New bosses take up posts at Labour and Pensions
Clara Smith, Assistant Director, Department of Labour and Pensions
(CNS): In an effort to build up the enforcement side of the labour department, two new bosses have now taken up new appointments. Gene Hydes is now the head of inspections and Clara Smith assumed the post of assistant director.
Hydes is a long-serving member of the Department of Labour and Pensions and had previously worked with the former Department of Employment Relations (DER). He was a senior labour officer but was appointed inspections’ boss after acting in the post for the past four months. Hydes was the first recipient of the director’s “Employee of the Month/Quarter” in 2013.
Gene Hydes, Head of Inspections, Department of Labour and Pensions
Clara Smith has over a decade of experience in the public service, working most recently as the appeals and compliance analyst for the Information Commissioner’s Office. Before that she spent three years at the Portfolio of the Civil Service and was policy coordinator for the National Youth Commission. Smith commenced her public service career with the Health Service Authority in 2003.
Mario Ebanks, Director of DLP and Acting Superintendent of Pensions, said the department was continuing to assemble and build the team. “We are endeavouring to attract people who have a passion for the department’s vision and mission of delivering high quality services to the public, while abiding by sound values,” he said.
Christen Suckoo, Acting Chief Officer, Ministry of Education, Employment & Gender Affairs, described Hydes and Smith as “dedicated and hard-working professionals” and “exemplary civil servants”, who would contribute to developing the services provided by the DLP.
Category: Jobs, Local News
Department Of Labour has no real use to be honest. So many Employers violate Labour Law and are never fined or disciplined. So what purpose does that Department serve? Companies are not even paying “Holiday Pay” the rate of double time yet they are never fined or made to pay the employee back. I would ask CNS to do a Survey on how many persons who went to the Department Of Labour got their issues resolved. How long did it take to resolve them. You would be shocked at the numbers. CNS I implore you to do this survey and it will show that DLP has been ineffective in resolving matters. It takes them one calendar year to resolve even the most simple issues. Where is Mrs. Rivers or Mario Ebanks to answer “Crickets”.
I hope she does a better, job as Assistant Director than the last one did. I am still awaiting a call about a matter reported in April 2014. I also hope they make her assume the role of information manager so that the public can be given facts, a straight forward answer and a timely reply. Congrats to mr. Hydes as well….don’t know him but have been told that he deals with matters in a fair, consistent and prompt manner.
Congrats to these 2 fine Civil Servants. I am sure they will fulfill their respective roles with hardwork and dedication. You both make West Bay proud.
Congrats Clara!
We hope that Ms. Smith will not be forced to forget what she learned at the Information Commissioner’s Office – the right to information in a democracy.
The risk to employees pension funds is all on the employee, not government, not the pension plan administrators and not employers.
Employees fund the government’s and the pension administrators, yet still when employees request information about governments regulation of pensions or about pension plan administrators or employers on pension matters (not including individual employee pension information, except for the requestor) most of the time the Superintendent of Pensions and the Pension Ministry uses every trick they can devise to delay release of the requested records or refuse to release the requested records. This culture of secrecy causes many unnecessary appeals to the Information Commissioner.
The culture of secrecy also adds unnecessary cost to the regulation of pensions and the Pension Ministry, all paid for by employees from the pension taxes we are all forced to pay.
The withholding of pension information is not good pension governance.
Ms. Smith we wish you well and we are, anticipating a change of attitude in the Pension Ministry in regards to the release of pension information and otherwise.
I think you are misleading the citizens of these little islands. The employers are the ones paying through their ass to fund the Governments and the pension administrators. We pay a 5% on all our employees wages, employees pay only for themselves.. one person payment. This so called forced savings is an unjust to the businesses of this country. Yes I agree we should have a social security run and operated by our government, let them bear the liability of the people they tax heavily during their working years. Should any person with extra cash wants to invest voluntary in a Pension plan, let me do so. Stop destroying the small businesses!!
But aren’t the employers making hundreds of thousands of dollars in profit? Isn’t that also tax free? Whether you are from here or over there you don’t have to pay income,payroll,capital gains,state,property etc.? Isn’t that true? I’m just talking a small business also.
Not true. We still pay taxes in our home countries
Don’t hold your breath, bobo.
Well deserved Clara! God Bless!
Why is it well deserved, 10:13?. It may be and probably is, but we would like to know why. She was apparently “policy coordinator for the National Youth Commission”. What policy came out of the coordination and what has/is the Youth Commission done/doing?
I agree, only thing that those connected to the National Youth Commission, or the National Youth Policy have ever done is dress up to make fancy speeches.
Tangibly!!! What tangible results can these fancy entities show?! Besides years of sound bites and failed policies.
Now there is a question, 8:17, you will never get an answer to and I suspect that is why you asked it. The Youth Commission comment is a “resume/curriculum vitae stuffer”, designed to make applications and press releases look more impressive.
Such negativity when a Caymanian is successful in furthering her career! You sound very bitter and I pray you are able to get out of that barrel you appear to be stuck in.