Boards (Conseils des Prudhommes).
These are permanent institutions, members of
which are elected to serve for a period of six years, half of
1
Law of 21 Mar. 1884 regarding occupational organisation, as amended by
Law of 12 Mar. 1920.
2
Code, Book I, Title II, Chapter V, pp. 16-24.
3
Ibid. pp. 67-89.

328

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

each Board being elected at three-yearly intervals. Boards are
composed of employers and workers, elected respectively by
employers' and workers' electoral colleges, in equal number.
They have two broad sets of functions—conciliation and
judicial decision and are required to set up internal machinery
to deal separately wi'ih those two main functions.
Conciliation is stated to be their primary purpose. They
may intervene for purposes of conciliation not only between
employers and workers but between workers. Industrial
accidents are excluded from their field of legitimate interest.
Upon request, they are also required to advise the administrative authorities in regard to labour questions. Their judicial
functions may be exercised only when attempts at conciliation
have failed. They are empowered to take final decisions of
a judicial character when the amount of compensation, wages
due, etc., does not exceed a given sum; where it exceeds this
sum, they act as a court of first instance.
A Decree of 30 August 1937 made further provision in
regard to conciliation and arbitration in collective labour
disputes. It was required that the procedure prescribed should
be followed before strike or lockout action was taken.
A Conciliation Committee was to be set up, under this
Decree, in the capitals of each of the three French West
Indian territories and was to be composed of a chairman,
who should be a member of the judiciary, and an equal number
of employers' and workers' representatives. The Committee's
function was to decide whether any given dispute was an
individual or collective dispute. If any collective dispute
continued for more than four clear days it might be referred,
at the instance of either party or of the Governor, to a Mixed
Conciliation Commission composed of an equal number of
employers' and workers' representatives with a representative
of the Governor as chairman. The Chief of the Labour Inspection Service was required to attend all meetings of this Commission. Should the Commission after a given period fail to
secure a solution of the dispute, such dispute should then be
referred, with the comment of the Commission, to an arbitrator or arbitrators appointed jointly or separately by the
parties. Such arbitrators shall be taken from lists submitted
annually by employers and workers to the Governor. Should
the arbitrators fail to arrive at a decision within three days,
they are required either to agree on a final arbitrator or submit

329

LABOUR LEGISLATION

their observations to the Governor, who would then appoint
a final arbitrator. Arbitration decisions would not be subject
to appeal.
Industrial Health and Safety

The legislation of the French West Indies in this respect
comprises (a) general provisions, (b) provisions relating to
the employment of women and children, (c) provisions for
the mining industry, (d) provisions in regard to the use of
white lead in painting, (e) provisions in regard to the weight
of heavy packages to be transported by vessels and (f)
provisions in regard to safety and health in maritime employment.
The provisions of a general character apply to specified industrial and commercial undertakings. In particular,
requirements are laid down in principle in regard to sanitation,
health and hygienic conditions in such undertakings, the
installation, maintenance and shielding of machinery and
other safety measures.
The distribution of all except certain specified beverages is
prohibited in such undertakings. The Governor-in-Council is
empowered to make regulations covering, inter alia, minimum
standards in regard to lighting, ventilation, drinking water,
fire-fighting equipment, the provision of lavatories, etc.
Women and young persons may not be employed in any of
the scheduled occupations on dangerous work or work beyond
their strength, in accordance with regulations to be made by
the Go vernor-in-Council. An apprentice may not, under any
circumstances, be required to undertake work which may be
dangerous to his health or beyond his strength. ' Women shop
assistants must be provided with seats.
The use of specified lead compounds is prohibited for painting. The weight of objects weighing more than one metric
ton should be marked on the outside in a clear and durable
manner.
Social Insurance and Assistance
An account is given elsewhere 2 of the comprehensive social
security arrangements which are at present being introduced
1
2

Code, Book II, Title II, pp. 49 et seq.
Cf. Chapter VII.

330

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

into the French West Indies and which cover the risks of
industrial accident and occupational disease. Nevertheless
the arrangements previously in force in regard to workmen's
compensation, and which do not yet appear to have been
superseded, seem of sufficient interest to be summarised
here.
Workmen's

Compensation.1

A Decree of 19 July 1925 extended to Martinique and
Guadeloupe the legislation of metropolitan France in force
at that time in regard to accident compensation. These provisions were extended at a later date to French Guiana.
Separate provision was made in regard to working in industry and commerce, on the one hand, and agriculture on the
other.
The arrangements in regard to industrial and commercial
workers entitled workers to compensation in regard to accidents which disabled them for more than four days. Permanent total disabüity was to be compensable by a pension
equal to two thirds of the victim's annual earnings ; permanent
partial disability by a pension equal to one half of the loss in
earning capacity entailed, and temporary disability at the
rate of one half of earnings during the period of disability,
such compensation being due from the day of accident if
disability lasted for more than 10 days and from the fifth day
after the accident if disability lasted for less than 10 days, at
intervals not exceeding 16 days. Provision was also made in
regard to the payments due to dependents of workers whose
death was caused by industrial accident. The employer was
also made responsible for medical and funeral expenses up to
a given maximum. A Special Guarantee Fund was established
in each territory for the payment of compensation due for
permanent disability or death, where the employer or the
insurance company, with which he was insured, defaulted.
The accident compensation legislation applying to workers
in agriculture and forestry followed the same broad principles ;
only specified classes of workers were covered, however, and
there were a number of differences in procedure in regard to
application and payment of compensation.

Code, pp. 316-337.

LABOUR LEGISLATION

331

Employment of Women and Juveniles
Juvenile

Employment.1

Legislation exists in all three Departments applying the
following international labour Conventions : Minimum Age
(Industry), 1919 ; Night Work (Young Persons), 1919 ; Medical
Examination (Sea), 1921 ; and Minimum Age (Non-Industrial
Employment), 1932.
Special provision is also made in respect of (a) the health
and safety of employed juvenile workers and (b) contracts of
apprenticeship.
The Employment of Women.2
Legislation exists in all three Departments prohibiting the
employment of women underground or at night in accordance
with the terms of the relevant international labour Conventions. Other provisions cover (a) maternity protection,
(b) special provisions in regard to the health and safety of
women in employment and (c) rest periods for nursing
mothers and expectant mothers.
Hours and Wages
Wage-Fixing

Arrangements.

The system of minimum wage fixing in the three Departments is based on the principle of extending by Administrative
Order to all sectors of an industry or occupation the standards
set or levels fixed by collective agreement between employers'
and workers' representatives representing a major part of the
industry or occupation concerned.
A family allowance system is a basic part of the wagefixing arrangements.
Regulation of Hours of Work.
General provision is made limiting hours of work in industrial and commercial establishments to 40 hours a week in principle. The application of these provisions to particular occupations or industries, however, is to be effected separately for each
industry or occupation by Order of the Governor-in-Council.
1
2

Code, pp. 4-8, 36, 38 et seq., 49-53.
Ibid., pp. 38 et seq., 49-53.

332

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

Protection of Wages.
Legislative provision exists in all three Departments in
regard to (a) cash payment of wages, (b) periodicity of wage
payments, (c) provision that payment should not be made
during period of weekly rest, (d) limitation on the right of
the employer to withhold any part of wages, (e) attachment
of wages, (f) truck arrangements and company shops, and
(g) stipulation that payment should not be paid in shops,
except for employees thereof.
Labour Administration and General Conditions of Work
Labour

Administration.1

The legislation of the three Departments specifies the rights
and duties of the labour inspection service and the obligations
of employers to keep records, post notices and provide access
to the labour inspectors.
Conditions of Work.
As is the case with minimum wage fixing, the principle of
proclaiming the terms of collective agreements applicable to
all sectors of an industry or occupation is the principal form
of legislative action in regard to the regulation of conditions
of work. Nevertheless, general legislation makes provision
notably in regard to weekly rest and holidays with pay.
The following recent legislation in regard to holidays with
pay is of interest.
A Decree of 30 January 1948 2, made applicable to Martinique, Guadeloupe and French Guiana the provisions of
the legislation of metropolitan France in regard to holidays
with pay.
The terms of this legislation apply to workers in industry
and commerce, but not in agriculture. The period of holidays
with pay to which the worker is entitled varies in accordance
with his age, the period for which he has worked in the preceding year, and length of service. For persons over 21 years
of age the period of holidays with pay consists of one working
day for each month worked during the previous year, calculation being made on the basis oí the year 1 June to 31 May.
1
2

Code, pp. 55-57.
Decree No. 48-592.

333

LABOUR LEGISLATION

For a full year's work the period of paid leave is thus 12
working days or two weeks. For young persons under 18,
the equivalent period of paid leave is four weeks for a full
working year ; for persons between 18 and 21 the equivalent
period is three weeks. The duration of holidays with pay
for persons under 21 who have worked less than a full year
during the previous 12 months is calculated in proportion
to the total period of leave due had they worked for the full
year. In addition, workers over 21 are entitled to an additional
day of paid leave for each five years of continuous service up
to a maximum of six such days.
In determining the length of leave due, prescribed holidays
with pay, maternity leave and absence from work through
incapacity, accident or industrial disease are regarded as part
of the effective working period.
For workers whose work is by its nature intermittent, for
example, in the building trade, periods of 24 working days are
regarded as being equivalent to one month.
During the period of holidays with pay, workers are entitled
to receive the same remuneration as they would have received
had they been at work. Where part of the workers' remuneration consists of payment in kind, provision is made for appropriate compensation. Where a worker's contract is terminated,
the employer is required to compensate him for the period of
paid leave he has been unable to take at a rate scheduled in
the legislation under consideration.
Employers are required to keep registers showing the
arrangements made for providing paid holidays for their
employees, and to place such registers at the disposal of the
labour inspection service.
NETHERLANDS TERRITORIES

Contracts of Employment
Contracts of

and Entry

into

Employment

Employment.

