Unions must demand living wage, oil wealth has to be shared with poor
Urging unions to demand a new living wage, trade unionist N K Gopaul on Friday said that while the government has embarked on a robust infrastructural programme, the same attention has not been paid to the plight of the ordinary worker and he also declared that some of the country’s oil wealth should bring real improvement to the poor.
Gopaul was addressing the 54th Delegates Conference of the National Association of Agricultural, Commercial and Industrial Employees (NAACIE) at the Umana Yana.
A former PPP/C Minister of Labour, Gopaul said that if the current cost of living is examined no one would be able to deny that the workers deserve a significant improvement in their living standards and take home pay.
“The $60,000 national minimum wage and the $75,000 Government minimum wage should be addressed as a matter of urgency with reasonable compensation given to the ordinary workers for their labour. They must be able to go to work feeling a sense of hope that at the end of the month they would be able to comfortably take care of their basic financial needs. If we were to examine the basic needs of a household with all the concessions being granted by Government to alleviate the impact of the cost of living by the payment of financial grants for school children; the because we care school care programme; an additional month’s pay to old age pensioners, benefits to fisher folks and one-off payment to households etc., we will still see a deficit in the pay cheques of the lower paid workers”, he said.
While the Government should be applauded for its housing drive and other initiatives aimed at lifting the standard of living of the people, Gopaul said that much more has to be done for the lower paid workers of this country.
“Let’s examine a typical household, with a mortgage of $9M on a home. He will encounter a compulsory deduction of about $46,000 for loan repayment, $10,000 for electricity, $2,000 for water, $10,000 for internet and telephone services, transportation of about $10,000, put that alongside a net pay of $68,000 that leaves the worker with a negative balance on his earnings of $10,000. Take away the mortgage payment and he is left with $36,000., which he has to then take care of food supplies, cooking gas, clothing and footwear. If there is a sole bread winner in a home with children going to school, we can understand what that family has to go through to eke out a living.
“No longer can a household of 4 persons be provided for by a sole bread winner. We have to therefore, create an environment where the job market can provide the opportunities for work for both spouses in a home”, Gopaul said.
While the government’s educational and training drive in this regard must be commended, Gopaul said that it must be restructured in such a way to put emphasis on secondary, technical and university education at the country’s established institutions and in programmes designed to meet the country’s needs.
“We need to re-examine the academic programmes being made available at the University of Guyana in particular to see how relevant the programmes they are offering, cater for the needs of the country and the country’s job market”, Gopaul, a former Permanent Secretary in the Office of the President, said.