Government, through the Ministry of Social Protection’s Department of Labour will soon start talks with the private sector and union bodies to review the national minimum wage paid to workers, GINA said yesterday.
The current minimum wage paid to public servants stands at $50,000, while that of private sector employees is about $35,000. Minister within the Ministry of Social Protection, Keith Scott told GINA that the intention is to bring the private sector minimum wage in line with that of public servants.
Earlier in the year, the Ministry had reported that it had been conducting a survey to ascertain what the average private sector employee was earning.
Scott said that the Ministry’s survey has been completed and is now awaiting the unions’ and the private sector’s assessment.
“We are still awaiting the trade unions to submit the results of their survey and the private sector to submit their survey. The last tripartite meeting, they said to me that they have arrived at their own survey…however the Government already has their survey ready and what we are waiting is for the three to come together and out of that process we will be able have a minimum wage across the board,” Scott said.
He further noted that the Government is at the point where it is paying a standard minimum wage of $50,000 and, “We can’t force the private sector to pay the minimum wage… but with this tripartite meeting, we are hoping to pay the workers at whatever we arrive at, this is the direction because we want to have the input of the stakeholders.”
Scott added that the Ministry has also been engaging public sector agencies including the Neighbourhood Democratic Councils to comply with the public servants’ minimum wage.