The following provisions in this regard are common to the
Netherlands Antilles and Surinam.
The employment contract is defined as one—
. . . whereby one party, the employee, agrees to perform work
during a specified time in the service of the other party, the employer, in return for pay.
22

334

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

Notice of intention to terminate the employment must be
given at least one month in advance ; in the case of employees
with service of one, two or three years, the period of advance
notice is increased to two, three or Jour months, respectively.
On termination of service, the employer is obliged to give the
employee, upon request, a signed and dated testimonial.
A contract may be terminated without notice by employer
or employee, but this is unlawful without consent of the other
party unless compensation is paid or termination is for reasons
recognised by the law as valid, as follows : (a) for the employer
—furnishing of false information by the employee at time of
hiring ; inability of employee to perform work required of
him ; drunkenness or other misconduct on part of the
employees ; theft, embezzlement, fraud or other misdemeanour ; maltreatment, abuse, or threats directed at the employer
or fellow employees ; influencing of the employer or fellow
employees to act in contravention of the law or of good morals ;
damaging or endangering property of the employer ; employee's
exposing himself or others to serious danger ; disclosure of
confidential details of the employer's household or business
affairs ; refusal to comply with reasonable requests made by
the employer or his representatives ; and serious disregard of
other obligations imposed upon him by the contract ; and (b)
for the employee—maltreatment, abuse, or unlawful threat ;
failure to pay wages at the time stipulated ; failure to provide
proper food and shelter included as part of the compensation ;
failure to provide sufficient work when the pay is based on
output ; serious failure to comply with any other obligations
imposed upon him by the contract ; and insistence that the
employee, against his will and without reason connected with
the nature of the work, render services in the establishment of
another employer. The employee may leave his work without
notice if continuation would involve serious danger to his life,
health, morals, or reputation, or if, because of sickness or
other causes beyond his control, he is not able to perform the
work required.
I t is also stipulated that the employer must provide the
employee with a complete text of the regulations, post for
public inspection a signed copy at the office of the local District
Commissioner and post a legible copy in a place easily accessible
to the employee. An employee may not agree in advance to
accept the terms of regulations to be established in the future

LABOTJE LEGISLATION

335

or to accept some future amendment to existing regulations.
Eegulations must always be published in enterprises which
employ more than 20 persons, unless a separate written contract
is concluded with each employee.
Employment

Exchanges.

Legislation in regard to the establishment of employment
exchanges exists only in the Netherlands Antilles. The relevant legislation describes the functions of the machinery
set up in the following terms :
The public employment service is a service directed and maintained by public authority for the purpose of assisting employers
to find labour and workers to find employment.
The duties of the employment service are as follows :
To act as intermediary with regard to labour supply and
demand ; to act as intermediary between employers in Curaçao
and workers abroad, and vice versa ; to collect and furnish
data concerning the state of the labour market in Curaçao and
abroad ; to collect data on which statistics of the placings may
be based ; to submit an annual report on the public employment
service ; to publish information for vocational guidance ; and
to promote vocational training. No charge is made for placement ; the office is allowed to draw fees only to cover expenses
incurred at the express request of an employer or worker. I t
is to inform applicants about strikes or lockouts which may
arise in undertakings, as far as it has been informed, and it
must acquaint applicants for work with the conditions of work
offered to them. It may not be held responsible for the consequences of placements effected through its agency.
It is provided that there should be a Head Office on the
island of Curaçao and a Branch Office on the island of Aruba.
Other branch offices may be set up as required. 1
Registration of workers. In 1940 legislation was enacted in
the Netherlands Antilles relating to the registration of workers
with a view to the organisation of the labour supply and the
control of conditions of employment. 2 It applies to all gainfully employed workers who are from the Netherlands or are
Netherlands subjects, whether or not resident in the Netherlands Antilles, in the service of private employers, of the Gov1
2

Ordinance of 4 July 1946 ; Publicatiebhd, No. 109 of 1946.
Publicatieblad, No. 106 of 1945 ; 1946, No. 1.

836

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

ernment of the Netherlands Antilles or of the Netherlands
Government. I t also applies to apprentices and trainees, even
when not in receipt of wages. Exemptions include outworkers,
persons entering into work contracts who are thereby considered to be employers, heads of undertakings, wives and
parents of the employer, children of the employer living in
his home and exclusively employed in his service, seamen,
persons belonging to a religious order and persons earning a
yearly salary of 10,000 guilders or more.
Workers covered are required to possess work books which
shall contain particulars of the worker and of his occupation
or craft. On the request of the employer concerned, foreign
workers may be exempted for yearly periods if they have
already undertaken, when abroad, to work exclusively in the
service of the employer. Work books are to be retained by
the employer during the period of service and are to be accessible to controlling officials. After the termination of a contract of service, any worker who does not enter into a new
contract within one week is required to surrender his work
book to an administrative authority.
An employer may not enter in a work book information
other than the date at which the worker enters or leaves his
service, the occupation, functions or craft of the worker, and
particulars of the occupation or undertaking of the employer.
Except in the case of domestic servants, the employer is
required to keep a register containing the same information
concerning the worker as that contained in the work book, as
well as a statement of the stipulated wages,
Industrial

Relations

Special provision regarding the conditions of establishment
and legal activities of trade unions does not exist in the Netherlands territories. In the constitutions of both the Netherlands
Antilles and Surinam it is laid down that the right of association and assembly can in the interest of public order,
morality and health be regulated and limited by Ordinance.
During 1946 machinery for the settlement of labour
disputes was established in Surinam and the Netherlands
Antilles. In Surinam a Conciliation Board 1 was set up to
1

Gouvernementsblad, No. 104 of 1946.

LABOUR LEGISLATION

337

promote the settlement of labour disputes. This Board was
set up for Surinam as a whole, but the Governor was empowered to establish additional boards if considered necessary.
The Board consists of from three to five members including a
chairman. The members are nominated by the Governor,
Employers, employees or trade unions can make application
to the Board.
The Board is competent only in the case of a dispute which
threatens to give rise to, or has already caused, strikes or
lockouts in one or more undertaking. The Board is not competent with regard to the following : cases in which the parties
have their own conciliator or arbitrator ; cases in which the
dispute has been caused by action on the part of one of the
parties calculated to avoid compliance with the terms of
collective agreements or the decision of a conciliator or arbitrator ; and cases which fall within the competence of a court
of law. When agreement has been reached, a memorandum
is drawn up and signed by both parties.
Provision is also made for the settlement of labour disputes
by arbitration. The parties bind themselves, by means of a
memorandum drawn up in the presence of the chairman of
the Conciliation Board, to submit the dispute to an Arbitration.
Board or an arbitrator. This memorandum contains, inter
alia, the points of dispute to be brought before the Arbitration
Board and the duration of the arbitration decision. If the
two parties so request, the Conciliation Board is required to
act as an Arbitration Board.
The provisions of an arbitration decision dealing with
labour conditions become part of the contractual obligations,
of the parties concerned for the duration of the arbitration
decision. The Governor is empowered to reverse a decision
or to order its revision in the following circumstances : cases.
in which a decision has not taken into account the provisions
of the memorandum by which the parties bound themselves
to submit the dispute to an Arbitration Board ; cases in which
the proceedings did not comply with the provisions of thelegislation concerned; cases in which the decision or the;
memorandum was based on falsified documents or on false,
statements.
In the Netherlands Antilles a Government Conciliator
has been appointed to promote industrial peace. If a dispute
involving at least 25 workers threatens to give rise to a strike

338

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

or lockout, the parties concerned are compelled to submit their
dispute for mediation by the Government Conciliator. I n
disputes involving fewer than 25 workers, the parties concerned may, if they so choose, submit their dispute to mediation
proceedings.
The Conciliator is not competent with regard to the following : cases in which the parties have their own conciliator,
unless attempts at conciliation have failed ; and cases which
fall within the competence of a court of law. The Conciliator
is empowered to order the appearance before him of the
disputing parties. Failure to comply with this order is a
punishable offence. His duties are to seek to bring about
settlement of the dispute and offer advice with regard to labour
conditions.
The dispute can also be submitted for arbitration. The
parties bind themselves by means of a memorandum, drawn
up in the presence of the Conciliator, to submit the dispute
to an Arbitration Board and to abide by its decision. In case
of a threatened strike or lockout, the Conciliator is obliged to
inform the Governor. The Governor is empowered to fix a
term (maximum : 30 days) during which time a strike or lockout is prohibited. Contravention of this provision constitutes
an offence punishable by a maximum penalty of one year's
imprisonment or a fine of 600 guilders.
Industrial Health and Safety
The safety legislation in force in the Netherlands territories
empowers the Governor to issue regulations for giving effect
to the purposes of the law and for the purpose of ensuring the
health and safety of persons who are employed in any factory
or in connection with machinery. The Safety Ordinance in
Surinam x contains provision requiring the compulsory registration of factories and of places where machinery is used. I n
the Netherlands Antilles special legislation respecting the
protection of dockers against accidents is in force.2 Under
this Ordinance the Governor is empowered to issue regulations
covering the safety of workers during loading and unloading
operations ; the administration of first aid in the event of
1
2

Gouvernementsblad, No. 142 of 1947.
Publicatieblad, No. 28 of 1946.

LABOUR LEGISLATION

339

accident and damage to health resulting from loading and
unloading operations. Such regulations were issued and deal
with means of access to the ships and means of transport of
the workers, fencing of machinery, construction of winches
and hoisting gear, annealing of chains, etc., measures for the
prevention of diseases, protection against dust and gases,
drinking water, cleanliness and washing facilities, dressing
rooms, etc. Most of these provisions are in conformity with
the Protection against Accidents (Dockers) Convention
(Eevised), 1932.
Employment of Women and Juveniles
ÏTo legislation is in force prohibiting or regulating the
employment of women underground and during the night in
the Netherlands Antilles.
The Government has stated that there is no reason to
enact legislation on these subjects because the employment
of women on night work or underground work does not occur
in these territories. The only legislation concerned especially
with women is the legislation on maternity protection in
force in the Netherlands Antilles. Maternity benefits are the
same as those for sickness for all married women insured by
their employers. In the case of widows and divorced women,
maternity benefits are payable if confinement takes place
within 300 days following the death of the husband or the date
of divorce. They also receive obstetrical treatment by a
midwife and, if necessary, by a medical practitioner, and
nursing care is supplied. Female workers are not entitled to
these benefits if conception has occured previous to the date
of entering into contract, or if confinement takes place within
six months after entering into contract. In the case of the
contract being terminated within ten weeks before confinement, the worker is entitled to maternity benefits.
The Governor is empowered in special cases to grant these
benefits in whole or in part to unmarried women workers. In
case of pregnancy, female workers are entitled to cash benefits
for a period of two months whether capable of working or not,
but the date of confinement must fall within these two months.
If incapacity is caused by pregnancy or confinement, cash
benefits are paid for a duration of two months, excluding the
first three days of incapacity, on the understanding that the

340

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

maximum duration of such benefits does not exceed four
months. The employer is prohibited from deducting the cost
of this insurance from wages. 1
The provisions relating to children and young persons
concern their minimum age for entry into various forms of
employment. The following table summarises the principal
standards in force under the existing provisions :
General
employment

Territories

Sea

13
12

—

Industry

13
12

Nightwork
industry

Hours and Wages
Minimum

Wages.

