IMAJ has incorporated the Electrical Contractors Association of Jamaica, the Jamaica Air-conditioning Refrigeration & Ventilating Association, the Women’s Construction Collective and the Association of Construction & Engineering Students as members of the Executive Council and they have a seat at the table. The overall industry is huge so the idea is to have an umbrella body where everybody can have a voice. A place where issues can be vented and advocacy can be assigned to those issues. Speaking to the diversity of the industry these days, Kelly acknowledges, “There is a good number of women in construction in Jamaica – at the supervisory level and as tradespeople. They do steel work, masonry, carpentry, painting, plaster work. It’s a joy to watch them, they tend to be very focused.” IMAJ also offers a certification program in collaboration with HEART College of Construction Services (HCCS) that involves onsite evaluation of tradesmen who don’t have a trade certificate.“In the industry, the vast majority of workers have not had formal training,” says Kelly. “They apprentice on the job and learn the skills. In our partnership with HEART, our contractor members send them supervisors and then HEART will train those supervisors in how to evaluate the workers onsite because the workers already work under their supervision every day. So you assist them with their weaknesses and get the best ones certified first and then start working with the others. Then we communicate and make an application on their behalf with HEART, the trade training body. They will come in and assess the worker; if they pass the test, they get a skills certificate that acknowledges their qualifications to do a certain job. We do scholarships, too, for students in high schools and those in college who are in construction and engineering.” Respecting the importance of occupational safety training, IMAJ created a safety manual that was signed off by OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) and the unions for Jamaica’s existing occupational health and safety laws. It’s in a comic book format, so workers who can’t read, see the pictures and know what it’s about. Kelly notes,“When a worker comes onsite, you do a safety orientation with them and then they are issued a book. The management of the site signs that they will supply IMAJ continues to lobby and encourage the government to move on the issues, and the organization also acts as a resource entity because the documents they produce are used by government departments for tracking labor and making their projections – even the Statistical Institute of Jamaica uses them. In keeping with the By-Laws of the Association, 16 BUSINESS VIEW CARIBBEAN VOLUME 11, ISSUE 08
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