McLeod: Minimum wage decision in two weeks
By Julien Neaves
LABOUR Minister Errol McLeod says in about two weeks, the country should know by what amount the minimum wage would be increased.
He said a decision has been made to raise it, but the “extent to which it is being raised is still being looked at”. The announcement will certainly be made after the Local Government election on July 26, and possibly at the end of this month, he said.
The increase in the minimum wage was one of the promises made by the People’s Partnership in the lead-up to the May 24 general election. The minimum wage is currently $9.
McLeod, speaking with the media on Thursday, following the University of Trinidad and Tobago’s (UTT) 2010 Business Plan Competition and Award ceremony at the UTT’s O’Meara campus, Arima, also responded to calls for him to intervene in the ongoing row in the Public Services Association (PSA). He said, however, it is senior leaders of other unions who should intervene.
“I don’t think it is for the Minister of Labour to intervene in the domestic squabbles of any of our unions, as pained as I feel about what is going on.”
McLeod, a former Oilfields and Workers Trade Union (OWTU) president general, said he is prepared to advise and may get involved if “there is a popular request by both or all of the contending parties to the issue”.
Vincent Cabrera, president of the Banking, Insurance and General Workers Union (BIGWU), told the Express union leaders have attempted in the past to intervene in the matter, and they continue to do so.
However, he said for an intervention to succeed, both sides must be willing to enter into some kind of mediation, “and I’m not sure that exists at this point”.
Cabrera said the issue came up on Thursday at an “all-union-movement” meeting, a regular meeting of 13 unions.
The rift in the PSA began in April when general secretary Oral Saunders was fired by PSA president Watson Duke, following a text message Saunders sent to a colleague, stating his intention to resign due to growing concerns over union spending, including Duke’s use of the union’s credit card.
Some general council members attempted to hold a special meeting on the issue but were locked out by Duke. The aggrieved members unsuccessfully called for Duke’s resignation.
In early May, the group began a sit-out at the union’s Abercromby Street, Port of Spain, headquarters to “shame” Duke into leaving the union’s property. At one of these protests, council member Alana Blackman-Maloney had to seek medical treatment after a scuffle between rival supporters. A police investigation is continuing into the incident.
Former PSA president Jennifer Baptiste-Primus, who wrote Duke advising him to abide by the general council’s decisions, recently told the Express McLeod should use his “moral suasion” to end the rift between Duke and the general council. (Trinidad Express)