Minimum wage fixing machinery exists only in the Netherlands Antilles. By an Ordinance of 1947, the Governor is
empowered, on the advice of a special commission, to fix a
minimum wage level for one or more groups of workers for a
maximum period of one year. I t is prohibited to enter into
or continue in force a contract which calls for a wage which
is below the set minimum. The Governor, however, is empowered in special cases to fix wages under the set minimum. The
above-mentioned commission nominated by the Governor is
composed of two employers and two employees.
Under the Dock Labour Board Ordinance 2, by which the
workers are divided into three classes, the first class workers
have a guaranteed minimum wage of 25 guilders a week,
whether they work or not.
Maximum

Hours.

The first legislative enactment to limit working hours in
the Netherlands territories was a 1940 Ordinance 3 regulating
hours of work of shop assistants in the Netherlands Antilles.
The Ordinance limits working hours in shops to 10 a day and
56 a week. I t is further provided that the working hours
1

Publicatieblad, No. 101 of 1946.
Ibid., No. 110 of 1946.
3
Ibid., No. 86 of 1940.
2

LABOUR, LEGISLATION

341

prescribed per day should be subject to a break of at least
one and a half hours, which period may be spent outside the
shop. The employer is required to keep a list showing the
working hours of his employees and to post this list in his
shop. The lists have to be renewed regularly if the working
hours of one or more workers have been changed. In each
shop a register has also to be kept, in which all labourers are
registered while working in the shop.
Legislation enacted in 1941 regarding the hours of work
of office workers 1 follows the same pattern as that for shop
assistants. A clerk in an office may not work longer than
eight hours a day and 48 a week. For offices which form part
of a shop, chemist's shop, restaurant, hotel or nursing-home,
hours of work are fixed at 48 a week.
Protection of Wages.
The very detailed provisions on protection of wages which are
incorporated in the Civil Codes of the Netherlands Antilles and
of Surinam are similar to those in force in the Netherlands itself.
Wages are to be paid in money, food, workclothes, a dwelling
place, the use of a piece of land, allowances or privileges, and
under conditions carefully prescribed by law. A contract by
which conditions are imposed as to the place or manner in
which any part of the wages shall be spent is null and void.
Deduction may be made only in respect of compensation which
the employee owes to the employer : fines imposed by the
employer in accordance with the legislation ; any unpaid rent
of any rented house or cottage lent by the employer to the
employee ; any estimated cost for the use of any materials,
tools or implements supplied by the employer to the employee
at the latter's request ; the actual or estimated cost to the
employer of any goods supplied by him to the employee for
the personal use of the employee ; any money advances by
the employer to the employee; any medicine or medical attendance supplied by the employer but which the law requires to
be paid by the employee.
Except upon termination of service, total deduction may
not amount to more than one fifth of the money wages earned
since the last payment of wages. In the case of an employer
not paying the wages at the appropriate date, the employee has
a claim for compensation which amounts to 5 per cent, per day
1

Publicatieblad, No. 225 of 1942.

342

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

from the fourth up to the eighth day of delay ; for each following day 1 per cent, of the wage. The total compensation for
delay in the payment by the employer cannot amount to more
than half of the amount of wages due to the employee.
Attachment of a worker's wages is only permitted up to
two fifths of wages.
Deferred wages may only amount to one tenth of wages
and is permitted only for the purpose of compensation due by
the employee to the employer.
Conditions of WorJc.
Statutory provision for holidays with pay came into force
in Surinam and in the Netherlands Antilles in 1949.1
Legislation in the two territories is substantially similar.
Under the Netherlands Antilles Ordinance, all wage
earners employed in establishments in which more than one
employee is employed are entitled to an annual holiday with
pay of one week for a full year. 2 Contracts providing for a
longer such period are not to be affected by the Ordinance. The
following classes of workers are excluded from the operation
of the Ordinance : seafarers, outworkers, domestic workers
and children of the employer living with him. Workers who
during a given year have been absent from work for the purpose of fulfilling obligations required by law {e.g., military
service) for a period of not less than six weeks or for reasons
of sickness or accident for not less than six months are not
entitled to such annual holidays. 3 Holidays may be accumulated up to a maximum of four weeks.
The period at which holiday may be taken is to be determined by the employer, who should endeavour to take into
account the wishes of the worker concerned. In case of termination of a contract, the employer is to pay an amount equal
to the remuneration the worker would have received if he had
worked during the holiday to which he was entitled. During
his holiday, the worker is not permitted to work for the
employer or a third party. Contracting out of the legal holiday,
even for consideration, is prohibited.
1

Gmivernementsblad, No. 177 of 1948 ; Publicatieblad, No. 17 of 1949.
In Surinam, 6 to 12 days, according to the period of service with the same
employer.
3
In Surinam, 275 working days entitle a worker to annual holiday.
2

CHAPTEE I X

WEST INDIAN LABOUR PROBLEMS AND THE I.L.O.

The preceding chapters have provided a substantial quantity of factual data related to the content of labour policies
in the West Indies. Although the report is based primarily
on documentary material, which has not in all respects and
in regard to all territories been as ample as might have been
desired, the data assembled suffice to permit a general analysis
of trends and policies in the various fields covered by the
report.
In providing a concluding summary, it has also seemed
desirable to give some attention to two considerations : the wish
expressed by the third session of the West Indian Conference
that the present report be studied by West Indian Governments with a view to securing a greater measure of conformity
between their labour legislation and I.L.O. standards 1 ;
examination in general terms of the assistance which might
be provided by the International Labour Organisation both
through the International Labour Office in the exercise of its
normal functions and through the expanded co-operative
programme of the United Nations and the specialised agencies
for technical assistance for economic development to underdeveloped areas. 2
SOME MAJOR PROBLEMS OP LABOUR POLICY IN THE
W E S T INDIES

I t is not the function of a study prepared by the International Labour Office to attempt to provide diagnoses and
remedies except at the request of the Governments concerned.
1
Caribbean Commission Central Secretariat : West Indian Conference, Third
Session, p. 76, Eecommendation 70.
2
Cf. Technical Assistance for Economic Development (Lake Success, N.Y.,
United Nations, May 1949), pp. 74-135.

344

LABOTJB, POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

The observations that follow on various aspects of labour
policy problems in the West Indies are therefore not framed
in such terms but are rather designed to draw attention
to certain problems which appear to merit special consideration.
Manpower Problems
The material examined in Chapter I I I has indicated the
major importance of manpower problems in the West Indies
and the policies designed to alleviate them. While in the
mainland territories the problems of policy centre around
capital development which will permit the more extensive
utilisation of untapped resources and allow of immigration
for the exploitation of those resources, in the island territories
the rate of population growth and the progressively stronger
demand for higher living standards make it difficult to envisage the islands being capable, with their very limited resources,
of finding a solution without migration.
Clearly, policies directed towards the creation of a broader
basis of support for these communities through the establishment of new industries are highly desirable and necessary.
But the third session of the West Indian Conference rightly
laid a major emphasis on the need for Governments in the area
to seek every means for enlarging outlets for migration.
The future impact of mechanisation in agriculture and
policies intended to limit the extent of underemployment in
large-scale agricultural undertakings by measures to stabilise
the labour force present likewise serious problems. While
such steps will obviously result in raising the level of productivity per worker, their further consequence must be a decrease
in the labour force required. Again the problem of policy
centres around the manpower thus made surplus, and policies
which would make it possible for the worker to obtain a higher
standard of living emphasise again the problem of migration
outlets.
Within the present framework, nevertheless, there are
directions in which perhaps more positive efforts might be
made, notably in regard to land settlement and the extension
of vocational training facilities. The first point has been
developed to some extent in earlier chapters, but one major
aspect of the second needs perhaps particular emphasis. Part

WEST INDIAN LABOtHt PROBLEMS AND THE I.L.O.

345

of the difficulty in securing migration outlets for West Indian
workers lies in the fact that most of them are unskilled. In
Puerto Rico, one of the implicit purposes of the large-scale
vocational and technical training programme which has been
inaugurated is to provide the community with skills demanded
not only in Puerto Rico but in areas to which Puerto Ricans
might migrate. The introduction of large-scale programmes
of vocational training by other West Indian territories would
not only serve a variety of internal needs, but would probably
be a step in the direction of breaking down some immigration
barriers.
Adequate information about the manpower situation is
required if vocational training facihties are to be expanded
in the most useful directions. Manpower surveys are necessarily the first stage in obtaining such information : it is
likewise difficult for the administration concerned to formulate
manpower policies in the absence of such information.
The role of improved employment organisation services
must in the circumstances of the West Indies be regarded as
being of subsidiary importance, in view of the limited range
of employment possibilities and the small populations and
areas of nearly all the territories. The attention given in
some of the territories by such services to migration outlets
is a recent development which will undoubtedly assume
increasing importance. The provision of services which cover
entire territories rather than the principal town or towns is
one respect in which much progress remains to be made.
The development of employment counselling services, which
exist in an embryonic form in a few territories, will largely
depend on the availability of more adequate manpower
information.
The question of the practicability of introducing unemployment benefit schemes in West Indian territories is referred to
below. Clearly, however, the introduction of such schemes
would not be a fundamental attack on the bases of West
Indian manpower problems. A far-reaching and planned
programme of industrialisation seems indicated as part of any
West Indian manpower programme which might attain
significant results.

346

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

Industrial

Relations and Labour

Administration

The very considerable strides made during the past decade
in the development of employers' and workers' organisations,
collective bargaining, conciliation machinery and labour
supervision services have been noted in Chapter IV and only
a few points need be stressed at this stage.
Existing legislation in nearly all the West Indian territories
contains, in terms of the national legal system concerned, the
provisions necessary to enable the proper functioning of
employers' and workers' organisations. To a very large extent,
the further development of these organisations depends on
their own efforts and there is little that Government policy can
effect in this regard. Nevertheless, some of the steps taken
in a number of territories to further trade union development,
such as courses for the training of trade union officers, highly
commend themselves.
There are two further ways in which policy might be directed
towards fostering the growth of collective bargaining units and
the habit of negotiation in territories where progress in this
respect has been slow. On the one hand, the development of
joint committees on the lines of the Estate Joint Committees in
British Guiana, but not confined to agriculture, might be given
particular consideration. The same comment might be made
in regard to the establishment of minimum wage fixing machinery on a tripartite basis, a point more fully considered below.
Every indication exists of the valuable work performed
by the labour supervision services in the West Indies, whose
task is made relatively heavier by the present stage of development of employers' and workers' organisations. Equally clear
appears to be the inadequacy of present staffs in virtually all
territories. The possibility of specialisation in the various
branches of labour administration is rare and, particularly in
the smaller territories, the tasks of the labour officers are
much too extensive to permit of their full discharge.
In respect of labour inspection, it should be noted that the
third session of the West Indian Conference gave particular
emphasis to the desirability of fuller development. The I.L.O.
Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and
Recommendations has also stressed, particularly at its 1949
and 1950 meetings, the need of adequate labour inspection.
services in non-metropolitan territories as a whole.

