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  • 8 months ago
While companies in the US are rolling back their diversity, equity, and inclusion frameworks, the American Chamber of Commerce of Trinidad and Tobago has reaffirmed its commitment to DEI policies. AMCHAM CEO Nirad Tewarie made the position clear at the Chamber's 11th Women's Leadership Conference. Rynessa Cutting has more.
Transcript
00:00With dozens of US companies rolling back their DEI policies, including Amazon, Meta and Google,
00:08in accordance with President Trump's executive order, the American Chamber of Commerce of
00:13Trinidad and Tobago is making it clear that it continues to support and promote diversity,
00:19equity and inclusion in its organization.
00:23Some companies have started rolling back their DEI initiatives and the consequences will
00:29be clear in the short term.
00:32As a business chamber representing more than 300 companies in Trinidad and Tobago, we remain
00:38fully committed to ensuring in our organization and advocating for in other organizations
00:44safe, inclusive and equitable workplaces for all employees regardless of background.
00:52The AmCham CEO says despite this, the chamber employs a merit-based approach to hiring,
00:59promotions and development as he noted that the chamber has a strong female leadership.
01:06From the very boardroom in which seven of the 14 board members are females, please do
01:14not ever let anyone tell you that the reason that their board doesn't have parity or at
01:24least there's some reasonable effort to get to parity is because you don't have or can't
01:30find competent or qualified or experienced women.
01:34That's rubbish.
01:36Scotiabank, whose board is 58% women, is also reaffirming its support of DEI initiatives.
01:44Significant progress has been made but issues still exist.
01:50Unequal access to opportunities, gender pay gap and gender-based violence to name a few
01:57with a growing number of prominent global companies recently scaling back or setting
02:04aside DEI initiatives.
02:06This is not a time to retreat or step back.
02:10It is in fact an opportunity for us to push forward more boldly, more visibly and with
02:17even greater conviction.
02:20The comments were made at AmCham's 11th Women's Leadership Conference held under the theme
02:26hashtag Accelerate Action.
02:28Attorney-at-law Andrea Sasa with the Equal Opportunity Tribunal Vera Bajan called on
02:34women and girls to take up space in the world regardless of how society may perceive them.
02:41It's not just a professional world where we face these biases.
02:45We also face it in our personal lives, in the way we expect it to behave, how we expect
02:51it to look and how our value is often reduced to our appearance or conformity.
02:57The standards of beauty, the expectations of how we should speak, the limits on what
03:03we can dream, they all come from a society that is built on systems and narratives that
03:09need to change.
03:10Renessa Cutting, TV6 News.
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