At the 59th Annual Delegates Conference of the Antigua and Barbuda Workers’ Union (ABWU), union president Kem Riley has delivered a sharp rebuke to local employers engaging in a growing, controversial labor practice: intentionally misclassifying regular employees as independent contractors to evade their mandatory legal responsibilities to their staff.
Riley pointed out that this deceptive labeling is one of the key drivers of rising employment insecurity across the nation’s labor market, a trend amplified by the growing adoption of temporary contracts and other non-standard working arrangements by businesses. Even after the Antigua and Barbuda Labour Code was revised in 2019 to introduce clearer protections for temporary workers, Riley noted that many workers still remain locked into repetitive, short-term temporary contracts that offer no long-term stability.
For other workers, the exploitation takes the form of fraudulent independent contracting. Under the “guise” of this arrangement, Riley explained, workers are stripped of the core labor protections and benefits that are legally guaranteed to standard full-time employees.
He pushed back against the bad faith practice of redefining worker status through paperwork alone, emphasizing: “A worker does not become an independent contractor simply because someone writes those words on a piece of paper.” Under national labor law, the actual classification of a working relationship hinges on the true nature of the arrangement — most notably the extent of control the employer exercises over the worker’s daily tasks and schedule — rather than whatever label an employer chooses to print on a contract.
While Riley acknowledged that flexible working arrangements can play a legitimate and useful role in a modern, dynamic labor market, he raised critical questions about who these arrangements are actually designed to benefit. “Are we creating flexibility for workers, or are we creating insecurity and instability for workers? There is a difference,” he stated.
Riley affirmed that all working people are entitled to reasonable job security, equitable compensation, dignified treatment, and full legal protection on the job. He confirmed that the ABWU will maintain unwavering vigilance against any attempt to dodge legitimate employment obligations through nothing more than deceptive labeling of worker status.
In addition to addressing misclassification, Riley outlined the union’s ongoing commitments: the ABWU will continue to vigorously defend workers against unfair workplace practices including unlawful dismissal, workplace victimization, discriminatory treatment, unjustified suspensions, and unfair redundancy procedures.
The union president also struck a balanced tone, recognizing that employers hold valid operational and business interests, and that workers do have responsibilities to uphold in the workplace. Even so, he stressed that any workplace investigation into employee conduct must be conducted in good faith, workers must be given a fair opportunity to respond to allegations against them, and any disciplinary actions taken must be both fair and proportionate to the infraction.
“We are not asking for workers to be above accountability,” Riley clarified. “We are asking for accountability to be fair, consistent and just.”