WEST INDIAN LABOUR PROBLEMS AND THE I.L.O.

347

Regulation of Wages, Hours and Conditions of WorTc
One major problem of policy in this regard which has faced
West Indian Governments has been that of the extent to which
Government intervention in this field might hamper the effective
development of employers' and workers' organisations and direct
negotiation, which were also major objectives of policy. In Chapters V and VIII an account has been given of the ways in which
this problem has been handled in the different territories.
One direction in which much progress remains to be made
is in the establishment of adequate statistics on wages questions, which would permit of analysing labour costs and
related questions on a comparable basis.
Minimum wage regulation machinery is now general
throughout the area, combined, in a number of cases, with
provisions empowering the bodies concerned to lay down
requirements in regard to conditions of work. The present
trend, which seems to provide a satisfactory solution of the
problem noted above, is in the direction of tripartite machinery
of the Wage Councils type in occupations in which collective
bargaining units are inadequately developed, and to empower
such bodies to regulate specified conditions, of work.
Considerable progress has been made in the West Indies
in the development of factory legislation, though the inspection machinery to give effect to this legislation has developed
more slowly. In regard to safety in agriculture, however,
little has been done except in Puerto Eico and this seems to
be a field in which Governments might well consider action.
Employment of Women and Juvenile

Workers

As has been shown in Chapters VI and V i l i , a considerable
body of legislation has been enacted and applied in the West
Indies for the protection of women and juvenile workers and
effect has been given to most of the international labour
Conventions in this field, in whole or in part.
There are, however, four points in respect of which further
consideration might be given by West Indian Governments to
the problems of women in employment : the provision of maternity leave and benefit ; the problem of equal remuneration for
work of equal value ; regulations in respect of work unsuitable
for women, and the general status of the domestic worker.

348

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

As noted in Chapter VI, the problems of regulation of
employment of children and young persons is complicated in
the West Indies both by deficiencies in schooling facilities and
by inspection difficulties. Nevertheless, greater uniformity
might be achieved in respect of the minimum ages of admission
to various forms of employment. The fuller application of
the standards set by international labour Conventions in this
field might also be regarded as one approach to the alleviation
of the West Indian manpower situation.
Social Security Questions
In this field, workmen's compensation provisions are alone
of wide practical significance at the present time in the area.
The coverage of existing provisions varies considerably and
also the conditions under which the worker is entitled to
benefits. Much progress remains to be made in this respect ;
in particular, the exclusion of agricultural workers from coverage in some territories needs to be reconsidered. The growing
practice of including provisions which require the employer
to insure against his liability might profitably be extended.
An important gap in the legislation of most territories is provision for compensation in respect of occupational diseases.
As has been noted in Chapter VII, much attention has
recently been given to the question of introducing further provision in the field of social security. The major problems in this
respect in the West Indies would seem to centre around difficulties of administration, since actuarial analysis can ensure that
schemes introduced have a sound financial basis. The fact that
one territory has introduced sickness insurance arrangements and
another unemployment insurance adds emphasis to the need for
Governments to continue exploration of possibilities in this field.
SOME

ASPECTS

THE

APPLICATION

INTERNATIONAL

LABOUK CONVENTIONS TO W E S T INDIAN TEEEITOBIES

The third session of the West Indian Conference, after
consideration of the subject " Legislation on Labour Standards " on its agenda, made, inter alia, the following comment
and recommendation :
We observe that there is considerable variation in the labour
laws in force in the Caribbean and that legislation in some territories
appears to be below accepted international standards...

WEST INDIAN LABOUR PROBLEMS AND THE I.L.O.

349

We recommend that the I.L.O. report on Labour Policies in the
West Indies be studied by the territorial Governments in connection
with the Secretariat's digest (of labour legislation), and that measures
be taken by each territory to bring its legislation into conformity
with I.L.O. standards, particularly in regard to labour inspectorates.1
The general desirability of including in a report on labour
policies prepared by the International Labour Office some
account of the position in regard to application of international
labour Conventions in the region surveyed is, therefore, reinforced by this explicit recommendation of the West Indian
Conference.
A detailed analysis of the extent of application of international labour Conventions to the West Indies is beyond the
scope of the present report. 2 Attention here is limited to
describing the general background of the Conventions in
respect of application to non-metropolitan territories in general
and the West Indies in particular.
All of the West Indian territories studied in the present
report are non-metropolitan territories within the meaning
of the Constitution of the International Labour Organisation. 3
The obligations of Member States—in the present instance :
France, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United
States—in regard to the application of Conventions to the nonmetropolitan territories for whose international relations they
are responsible is determined by Article 35 of the Constitution.
The basic obligation of the Article is stated in its first
paragraph—
1. The Members undertake that Conventions which they have
ratified in accordance with the provisions of this Constitution shall
be applied to the non-metropolitan territories for whose international
relations they are responsible, including any trust territories for which
they are the administering authority, except where the subject
matter of the Convention is within the self-governing powers of the
territories or the Convention is inapplicable owing to the local
1
Caribbean Commission Central Secretariat : West Indian Conference, Third
Session, op. cit., p. 76.
2
Cf. however, for a full analysis, the Annual Summaries of Reports on the
Application of Conventions submitted to the International Labour Conference
and the Reports of the Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions
and Recommendations thereto appended, particularly for the years 1948-1950.
3
The position of the French West Indian Departments in this respect is made
clear by an explanation provided by the French Government representatives at the
32nd Session of the International Labour Conference. The French Government's
official interpretation is that Article 35 applies to all territories of the French
Union (including the Overseas Departments) outside metropolitan France. Cf.
International Labour Conference, 32nd Session (Geneva, 1949) : Becord of Proceedings (Geneva, I.L.O., 1951), p. 450.

350

LABOTJE, POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

conditions or subject tc such modifications as may be necessary to
adapt the Convention to local conditions.
Paragraphs 2 to 7 of Article 35 make provision as to the
form and content of original and subsequent declarations to-be
made regarding the application, non-application or modified
application of a Convention to a non-metropolitan territory.
Distinctions of procedure are established as between the
following different circumstances : cases in which the subject
matter of the Convention is within the self-governing powers
of the non-metropolitan territory concerned; cases in which
the subject matter of the Convention is not within the selfgoverning powers of the non-metropolitan territory concerned ;
declarations by two or more Members in respect of a territory
under their joint authority ; declarations made by an international authority responsible for the administration of a
non-metropolitan territory.
Under the Constitution, therefore, the obligations of Article
35 in respect of a given non-metropolitan territory arise only
when the Member responsible for the international relations
of the territory has ratified the Convention. 1
Of the 100 Conventions so far adopted by the International
Labour Conference, 61 have up to the present time been
ratified by France, 35 by the Netherlands, 50 by the United
Kingdom, and six by the United States. The low figure for
the last named country has to be considered in the light of the
fact that the United States entered the Organisation only in
1935 and, moreover, is affected by the special provisions of
the Constitution in regard to the ratification of Conventions
by federal States.
Nine Conventions primarily applicable to non-metropolitan
territories have been adopted by the International Labour
Conference. The Conventions dealing with the problems of
forced labour, recruiting, the abolition of penal sanctions for
breach of contract and the regulation of contracts of employment have little practical application to West Indian conditions. 2 Four Conventions adopted in 1947, concerning general
1
Nevertheless, Members ratifying the Labour Standards (Non-Metropolitan
Territories) Convention, 1947, may, however, assume under its terms t h e obligation
to apply t o the territories for which they are responsible certain scheduled Conventions which they may not themselves have ratified.
2
The Forced Labour Convention, 1930, the Recruiting of Indigenous Workers
Convention, 1936, the Contracts of Employment (Indigenous Workers) Convention, 1939, the Penal Sanctions (Indigenous Workers) Convention, 1939, and the
Contracts of Employment (Indigenous Workers) Convention, 1947.

WEST INDIAN LABOUR PROBLEMS AND THE I.L.O.

351

social policy, labour inspectorates, industrial relations and the
application of international labour standards to non-metropolitan territories, together provide a comprehensive code of
general labour and social policies considered by the Conference
as the minimum standards for application in non-metropolitan
territories. 1
Under the terms of the Constitution, Governments are
required to provide annual reports on the application of the
Conventions they have ratified to the non-metropolitan territories for which they are responsible. These reports are laid
before the International Labour Conference after prior examination and comment by the Committee of Experts on the
Application of Conventions and Eecommendations, whose
field of work covers the Member States as well.
At its 1950 meeting, the Committee undertook a particularly detailed review of the present situation in regard to
the application of Conventions to non-metropolitan territories.
In its report, a number of general points of interest were
stressed. 2 The extreme unevenness of application as between
different territories was remarked. The Committee recommended that, in territories where sufficiently representative
organisations of employers and workers existed, copies of the
annual reports should be communicated by the Governments
for observations ; in the absence of such organisations, reports
might be communicated to tripartite bodies such as Labour
Advisory Boards. The value was emphasised of adequate
labour inspection services—
. . . as a means both of ensuring satisfactory standards of enforcement of legislation giving effect to international labour Conventions
and of securing the material on the practical application of Conventions necessary for enabling Governments
to provide the fullest
possible information in that regard.3
The Committee also noted that informal meetings between
Governments for the purpose of examining the possibilities.
of ratification or further application of international labour
1

Social Policy (Non-Metropolitan Territories) Convention, 1947, Labour
Standards (Non-Metropolitan Territories) Convention, 1947, Right of Association
(Non-Metropolitan Territories) Convention, 1947, Labour Inspectorates (NonMetropolitan Territories) Convention, 1947.
2
International Labour Conference, 33rd Session (Geneva, 1950), Report III :
Report of the Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations (Part IV), Geneva, 1950.
3
Ibid., p. 8.

