PSA: $2 minimum wage increase making a mockery of poor people

PUBLIC Services Association (PSA) president Leroy Baptiste has accused the Government of making a mockery of public sector workers by offering them a meagre $2 increase in the minimum wage.

“That is just wrong. Government is just making a mockery and a laughingstock of these workers. What is needed is a living wage,” he told the Newsday in response to the almost six-hour budget presentation by Finance Minister Colm Imbert on September 30.

Baptiste linked poverty to the escalation of crime and criminality and the attraction of depressed people, unable to care for themselves or their families, to the “dark economy.”

In his presentation in the Parliament on Monday afternoon, Imbert noted there has been a systematic increase in the minimum wage over the nine years the PNM has been in Government and while an increase would have its “pros and cons”, bringing comfort and an improved standard of living for those at the bottom of the income scale, it also had the power to create hardship for small businesses.

For marginal enterprises, this could lead to retrenchment, closure or reduced working hours, thus cancelling out its benefits, he said.

“We have, therefore, decided to not make any further increase in the national minimum wage at this time, especially since the last increase, just last year, was of the order of 17 per cent, and SMEs are still grappling with the challenge of managing that increase.”

Instead, he said, “The Government, as the largest single employer of people in the country, is acutely aware of the difficulties endured by persons earning the minimum wage.”

“Accordingly, while we do not wish to place additional stress on the small business sector at this time while continuing to review the national minimum wage for an increase in subsequent years, we will increase the minimum wage earned by public sector employees from $20.50 an hour to $22.50 an hour, an increase of $2.00 per hour, or 9.8 per cent.”

Imbert identified the beneficiaries of this increase as 5,100 workers at MTS, 6,900 workers in CEPEP and 6,200 workers in URP, among other minimum wage workers in the public sector.

“Particularly for MTS workers, such as security guards, it will put as much as $500 per month of additional tax-free income into the pockets of this very hardworking group of workers, depending on the hours worked. Similarly, janitorial staff at MTS, who work shorter hours than security guards, will earn an additional $340 per month. CEPEP and URP workers will also benefit from this increase, in proportion to the hours worked.”

He said this increase, expected to cost the Government $75 million in fiscal 2025, will take effect from November 1st, 2024.

Baptiste scoffed at his offer, questioning, “How is $200 more a month going to change a man’s circumstance? Will it put food on his table (and) pay his rent?

“Is this the world of work Imbert want for the future generation? You think when youths see their parents struggling to earn a decent living, they would aspire to be like them? No. That’s the reason why people are attracted to the dark economy.”

He also accused Imbert and the Rowley-led administration of contempt for the collective bargaining process in reference to his instruction to the Chief Personnel Officer (CPO) to commence negotiations with the public sector trade unions, which accepted the four per cent wage offer, for the next triennium period January 2020 to December 2022.

Imbert explained that the four per cent wage increase to workers in the teaching service, the police service, the fire service, the prisons service, the defence force, and daily paid workers for January 2014 to December 2019, while not a lot, was all they could have offered, at a cost of over $1 billion in back pay and increase in recurrent annual expenditure by hundreds of millions of dollars.

He said most of the workers, with the exception of those represented by PSA and NUGFW, have received their increases and back pay.

“The last remaining standouts being the PSA and the NUGFW, both of whom have taken the matter to the Industrial Court as a dispute.

“We continue to urge both the PSA and the National Union of Government and Federated Workers (NUGFW) to accept the offer and move on, but that is for them and their membership to decide. We hope that good sense will eventually prevail.

“As a responsible Government, we cannot allow the refusal of the PSA and the NUGFW to accept our offer of a wage increase for the 2014 to 2019 period to delay negotiations with the other public sector trade unions, who represent more workers in the public sector, for the next bargaining period. Accordingly, I have today instructed the Chief Personnel Officer to make the necessary preparations to commence negotiations with those trade unions who accepted the previous four per cent offer for the next triennium, that is for the period January 2020 to December 2022, even in the face of our challenging financial circumstances.”

Imbert said this increase is estimated to cost an additional $475 million per year in recurrent expenditure, with back pay up to the end of 2024 estimated at over $1 billion.

“It will be difficult to find the money to make these payments, but we think it is only fair and just.”

A frustrated Baptiste said he did not know if he could continue the fight.

“The Minister misrepresented the facts when he stated that the PSA reported the matter as a dispute. It was the government through the CPO that, after two meetings, reported a dispute.

“Moreover, it's dictatorship and bullying on full display.

"Negotiations by decree. To hell with collective bargaining. It is take it or leave it with this Government. They want the unions to agree to the decree. This is objectionable and must be resisted not just for ourselves but for future generations of workers. There is a purpose to negotiations. That is at a minimum, to maintain the standard of living of those we represent. Nevertheless, we shall consult with our members and be guided accordingly.”