Affirmative action has many faces, especially in the over a pint of beer discussions, according to Ron Meredith.
One of the latter, he said, goes something like: If you are not over 40, white or male, you are okay. It's said as a joke, but could be a real problem short-term. There is one distinct area of difficulty that Meredith highlights.
I feel that we do not have the time available, he said, to get the disadvantaged community trained to take over the positions of senior, qualified people leaving the major government service providers. This is of real concern to the short-term future development of our industry. But it also applies within the clearing and forwarding industry itself, Meredith added. We do not have the trained people at this moment to take us through to the next 10 years, he said.
With regard to affirmative action in our industry, we will have to start training our people through our various MITB courses and on-the-job training. This will bring our people up through the ranks, based on merit.
One has to walk and talk on this matter - and draw up action plans within our industry and companies.