352

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

Conventions might find great practical convenience in securing
the collaboration of the International Labour Office in regard
to points of difficulty.
T H E INTERNATIONAL LABOUR ORGANISATION
AND THE W E S T INDIES

The relationship between further progress in the application of international labour Conventions to non-metropolitan territories, assistance from the International Labour
Office and the development of an expanded programme of
technical assistance on the part of the United Nations and
specialised agencies was referred to in the following terms by
the Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions
and Eecommendations at its 1949 meeting :
Under the terms of the Constitution one of the duties of the
International Labour Office is to " accord to Governments at thenrequest all the appropriate assistance within its power in connection
with the framing of laws and regulations on the basis of the decisions
of the Conference and the improvement of administrative practices
and systems of inspection ". The Committee understands that such
technical assistance has already been afforded to certain States
Members of the Organisation. The Committee wishes to draw the
attention of States Members to the practical value of securing such
assistance as a means of giving further implementation to their
international obligations in regard to non-metropolitan territories.
Such assistance would appear to have a bearing not only on obligations already incurred in the ratification of Conventions but even
more perhaps for the future. The more recently adopted Conventions
and Eecommendations of the International Labour Organisation
have a more complex, detailed and technical character than earlier
ones, and such assistance might be of particular value in regard to
those territories in which local conditions differ widely from those
in the metropolitan territories concerned ;
The Committee understands that plans are being formulated in
particular with regard to technical assistance in the social field to
underdeveloped territories. It is keenly interested in these plans
and expresses the hope that, in order to facilitate the application of
Conventions to non-metropolitan territories, special attention will be
devoted to the needs of these territories as regards manpower, industrial health and safety,
social security, labour supervision and
factory inspection. 1
The expanded programme of the United Nations and the
specialised agencies for technical assistance to underdeveloped
1
International Labour Conference, 32nd Session (Geneva, 1949), Report III :
Report on the Application of Conventions (Article 22 of the Constitution). Appendix,
Report of the Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations (Geneva, I.L.O., 1949), pp. 11-12.

WEST INDIAN LAB0UB PROBLEMS AND THE I.L.O.

353

areas, to the inception of which the above passage makes
reference, has now passed from the planning to the operational
stage. In so far as the capacity of the I.L.O. to furnish technical assistance is concerned, the expanded programme is of
significance in four principal respects.
The fact that it is limited to underdeveloped areas reinforces a trend apparent in the emphasis of the I.L.O.'s work
during recent years, when increasing attention has been given
to the problems of such areas. Since, under the programme,
the work of the I.L.O. is pursued within a pattern of assistance
for economic development generally in which the United
Nations and other specialised agencies participate, a firmer
basis is provided for lasting social progress. The programme
offers additional financial resources permitting a very considerable extension in practice of the assistance which the
I.L.O. can provide and has provided in the past through
written information on request and missions to advise Governments, on request, in regard to the solution of particular
problems. Fourthly, the active co-operation which the programme requires from the areas seeking technical assistance
creates conditions in which self-help becomes a necessary
complement of external expert advice.
The principal fields in which technical assistance is being
offered by the I.L.O. are manpower questions generally,
migration, employment service organisation, vocational education and training, vocational guidance, co-operatives and
handicrafts, social security, labour legislation, industrial
relations, wages, productivity, industrial safety and occupational health, labour inspection, labour statistics and conditions
of work of particular industries or groups of workers. The
following brief notes should serve to indicate the character
and objectives of the technical assistance which the I.L.O. is
able to provide in the fields cited.
Since planned economic development, the objective of the
programme, presupposes an assessment of employment potentialities and manpower requirements, a large proportion of the
work so far undertaken by the I.L.O. has been in relation to
manpower, covering mainly aspects of migration, employment
service organisation, vocational education and training and
vocational guidance.
I n regard to migration, the I.L.O. projects concern specific
plans of emigration, immigration, colonisation and land

354

LABOUR, POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

settlement, and provide for assistance in the implementation
of those plans through proposals for legislation on migration,
and through the training of appropriate officials. For countries of emigration, provision is made for assistance in the
evaluation of the manpower available for emigration, and in
the establishment of the necessary programmes.
Projects in the field of employment service organisation
lay emphasis on employment information programmes, selection and placement techniques, uniform systems of occupational classification and, in countries of heavy immigration,
employment service functions in relation to migrant workers.
In certain countries, measures for the determination of manpower requirements and for the organisation of employment in
connection with economic development plans are of prime importance. Staff training is an important element in all projects.
In the field of vocational education and training, I.L.O.
projects are aimed at the improvement of vocational and
technical training, both at school and at the place of work, in
accordance with the needs of the employment market. The
creation of technical training centres, the training of instructors for these centres, the revision of curricula in vocational
training schools, the provision of instructors for such schools
and the organisation of Government services in charge of
these questions and of apprenticeship is contemplated. Emphasis is laid in a number of projects on the vocational training of
workers in small-scale industries ; in other projects, the training
or retraining of physically handicapped persons is also included.
Finally, provision has been made for the organisation of programmes for the training of supervisors in various countries.
In regard to vocational guidance, the aim of the I.L.O. is
to improve guidance services in consultation with the Ministries
of Education and the youth employment services. Vocational
guidance is regarded as an integral part of a complete manpower programme, and is to be established and carried out on
the Unes laid down in manpower projects ; it will also be
closely co-ordinated with the general educational systems of
the countries receiving assistance.
While, in underdeveloped areas, the serious practical
difficulty of introducing social security arrangements in rural
areas is recognised, the desirability and practicability of establishing some arrangements to cover at least the urban industrial
worker, and the worker in other sectors of employment who

WEST INDIAN LABOUR PROBLEMS AND THE I.L.O.

355

is usually entirely dependent on wage earning for the means
of life, are generally conceded. The I.L.O. programme in the
field of social security is therefore of major significance and
is planned along the following lines. In countries where no
schemes exist as yet, assistance is given in two stages : at the
first stage the lines of the scheme are laid down and a rough
estimate is made of the expenditure involved ; the Government's acceptance of the scheme in principle is awaited before
a team of two or three experts is chosen to organise the administration at the second stage of the scheme ; at least one
of the experts remains until the scheme has actually been
launched. The implementation of the scheme is inspected at
intervals. For countries where schemes already exist, either
administrative or medical experts, or both, are attached as
advisers to the directors of social security institutes. These
projects are supplemented by short visits (of two or three
months) by teams of experts whose task it is to give advice
on the improvement of the efficiency of the administration.
Each team consists of one general administrator, one accountant-statistician and one medical administrator. Finally,
regional seminars of two or three weeks' duration are organised ; topics are chosen to correspond to the needs of the
particular region. The aim of policy is the development of
social security schemes as an integral feature of general economic development plans—one which will expand as these
plans are realised.
Briefer comment may be offered on some of the other
fields to which reference has been made. Because of the
importance of handicraft and small-scale industries in underdeveloped areas and the need for securing an increase in their
output, I.L.O. projects include assistance in the improvement
of production techniques in these forms of enterprise and their
rational organisation on co-operative lines. Technical assistance in the general field of co-operatives is also available in
the form of advisory missions and practical assistance in the
establishment of Government services and the training of
Government co-operative officers. In respect of labour legislation and industrial relations, I.L.O. assistance can be secured
in the drafting of labour laws, the administration of industrial
relations and the settlement .of disputes (including legislation
concerning conciliation and arbitration), and the training of
officials concerned with the implementation of labour legisla-

356

LABOUR, POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

tion. I.L.O. projects relating to productivity are designed to
make available the services of experts able to give practical
advice on means of raising output, for example, through
training programmes, improvement of workshop organisation
and management techniques, modernisation of equipment and
factory layout. In the field of labour inspection, I.L.O.
assistance plans cover the general administrative organisation
of inspection services and the training of labour inspectors
both for general administration and for dealing with the
enforcement of particular branches of the labour legislation
of the country in question.
The expanded programme may now be said to have passed
from its planning to its operational stage. The following table
gives details regarding I.L.O. projects under the expanded
programme as at 30 September 1951 :
I.L.O. TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE PROJECTS ON 3 0 SEPTEMBER

1951
Eequests received directly by I.L.O. (total) . .
Total number of projects
,.

122
173

By subjects :
Over-all requests
Manpower (over-all)
Employment service
Vocational training
Vocational guidance
Migration
Co-operation and handicrafts
Social security
Agricultural workers
Labour legislation and industrial relations . . .
Women and young workers
Industrial safety and hygiene
Conditions of work
Wages questions
Productivity
Labour inspection
Statistics
Fellowships projects

18
5
9
33
1
2
23
25
7
9
2
7
6
4
4
7
9
2

By region :
Latin America
Asia
Middle East
Africa
Europe

54
60
47
11
1

Basic agreements signed
Supplementary agreements signed
Experts foreseen
Fellows foreseen

30
39
67
66

WEST INDIAN LABOUR PROBLEMS AND THE I.L.O.

357

The utilisation of the expanded programme of technical
assistance by non-metropolitan territories generally has so far
been very limited. This situation is not difficult to explain.
In view of their relations with their respective metropolitan
countries, non-metropolitan territories have in principle easier
means of access than other underdeveloped areas to the
reservoirs of technical knowledge which those countries represent ; a number of programmes with similar objectives to those
of the expanded programme are at the present time in operation in various non-metropolitan territories. The fact that
the programme is of such recent origin, that essentially only
a beginning has been made in practical assistance in the field
and a groundwork for future action laid, means that the local
authorities in non-metropolitan areas, whose relations with
the United Nations and the specialised agencies are indirect,
have made a slower start than other underdeveloped areas in
obtaining assistance under the programme and are less aware
of the types of assistance available. At the same time, the
character of the programme implies active co-operation on
the part of such local authorities, who would also be in the
best position to know what were the problems in regard to
which they might with value request technical assistance.
An important step forward in the direction of solving this
inherent difficulty was taken by the United Kingdom Government when, on 25 June 1951, it signed a basic agreement with
the United Nations, the I.L.O., the F.A.O., U.N.B.S.O.O.,
I.O.A.O. and W.H.O. for the provision of technical assistance
to the Trust, non-self-governing and other territories for whose
international relations the Government is responsible. Under
this basic agreement, Governments of territories on whose
behalf technical assistance has been requested by the United
Kingdom Government may, with the authority of that Government, make supplementary agreements with the Organisations
parties to the agreement. General principles are laid down
regarding the expenses which are to be borne respectively by
the Organisation and the territory concerned. Two other
provisions of interest deserve some mention : experts shall, in
the course of their work, make every effort to instruct local
technical staff of the Government of the territory where expert
assistance is being given in the methods, techniques and
practices of such work ; as part of the provision of technical
assistance to non-metropolitan territories, the Organisations

358

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

concerned undertake to give sympathetic consideration to
candidates nominated by the United Kingdom Government
i n the awarding of fellowships and scholarships offered by the
respective Organisations.
This agreement may perhaps set the pattern for nonmetropolitan territories in regard to the programme : in any
case, it may be regarded as an indication of the importance
attached to the programme as a supplement to the efforts of
metropolitan authorities themselves to improve conditions in
the territories for whose administration they are responsible.
I t has also the value of emphasising the fundamental part
that the competent authorities in the territories must play in
the formulation of requests in practice, whatever the official
channels through with such requests must pass.
In brief, in the Caribbean and other non-metropolitan
areas, as elsewhere, such benefits as the expanded programme
of technical assistance of the United Nations and the specialised
agencies can offer must have as their complement active
planning and support by the communities concerned, whose
will to progress is of the essence.

