Minimum
wage: $10 or more
PORT SPAIN
Petroleumworldtt.com
02 17 08
MINISTER
of Labour, Rennie Dumas, yesterday said the new
Minimum Wage
Board could hike the minimum wage to more than
$10 per hour as promised by Prime Minister Patrick
Manning in the 2007/2008 Budget.
He
told yesterday’s post-Cabinet media conference
at Whitehall that Cabinet had agreed to reconstitute
the Minimum Wage Board which was appointed in 2003
and had expired in 2006.
He said under the Minimum Wage Act 1976, the board
advises the minister on an appropriate level of
minimum wage, such as had occurred in 1998, 2003
and 2005.
He
named the new board members as his ministry’s
deputy permanent secretary Ashford Sankar; the
Ministry of Finance’s Hayden Manzano; Employers
Consultative Association representative Stephanie
Fingal; the Tobago House of Assembly’s Cindy
Joseph; and economist Dr Lester Henry of the University
of the West Indies, while a representative of each
civil society and the labour movement would be
named after further consultations. The latter,
he said, would be “the association that is
most representative of labour”
Dumas
said, “The Minimum Wage Board is now
in place and those proposals from the last budget
will be referred to them.”
Asked how soon the country could expect to see
a $10 minimum wage, Dumas could not set a time
but said this would depend on the board.
“The
board may decide if it is $10 or more, and the
time for them to do that depends on their
processes.”
Story
by Sean Douglas from Trinidad & Tobago Newsday
Trinidad
Newsday
Friday, February 15 2008
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