The president of the Jamaica Employers Federation (JEF), Wayne Chen, is warning the government to be cautious in its implementation of legislation that governs employer-employee relations.

Mr Chen was making reference to amendments to the Labour Relations and Industrial Dispute (LRID) Act, which is now being debated in the House of Representatives.

He says his organization is particularly concerned that the role of the Industrial Disputes Tribunal (IDT) is being extended to include interest disputes, which he says should fall under the ambit of the regular courts.

The proposed amendments to the LRIDA will allow all categories of workers to go directly to the IDT to seek redress.

At present, only unionised workers are entitled to representation before the IDT.

Non-unionised workers require an order from the labour minister for the cases to be heard by the tribunal.