APPENDICES

361

APPENDICES

APPENDIX I
AREA AND POPULATION OF WEST INDIAN TERRITORIES

Population

Area in square
miles

Approximate
population
density per
square mile

78,275 1
207,262 1
37,3942
414,306 1
65,354 !
1,416,9873
114,3372
618,603 1
251,7764

4,375
166
22
89,480
8,598
4,411
422
1,980
820

18.0
1,250.0
1,700.0
4.6
7.6
321.0
270.0
312.0
307.0

. . . .

278,864*
28,537 *
262,000 *

688
34,740
385

405.0
0.9
680.0

Surinam
Netherlands Antilles . .

207,684 *
148,530 6

54,300
403

3.8
368.0

3,435
132

642.0
202.0

Territory

Bahamas
Barbados
Bermuda
British Guiana
British Honduras . .
Jamaica
Leeward Islands . . .
Trinidad and Tobago.
Windward Islands . .
Guadeloupe
French Guiana
Martinique

.
.
.
.

Puerto Eico
American Virgin Islands

2,205,938 2
26,6542

1
Official Estimate for end of 1949, Annual Report for 1949 (London, H.M. Stationery
Office, 1950). ' Official Estimate for 1950. United Nations General Assembly, Information
from Non-Self-Governing Territories : Summary and Analysis
of Information Transmitted
under Article 73« of the Charier, Sixth Session, 1951. s Official Estimate for end of 1950,
Report
on Jamaica for the Year 1950 (Kingston, Government Printer, 1951). * 1946 Census.
5
Official Estimate for 1947, including 3,700 Amerindians and 22,000 Bushmen. United
Nations : Non-Self-Governing Territories, Summaries and Analyses of Information transmitted to the Secretary-General during 1949 (Lake Success, New York, 1950). * Omcial
Estimate for 1947. United Nations : Non-Self-Governing Territories . . . op. cit.

APPENDIX II — LAROUR FORCE OF BRITISH WEST INDIAN TERRITORIES AT LATEST CENSUS
Jamaica and Dependencies,
1943

Census area, 1946
Sex
Barbados

British
Guiana

93,664
91,369
2,295
51,077
49,776
1,301
42,587
41,593
994

147,481
146,164
1,317
106,517
105,584
933
40,964
40,580
384

British Leeward
Honduras Islands

Trinidad
and
Tobago

Dominica Grenada

Saint
Vincent

Saint
Lucia

Jamaica

Cayman Turks
Islands Island

559,248
505,092
54,156
343,325
321,637
21,688
215,923
183,455
32,468

2,780
2,531
249
1,707
1,588
119
1,073
943
130

2,916
2,689
227
1,629
1,542
87
1,287
1,147
140

143,137
88,981
54,156
79,827
58,139
21,688
63,310
30,842
32,468

249

227

249
119

227
87

119
130

87
140

130

140

Labour force at latest census
Persons—Total
Experienced x
Inexperienced
Males—Total .
Experienced x
Inexperienced
Females—Total
Experienced x
Inexperienced

20,335
20,133

48,684
48,025

202

659

16,530
16,386

26,969
26,591

144

378

3,805
3,747

21.715
21,434

281

218,784
213,093
5,691
163,451
160,137
3,314
55,333
52,956
2,377

21,934
21,310

28,239
27,606

22,954
22,691

32,813
31,891

624

633

922

263

12,253
11,984

14,565
14,299

18,664
18,170

12,610
12,447

269

266

494

163

9,681
9,326

13,674
13,307

14,149
13,721

10,344
10,244

355

367

428

100

3,234
2,312

1,178

Unemployed at last census
Persons—Total
Experienced.
Inexperienced
Males—Total .
Experienced.
Inexperienced
Females—Total
Experienced.
Inexperienced

7,259
4,964
2,295
3,802
2,501
1,301
3,457
2,463
994

3,731
2,414
1,317
2,630
1,697
933
1,101
717
384

1,151

949
202

2,414
1,755

659

1,011

1,257

867
144
140
82
58

879
378
1,157

876
281

15,241
9,550
5,691
10,629
7,315
3,314
4,612
2,235
2,377

1,519

1,549

895
624
726
457
269
793
438
355

916
633
645
379
266
904
537
367

915
263
626
463
163
552
452
100

922
1,765
1,271

494
1,469
1,041

428

Proportion of unemployed to total labour force (per cent.)
Both sexes
Males. .
Females

7.75
7.44
8.12

2.53
2.47
2.69

Both sexes
Males. .
Females

5.43
5.02
5.92

1.65
1.61
1.77

5.66
6.12
3.68

4.96
4.66
5.33

6.97
6.50
8.33

6.93
5.93
8.19

5.49
4.43
6.61

5.13
4.96
5.34

9.86
9.46
10.38

25.59
23.25
29.32

Proportion of experienced unemployed to experienced labour force (per cent.)
4.71
5.29
2.19

3.65
3.31
4.09

4.48
4.57
4.22

4.20
3.81
6.70

3.32
2.65
4.04

7.25
7.00
7.59

Source : Central Bureau of Statistics, Jamaica : Quarterly Digest of Statistics, No. 6, Jan.-Mar. 1949, p. 45.
1
Gainfully occupied including unemployed wage earners (experienced unemployed). ' Persons seeking a first job.

4.03
3.72
4.41
a

17.62
18.08
16.81

Total of inexperienced unemployed only.

363

APPENDICES

APPENDIX III
PUERTO RICO : CIVILIAN POPULATION 14 YEARS OF AGE
AND OVER, BY EMPLOYMENT STATUS AND SEX
AVERAGES FOR FISCAL TEARS 1 9 4 6 - 1 9 4 7 , 1 9 4 7 - 1 9 4 8 , AND 1 9 4 8 - 1 9 4 9
(in

thousands)
Changes

Employment status

1948-49

1947-48

1946-47

1947-48
to
1948-49

1946-47
to
1947-48

Both sexes :
Civilian population 14 years of
age and over
I n the labour force
Employed
At work
30 hours or more . .
Less t h a n 30 hours .
W i t h a j ob b u t not a t work
Unemployed
Not in the labour force . .

1,342
686
616
594
444
150
22
70
656

1,320
686
612
594
446
148
18
74
634

1,296
685
606
579
434
145
27
79
612

+ 22

+ 24
*

Male:
Civilian population 14 years
of age and over
I n the labour force
. . . .
Employed
A t work
30 hours or more . .
Less t h a n 30 hours .
With a j o b b u t n o t a t w o r k
Unemployed
Not in the labour force. . .

670
520
459
441
351
89
18
61
150

659
515
450
436
345
91
14
65
143

646
520
449

Female :
Civilian population 14 years
of age and over
I n the labour force
. . . .
Employed
A t work
30 hours or more . .
Less t h a n 30 hours .
With a job b u t n o t a t work
Unemployed
Not in labour force
. . . .

672
166
157
153
93
60
4
9
506

661
170
162
158
101
57
3
9
491

651
165
157
150
96
54
6
8

429
338
91
21
71
126

486

+ 4
— 2
+ 2
+ 4
— 4
+ 22

+H
+
+
+
+
—

5
9
5
6
2

+ 13
— 5
*

+ 7
+ 7
— 7
— 6
+ 17

+
+
+ H
—
—
—

+ 15
+ 12
+
3
— 9
— 5
+ 22

4
5
5

+ 5

+ 3
*

+
+
+
+

+ 5

Source : Statement of Commissioner of Labor of Puerto Rico, Fernando SIERRA
BERDECÌA, before the Labor and Education Subcommittee of the United States House
of Representatives on extension of a 75 cents minimum wage to Puerto Rico (mimeographed).
* Less than 2,000.

364

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

APPENDIX IV
JAMAICA : DATA REGARDING WAGE EARNERS AND
GAINFULLY OCCUPIED POPULATION

WOEE STATUS OF THE GAINFULLY OCCUPIED POPULATION, 1 9 4 3

Status

Unpaid family worker

. . . .

Total

Male

Female

505,092
20,768
153,274
283,439
47,611

321,637
17,913
100,366
182,029
21,329

183,455
2,855
52,908
101,410
26,282

Source : Jamaica, Central 3ureau ol Statistics : Eighth Census of Jamaica and its
Dependencies, 1943 (Kingston, Government Printer, 1945), p. lxvi.

INTENSIFY OF EMPLOYMENT IN 1 9 4 2
Number of weeks employed

Average number of days employed per week

Wage earners
Weeks

Total

Male

Female

Wage earners
Days

1
6,690 3,560 3,130
1- 4
8,505 4,755 3,750
2
5- 8
9-12
10,878 6,526 4,352
3
13-15
21,061 12,695 8,366
4
19,916 12,798 7,118
5
16-20
21-24
8,142
5,239 2,903
6
42,702 28,616 14,086
7
25-28
29-32
15,643 10,704 4,939
None
33^0
36,195 24,948 11,247 Not specified
41 and over 99,653 62,123 37,530
Total
None
8,012 4,676 3,336
Not specified 6,042 5,389
653
Total
283,439 182,029 101,410
Source : Idem, pp. 182-188.

Total

Male

Female

1,210
7,525
26,454
49,838
56,766
71,914
55,671
8,013
6,048
283,439

838
4,775
17,731
35,538
42,212
51,285
19,586
4,676
5,388
182,029

372
2,750
8,723
14,300
14,554
20,629
36,085
3,337
660
101,410

WAGE EAENEES AND UNPAID WOEKEES BY OCCUPATIONAL GEOUPS AND SEX, 1 9 4 3

Occupational group

AH wage earners
and unpaid workers
Total

All occupations
Agriculture
Quarrying
Fishing .
Forestry .
Manufacturing and
mechanical
Construction
Transportation and
communication
Trade . . . .
Finance . . .
Service . . .
Recreational
Professional
Public . . .
Personal . .
Clerical . . .
Labourers—general
(odd jobs) . . .
Source : Idem, p . 214.

