(1) The Labour Commissioner shall be responsible for the general administration of the work of the Department of Labour, for the administration of this Act and such other functions as may be assigned to him or her by the Minister.
(2) Without derogating from the generality of subsection (1) in particular, the Labour Commissioner shall—
(a) promote the settlement of any differences between employers and employees in accordance with the provisions of this Act including the facilitation of any meetings for the purposes of conciliation between the parties to a trade dispute;
(b) advise the Minister on all labour matters and on measures to improve industrial relations generally;
(c) encourage the development of tripartism and collective bargaining and provide technical advice to employers and trade unions on industrial relations;
(d) be responsible for the inspection of all workplaces in accordance with this Act;
(e) prepare an annual report on the work of the department of labour and on its functions under this Act and such reports shall be published within 12 months after the end of the year to which they relate;
(f) make recommendations to the Minister for the promotion of good industrial relation practices;
(g) where he or she deems appropriate, recommend to the Minister to collect, prepare and publish statistics relating to any matter pertaining to this Act and labour matters in the country;
(h) where possible, facilitate mechanisms for training and retraining of workers in Saint Lucia on a tripartite basis;
(i) delegate certain of his or her powers to other labour officers in order to enforce the provisions of this Act and to revoke such delegation at any time; and
(j) act, to the best of his or her ability, as an advisor on all matters pertaining to the Act and all matters concerning employment in Saint Lucia when called upon to do so by employers or trade unions.
(3) In the absence or illness of the Labour Commissioner, the Deputy Labour Commissioner is deemed to have authority to exercise all the powers and discharge all the duties vested in and imposed on the Labour Commissioner and all things done or exercised by the Deputy Labour Commissioner is valid and effectual in all respects as if they had been done or exercised by the Labour Commissioner. (Inserted by Act 6 of 2011)