For months, the Ali administration has prevaricated on approving the National Minimum Wage (NMW) at $60,000 per month from the current figure of $44,400 as recommended by the Ministry of Labour’s Tripartite Committee in January this year.
The absurdity of the dithering has now been exposed by virtue of one of the government’s unstructured handouts to the public. Temporary jobs announced for the unemployed by Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo will now earn the lucky winners $40,000 per month for working 10 days. One isn’t even sure how many hours per day are being worked by these temporary workers and who is actually auditing this programme and monitoring them. It means that those who are subsisting on the NMW of $44,400 should ideally seek temporary jobs with the state for 10 days and find some other revenue earning activity for the remainder of the month.
In the main, those who are earning $44,400 or under per month are in the private sector, not the public service and this is where it seems that undue influence has delayed the implementation of the NMW. Some shops on Regent Street and in other parts of the city and country have long escaped paying a fair wage and it now seems that they are being assisted in this travesty by the Ali administration even as the cost of living rises sharply.
From its heyday as a working class party committed to the uplifting of the masses of workers particularly those who toiled in the sugar industry, the PPP/C is unrecognisable today. It thrives in the thrall of sections of the business community while trying to burnish its credentials by handouts here, there and everywhere. It fools no one. President Ali would do well to consider the gap between the top earner in his administration and the $44,400. Those who are labouring at the National Minimum Wage deserve the increase approved in January this year by the Tripartite Committee which comprises the government, labour and importantly the private sector.
To its credit, and particularly because of its traditional close ties to the current ruling party, the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Guyana (FITUG) has repeatedly called on the Ali administration to implement the $60,000 NMW.
President Ali himself has now presented the latest impediment to the implementation of the $60,000 minimum wage. On the sidelines of an event at State House on June 3rd, he was asked by Stabroek News about the holdup. He first deflected the question but perhaps realising that this was not the best course returned to it and then placed the onus on his Minister of Labour, Joseph Hamilton.
The President said: “He (Minister Hamilton) has not brought before cabinet the full paper to be discussed. You know the private sector had views on this issue. We asked the minister to have wide consultation to bring together the views of everyone then present a holistic paper. The minister still has that responsibility to bring a holistic paper”.
The President’s statement has not a sliver of credibility. Even if it were the case that some amorphous paper was to be presented on this $60,000 minimum wage, what did his government do between early January when it was approved by the committee and June 3rd? Nothing. It twiddled its thumbs as on other key issues in this country until it was forced to respond.
The extant tripartite mechanism at the Ministry of Labour has long been recognised as the vehicle for addressing issues in which the main stakeholders: the government, the trade unions and the employers take on representational roles. The Consultative Association of Guyanese Industry represented the interests of the private sector.
Developing a paper on the impact of a $60,000 minimum wage is certainly an advisable initiative and one would have expected that the elements of such a paper would have been addressed by the tripartite committee. While there has been no public disquisition by the tripartite committee on what was addressed in its deliberations it is unacceptable for President Ali to now undermine the process by adverting to a “paper”. Why should the private sector have a second go at this matter which has been pending for years? Who will develop this paper? Is there a deadline for this or will it drag on interminably?
There are no acceptable answers to these questions and the turn of events is sufficiently disquieting as to call into question whether Mr Hamilton is adequately discharging his functions. As far back as December 10, 2020, FITUG called on Mr Hamilton to bring the $60,000 minimum wage into effect while pointing at the duplicity of the former APNU+AFC administration on the matter. In November of 2021, while acknowledging that the private sector had shown resistance, Mr Hamilton reported that he had instructed the Chief Labour Officer to convene a meeting of the National Tripartite Committee to resume discussions on the NMW. On January 5th 2022 the committee duly met and agreed to the $60,000 figure which recommendation Mr Hamilton was to take to Cabinet for deliberations.
On May 3rd this year, Mr Hamilton told Stabroek News that the matter was still under “active consideration” by Cabinet. There was no revelation by him that he had been expected to present a “paper” on this subject. How heartless of this Cabinet to hold in abeyance a decision on the minimum wage for the lowest earners in this country when its own spending pattern on overseas trips and other non-essentials has not attracted the need for a “paper”.
President Ali and his government have had enough time to ruminate on this matter. Implement the National Minimum Wage at $60,000 per month.