Male

Wage earners at work
week ending 12 Dec. 1942

Wage earners not at work
week ending 12 Dec. 1942

Female

Total

Female

Total

Male

Female

Total

Male

Female

Male

Unpaid workers

331,044
124,354
426
357
650

203,352
92,856
131
357
650

127,692
31,498
295

194,458
66,157
251
251
456

123,890
50,979
95
251
456

70,568
15,178
156

88,975
37,206
174
66
193

58,133
25,425
35
66
193

30,842
11,781
139

47,611
20,991
1
40
1

21,329
16,452
1
40
1

26,282
4,539

19,521
13,605

15,432
13,605

4,089

11,626
7,081

9,560
7,081

2,066

4,300
5,504

3,719
5,504

581

3,595
1,020

2,153
1,020

1,442

10,132
7,380
192
89,635
137
5,943
4,549
79,006
8,918

8,686
4,388
188
17,928
125
2,211
4,193
11,399
5,673

1,446
2,992
4
71,707
12
3,732
356
67,607
3,245

7,014
5,888
166
54,163
112
5,209
4,390
44,452
7,866

5,733
3,552
164
14,577
102
1,994
4,048
8,433
4,934

1,281
2,336
2
39,586
10
3,215
342
36,019
2,932

3,087
993
26
14,176
22
407
159
13,588
989

2,929
635
24
1,997
21
186
145
1,645
712

158
358
2
12,179
1
221
14
11,943
277

55,874

43,458

12,416

33,539

26,508

7,031

22,261-

16,894

5,367

Ö
M

31
499

24
201

7
298

21,296
3
327

1,354
2
31

19,942
1
296

20,966
63

1,321
27

19,645
36

a
fei
¡a

Co
I Ol

366

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

APPENDIX V
JAMAICA SUGAR INDUSTRY * : UNDEREMPLOYMENT AND
SEASONAL UNEMPLOYMENT
AVERAGE NUMBER OF 9-HOUR DATS WORKED P E E WEEK DURING CEOP

(1940-1942)
1940

1941

1942

Range
of days
worked

Average

Range
of days
worked

Average

Range
of days
worked

Average

Railway and carting
Sundry operations .

1-4
2-5
1-5
1-7
2-5

3.00
3.00
3.25
4.00
3.25

1-5.0
2-4.0
2-6.0
1-6.0
1-5.5

3.00
3.25
4.00
4.50
3.50

2-5.4
2-5.8
2-6.0
2-7.0
2-6.0

3.75
3.60
4.10
4.80
4.00

Factory :
Skilled workers . .
Unskilled workers .

4-8
4-7

5.00
5.33

5-9.0
4-9.0

6.75
6.00

4-8.0
4-8.0

7.00
6.00

Operations

Field:
Preparing land and
planting
. . . .
Cultivation
. . . .

1
There are 27 sugar estates in Jamaica. The figures given in the table are compiled
from returns for 17 estates.

AVERAGE NUMBERS EMPLOTED IN-CROP AND OUT-OF-CROP AND
AVERAGE NUMBER OF DAYS WORKED OUT-OF-CROP, 1 9 4 2 *

Numbers
employed
ln-crop

Numbers
employed
out-of-crop

Average
number of
days
out-of-crop

Field:
Preparing l a n d s . . .
Cultivation
Reaping
Railway and carting
Sundry

958
4,123
7,616
1,760
2,035

1,192
9,100

3.1
3.0

1,030
2,540

3.5
3,7

Factory :
Skilled
Unskilled

1,614
1,790

1,034
1,291

4.8
4.6

Operation

—

1
Out-of-crop figures are from 24 estates, in-crop figures from 17 estates. The range
of seasonal unemployment is therefore much greater than figures suggest.
Source : Annual Report on the Work of the Labour Department for the years 1940,
1941 and 1942 (Kingston, Government Printer, 1941, 1942 and 1943).

367

APPENDICES

APPENDIX VI
JAMAICA: LABOUR UNION ORGANISATION AND ASSETS
Union membership
Year ending
31 March

1919.
1926.
1934.
1938.
1939.
1940.
1941.
1942.
1943.
1944.
1945.
1946.
1947.
1948.

. . .
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

Total wage
earning
labour force
in March

Number

199,300
208,600
245,500
261,700
266,300
270,900
275,500
280,100
284,600
289,200
293,800
298,400
303,000
307,300

80
120
80
1,080
8,500
12,600
10,700
24,000
35,000
46,000
56,400
57,700
64,200
67,700

Number
Percentage of
active
of total
wage
unions
earners

0.04
0.06
0.03
0.41
3.19
4.65
3.88
8.57
12.29
15.90
19.19
19.34
21.18
22.03

1
2
2
3
4
12
12
14
17
25
34
28
23
23

Gross
Union
assets

50
55
55
150
1,400
5,200
4,200
4,600
6,100
11,500
17,500
18,500
18,000
18,330

Source : Quarterly Digest of Statistics (Jamaica), No. 6, Jan.-Mar., 1949, p. 37.

368

LABOUR. POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

APPENDIX VII
JAMAICA ï DISTRIBUTION OF ORGANISED LABOUR
ACCORDING TO MAJOR INDUSTRIES IN MARCH 1948

Estimated
wageearning
labour
force

Number
of wage
earners
organised

Percentage
of total
number
of wage
earners
organised

All industries

307,300

67,700

100.00

Agriculture
Quarrying and mining
Pishing, hunting and forestry. . .
Electricity, gas and water . . . .
Manufacturing
Baking.
Printing
All other
Construction
Transportation and communication
Trade
Finance, insurances and real estate
Services
Business and recreational . . .
Professional
Public administration
Personal
Unspecified

115,600
400
2,450
1,350
24,000
2,050
3,900
18,050
29,750
10,900
11,650
800
79,450
1,000
7,900
10,950
59,600
30,950

36,375
117
152
364
5,261
1,299
661
3,301
3,195
7,137
1,531

53.75
0.17
0.22
0.54
7.78
1.93
0.98
4.87
4.57
10.55
2.26

6,198
117
702
4,320
1,059
7,370

9.16
0.17
1.04
6.38
1.57
10.90

Industry

Source : Quarterly Digest of Statistics (Jamaica), No. 6, Jan.-Mar., 1949, p. 37.

369

APPENDICES

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370

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

APPENDIX IX
PUERTO RICO : WAGE ORDERS ISSUED RY THE MINIMUM
WAGE ROARD UP TO NOVEMRER 1949
Wage Order

Effective
date

Number

1
3

26 Mar. 1943
28 Apr. 1943

16 J a n . 1944

5
6

12 Mar. 1944
14 J u n e 1944

7
8
9

4 Apr. 1945
4 J u n e 1945
5 J u l y 1945

10 x
11
12
13
14

1
1
1
15

15
16

21 Nov. 1948
1 Oct. 1949

July
Feb.
July
Sept.

1946
1948
1947
1948

Industry,
service or
business

Leaf tobacco . . .
Oane sugar
. . . .
industrial phase .
agricultural phase
Hospitals, clinics and
sanatoria
. . . .
Beer and soft drinks
Bating and drinking
Theatres a n d movies
Betañ trade . . . .
Bakeries a n d allied
industries . . . .
Dairying
Construction. . . .
Transportation. . .
Laundries
Furniture and woodWholesale trade . .

Probable increase
caused by
Number
the Order
of workers
In the
covered by
the Order In the annual workpayroll of
er's
the industry yearly
income
S
$
15,000
770,000
50
144,000
25
3,608,000
19,000"
24
446,000"
125,000"
25
3,162,000"
3,000
700

300,000
90,000

100
128

6,000
800
10,000

700,000
40,000
1,500,000

117
50
150

1,500
7,000
50,000
13,000
2,000

200,000
600,000
8,000,000
2,755,000
130,000

133
85
160
212
65

1,800
1,500
5,000

224,000
300,000
1,100,000

124
200
220

261,300

20,317,000

Totals a n d average
Source : Puerto Rico, Department of Labor statistics.
1
This Order was annulled by the Puerto Rico Supreme Court.
* Figures in italics included in previous totals.

371

APPENDICES

APPENDIX X
JAMAICA: EMPLOYMENT, WORKING HOURS, AND WAGES
IN SELECTED INDUSTRIES IN THE KINGSTON AREA
(1943 =

100)

Indices of
working hours

Wages
indices

Industry
1946

1947

1946

1947

92.3

93.5

127

142.3

Manufacturing
Vegetable products. .
Carbonated
beverage mfg. (distilling and brewing)
Baking
Confectionery mfg.
Cigar and cigarette
mfg

98
101

98.3
100.2

99.1
97.2

126
130

134.0
147.6

92
96
102

90.2
92.8
106.8

95.2
92.6
116.4

166
131
120

179.4
139.9
176.9

116

114.7

104.6

107

122.5

Leather products . .
Tanning
Boots and shoe mfg.

95
92
97

97.7
99.2
96.4

105.0
89.9
109.9

115
131
116

148.0
154.6
144.1

Textile products :
Tailoring and dressmaking - general
outfitting . . . .

92.2

98.7

127

127.1

94.3

99.1

139

147.9

AH industries

1948

Wood and paper products
Cabinet making and
furniture
manufacturing
. . . .
Printing and publishing

91.4

100.9

159

158.2

100

97.8

98.5

124

135.5

I r o n products and
repairs :
Founding, machining and mechanical repairs . . .

100

100.7

101.1

121

142.4

99.0

114.0

114

162.9

Chemical products :
Soap and match
mfg

372

LABOUR POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

Indices of
working hours

Industry

Wages
indices

1946

1947

1948

1946

1947

1948

93.8

84.6

111

142.0

140.9

94.4

84.6

109

140.2

82.1

131

154.9

98.6

102.2

132

138.9

142.0

97
98
93
98

95.0
96.2
90.6
107.3

95.8
97.2
90.6
129.6

117
142
109
127

126.5
146.2
122.6
139.9

142.1
150.0
124.6
140.7

. .

86.5

97.1

131

141.6

154.7

General distributive
trades (wholesale
and retail)
. . . .

85.7

87.1

121

130.9

141.1

92
94

89.9
94.5

89.4
85.3

127
130

148.9
136.5

170.1
146.1

92
88

93.3
82.8

84.1
90.9

122
142

141.4
151.7

157.7
167.0

89.3

137

159.4

182.7

Miscellaneous products
Ice manufacturing
and cold storage
Mattress making
and upholstery .
Public utilities . . .
Electric light and
Gas (local govt.) .
Water (local govt.).
Transportation . .
Non-manufacturing

Service
Hostelry and board
Catering
Renovating and dry
cleaning

Source: Central Bureau of Statistics, Jamaica, B.W.I. : Quarterly Digest of Statistics,
No. 6, Jan.-Mar. 1949, table 39, p. 27.

