Employers across industries demand loyalty from their employees, yet
they operate under “at-will” policies or impose ultimatums that
undermine job security. Loyalty should be a two-way street, but in
practice, it is often one-sided—marked by duplicity and hypocrisy.
A recent case in Jamaica highlights this imbalance, where a hotel
refuses to pay salary bonuses and is actively fighting against
compensating workers what they are rightfully owed. Meanwhile, the
government seems complicit, offering workers less than half of their
due. This is not an isolated incident but part of a broader trend
where employers expect employees to go above and beyond, yet wages and
benefits are squeezed through narrow loopholes disguised as
“merit-based” or “performance-based” pay.
In the US President Donald Trump has embarked on applying a laundry of immediate actions aimed at “buying out” federal workers or terminating thousands of workers and several agencies by unilaterally freezing needed government spending that pay federal workers or benefits that pay indirect government workers. He does so without apology.
If businesses genuinely want loyalty and productivity, they must build
it into their systems through fair wages, job security, and respect
for workers’ rights. Instead, we have a system that, while offering
some benefits, often mirrors exploitative labor conditions—only
marginally better than servitude. True progress requires a shift
toward equity, where workers are valued not just for their output but
for their humanity.
Sincerely,
Rev. Renaldo C McKenzie, M.Phil, M.A., Notary
Doctoral Candidate, Georgetown University,
President, The Neoliberal Corporation,
Professor, Jamaica Theological Seminary
Author, Neoliberalism, Globalization, Income Inequality, Poverty and Resistance
Neoliberalism, Globalization, Income Inequality, Poverty And Resistance
Author of upcoming Book: Neoliberal Globalization Reconsidered,
Neo-Capitalism and the Death of Nations
Creator/Host, The Neoliberal Round Podcast
https://anchor.fm/theneoliberal
Creator/Producer: The Neoliberal Round by Renaldo McKenzie YouTube
Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@RenaldoMckenzie
[email protected]
445-260-9198
“Serving the world today to solve tomorrow’s challenges, by making
popular what was the monopoly.” (That is the aim of communication).)
