A few weeks ago independent Member of Parliament Mr. Frans Richardson, supported by the National Alliance fraction, requested a Central Committee Meeting on the topic an increase in the minimum wage.
During my term as WICUS’s President when we went into the private sector, I and the executive board in negotiating a collective labor agreement (CLA) would always focus and more and improved benefits and a lesser percentage of salary increase. Why one may ask? Very simple answer: a high salary increase can never be better than good benefits such as: a good pension plan: good scale of vacation days and vacation allowance; severance payment and notice payment above what Government regulates and other working conditions where Government is vague f.i a situation where a parent with a sick child is able to stay at home or hospital with child with pay. This is not regulated by Government. So to the workers it is in your benefit to Unionize,, as a matter of fact it also to the benefit to company’s and employer’s to form that partnership with unions.
In my opinion a minimum wage increase without a structured consistent price control in terms cost of renting an apartment; food items; insurances; establishing of a consumer protection advocacy etc. is absolutely not a real minimum wage increase.
Every time the minimum wage increases the cost of living goes up. Do I think the workers in that category deserve an increase? Absolutely, but we must be real by recognizing and acknowledging that one without the other remain just that, a minimum wage and not a living wage. And I believe that those workers deserve a living wage.
I believe that until Government has a stricter price control in all the area’s which I mentioned above it cannot and will not reflect a real increase.
I strongly believe that is the way to go and the minimum wage should be categorized with respect to the function one is holding, it should also be tied into the vacation days. Government regulates that the minimum vacation days per year is 15 working days of course providing the amount of days worked per week. The minimum wage and the minimum vacation day’s regulated y Government is applied by many employers who pay exactly that and that is where the challenge lies.
My suggestion to the honorable Member of Parliament Frans Richardson and the honorary Members of Parliamentarians of the National Alliance fraction to go back to the drawing board and revisit your proposals. Generally the public understands and can differentiate a genuine political statement or initiative to a purely political statement and initiative for campaigning purposes in the run-up to 2014 elections. Never underestimate the intelligence of our people.
Patricia Pantophlet