373

APPENDICES

APPENDIX

J A M A I C A : W A G E RATES AND
IN P R I N C I P A L I N D U S T R I E S ,
(per week unless otherwise

Occupation

HOURS
1950

stated)

Rates of pay

Average hours
worked

Agriculture :
Sugar workers, male
(per day)
10 (per day)

female
(per day)
Farm labourers
Public Utilities :
Electricity :
Electricians and service-men
Linesmen
Labourers
Water :
Operators
Plumbers
Watermen
Manufacturing :

(Not available)

Vegetable products

Leather

fale,
(female
I male
Ifemale
g ^

m »-i

Textlle

Wood and paper

Iron products

male

Chemical products

J^fe

Miscellaneous
Construction :
Carpenters
Plumbers
Masons
Painters
Road labourers"
Transportation and communication :
Bus operators
Conductors
Trackmen (railway)
Telegraph clerks, Post Office
Telephone workers
Cable workers

£ s. d.
6 0 0
4 0 0
2 14 2

48
48
48

3 3 0
2 18 2
1 12 10

48
48
48

2
1
1
2
3
2
3
2
2
3
1
2

0
0
9
6
4
0
6
0
0
6
6
0

45.2
43.7
46.9
46.9
43.7
45.4
46.6
42.2
45.8
53.9
44.2
45
48
48
48
48
48

18
17
16
0
3
4
2
2
19
2
14
14

4
3

0
0

3 15
6 0

3
3

48
48
48
45
48

374

LABOTJK POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

Occupation

Rates of pay

Trade and commerce :
(female
j™1^

Clerks (office)
Shop assistants

£ s.

8
5
5
4

0
6
0
0

15
2
7
8

Average hours
worked

46
45
43.7
41.9
44
45.5

Service :
on call
(per day)
(per day)
Personal service :
Domestic

imale\
(female

Hotels
Cater

-g

K*™™ 1 ^
General labour :

ffale
¡W,
uè
I
\
(
(
Í female \
f
: male

0
0
2
1
1
1
2
1

18
14
6
8
18
3
2
7

11
4
2
5
3
4
8
11

1 10
to
2 10
1 0
to
1 10

0
0
0

48 on call
on call
62
68
56.7
57
48.7
49.2
46.7
46.7

[

Source : Report on Jamaica for the Year 1950 (Kingston, Government Printer, 1951),
pp. 6-7.

375

APPENDICES

APPENDIX X I I
TRINIDAD: WAGES
DAILY EARNINGS, SELECTED OCCUPATIONS, 1 9 4 1 - 1 9 4 4 AND 1 9 4 8
Earnings in cents (B.W.I, currency)
Occupation
1941

1942

1943

1944

45-60
50-60
90-100
70-100

50-75
75-100
80-100
80-120

50-105
55-115
100-180
80-175

46-174
49-170
41-200
82-205

160-230

175-300

112-320

190-313

30-45

40-50

45-105

58-110

45-145

50-180

1948

Sugar estates :
Field workers (task
work) :
Cutlassing

. . . .

Time work :
Tractor drivers . .
Juveniles (light
work)
Factory workers (crop
season) :
Labourers
. . . .
Chargehands
(according to pro-

45-300

45-350

87-180

80-275

Cocoa estates :
General labourers . .
Grass cutters
. . .
Cutlassing
Government
employees 1 :
General labour :
Male
Female

60-80
70-100
60-90
100-250

80-120
100-135
80-120
120-250

100-125
100-135
100-150
120-250

60
42

92-96
50-60

124-156
84-96

Source : Reports of the Industrial Adviser for the Years 1938 to 1948 (Port-of-Spain,
Government Printer, 1941-1949).
' War bonus excluded.
HOURLY EARNINGS, OIL INDUSTRY, 1 9 3 8 - 1 9 4 4 AND 1 9 4 8
Earnings in cents (B.W.I, currency) '
Grade
1938

1939

1940

1941

1942

1943

1944

1948

. . . .

10-27 11-28 13-30 13-30 13-30 13-30 13-30 26-38

Operators and
attendants . . .

10-27 11-28 13-30 13-32 13-32 13-32 13-32 29-33

Semi-skilled labour

10-23 11-24 13-26 13-26 13-26 13-26 13-26 26-31

Unskilled labour .

10-15 11-18 13-20 13-20 13-20 13-20 13-20

Tradesmen

Source : Reports of the Industrial Adviser for the Years 1938 to 1948, op. cit.
1
Figures given do not include war allowances.

376

LABOUE POLICIES IN THE WEST INDIES

APPENDIX XIII
PUERTO RICO: AVERAGE HOURLY WAGES
BY INDUSTRIES, FISCAL YEARS 1934-1935 TO AUGUST 1949

Industry

Agriculture :
Coffee
Sugar cane . . .
Tobacco
. . . .

1934-35

1937-38

1939-40

1944-45

Aug.
1949

Percentage
increase
19341935
to Aug.
1949

0.057
0.108
0.049

0.066
0.146
0.052

0.074
0.151
0.062

0.125
0.200
0.116

0.185 3! 224.6 24
0.385
262.4
0.116 6 136.7 6

0.132

0.141

0.183

0.201

0.307

132.6

(except crackers)

0.147

0.184

0.166

Breweries . . . .
Buttons
. . . .
Carpets, rugs and
other floor coverings

—

0.200
0.187

0.209
0.331

0.383
0.325
0.449

0.463
0.477
0.443

215.0
138.5'
157.6

0.208
0.144
0.166
0.231 1 0
0.134

0.256
0.280»
0.264
0.309
0.195

0.495
0.297
0.316
0.497
0.305

138.0 8
70.7
165.5
115.2 s
121.0

0.361

0.480

233.3

Manufacturing :
Apparel and other
finished products
made from fabrics
Bakery products

Coffee roastings .
Concrete products
Crackers
. . . .
Distilled, rectified
and blended
liquors
. . . .
Drugs, medicines,
perfumes and
other toilet preparations. . . .
Fertilisers . . . .
Foundries, machine
and blacksmith
Fruit canning . .
Furniture . . . .
Hair-nets . . . .
Lime kilns . . .
Paper boxes . .
Pastry shops . .
Planing mills . .
Printing and allied
industries . . .
Quilts and mattres-

0.172

—

0.174
0.119

0.140
0.166

—

0.138

0.121

0.144

0.142

0.223

0.103
0.255

0.122
0.228

0.121
0.266

0.194
0.452

0.339
0.672

229.1
163.5

0.160
0.078
0.132

0.227
0.114
0.135
0.142
0.152
0.192
0.138

0.260
0.122
0.129
0.219
0.180
0.184
0.149

0.407
0.222 12
0.210
0.351
0.263
0.349

0.562
0.316
0.397
0.467
0.586
0.488
0.342
0.411

251.2
305.1
200.8
228.9'
285.5'
227.5
142,6
206.7

0.449

136.3

0.524

351.7

—
—.

0.149
0.141
0.134
0.190
0.116

—

•

0.269
0.161

—
0.208
0.191

—

•

0.326
0.258
0.216

377

APPENDICES

Percentage
increase
19341935
to Aug.
1949

1944-45

Aug.
1949

0.153

0.217
0.245
0.289

0.423
0.415
0.378

288.1
260.9
270.6

0.186

0.185
0.161
0.240

0.308
0.306
0.246

0.389
0.348
0.298

0.599
0.530
0.524

391.0
229.2 7
181.7

0.200
0.072
0.158
0.061

0.164
0.126
0.152
0.129

0.149
0.124
0.156
0.253

0.213
0.280
0.244
0.397

0.444
0.290
0.363
0.254

122.0
302.8
129.7
316.4

. . .

0.193

0.202

0.215

0.393

0.487" 152.3

Transportation (passenger and cargo)

0.206

0.200

0.244

0.184

0.170

0.201

0.178
0.083

0.184
0.124

0.161
0.140

Industry

Shoe manufacturing a n d repairing
Soap
Soda water . . .
Sugar, except
refined
. . . .
Sugar, refineries .
Tue
Tin cans and other
tinware . . . .
Tobacco stripping
Vermicelli . . .
Volatile oil . . .
Construction

Services :
Automobile repair
shops
Cinemas and
theatres . . . .
Laundries . . . .

1934-35

1937-38

0.109
0.115
0.102

0.127
0.154
0.102

0.103

0.122

1939-40

0.530 16

157.3 "

0.259

0.535 18

190.0

0.286
0.215

0.420 1S 136.0 19
0.296 18 256.6 1S>

Source : Puerto Rico, Department of Labor Statistics.
' Average hourly rate in Oct. 1948. » Average hourly rate in Apr. 1949. ' Average
of hourly rates for planting in Nov. 1948 and harvesting in Feb. 1948. ' Between
1934-1935 and Oct. 1948. » Between 1934-1935 and Apr. 1949. • Between 19341935 and 1948. » Between 1937-1938 and Aug. 1949. • Between 1939-1940 and
Aug. 1949. • Includes cigars and cigarettes. 10 Concrete
pipe factories only. » Alcohol distilleries only. " Includes fruits
and vegetables. 13 Includes bedsprings. » Average hourly rate in June 1949. 15 Between 1934-1935 and June 1949. 1S Average of
rates for highway passenger transportation in Aug. 1948 and highway freight transportation in Oct. 1948. " Between 1934-1935 and 1948. » Average hourly rate in Oct.
1949. » Between 1934-1935 and Oct. 1948.

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Payment by Results
Studies and Reports, New Series, No. 27
A report prepared in order to provide Governments,
employers and other interested parties with up-to-date information concerning the various types of systems now in use, the
procedures employed in introducing and applying them, the
extent to which they are used in various countries and industries, their effects on output and workers' earnings, their
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enquiry; a second part contains a statement of general principles concerning the use of systems of payment by results,
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CONTENTS
Chapter I. Main Features of Individual and Group Systems of
Payment by Eesults.
Chapter II. Procedures Used in Introducing and Applying Systems
of Payment by Eesults.
Chapter III. The Extent of Application of Various Systems.
Chapter IV. Examples of Systems Applied in Certain Industries.
Building—Chemical—Clothing—Iron and Steel—Laundry—Metal
Trades—Paper—Eubber—Textile.
Chapter V. Effects on Earnings, Output, Costs, Industrial Eelations and Health.
Chapter VI. Some Advantages and Disadvantages.
Chapter VII. Safeguards.
Chapter VIII. General Principles concerning the Use of Payment
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Appendix. Observations on Systems of Payment by Eesults
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Index
viii-f 204 pages

Tables

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CONTENTS
PREFACE
Chap.

I.
II.
III.
TV.
V.
VI.
VII.
VIII.
IX.
X.
XI.

Total and Economically Active Population.
Employment.
Unemployment.
Hours of Work.
Wages and Labour Income.
Consumer Price Indices and Bétail Prices.
Family Living Studies.
Social Security.
Industrial
Injuries.
Industrial Disputes.
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APPENDIX.

GENEVA, 1951.

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