THE first step to move the national minimum wage from $44,200 to $60,000 has been taken with the Ministry of Labour (MoL)’s National Tripartite Committee (NTC) officially giving its nod to the increase at a meeting held on Wednesday.
With this step now concluded, subject minister, Joseph Hamilton, will now take the issue to Cabinet for ratification. He will also seek guidance from the Attorney-General about the structure of the order he will have to give. The new minimum wage will come into effect when he issues that order.
The meeting was the committee’s first for the year. Given that the national minimum wage has been a months-long issue, the committee wasted no time to tie up an agreement on the issue.
“The committee extensively engaged about the national minimum wage that has been in negotiations for several months and it was unanimously agreed upon for it to be moved to GY$60,000. With the trade union and private sector both giving their blessings, the Minister of Labour, Mr. Joseph Hamilton will take the committee’s recommendation to the Cabinet for deliberations,” a statement from the MoL said.
Discussions on the increase of the national minimum wage had started since 2020. However, with the country in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and many private businesses struggling to meet their overhead expenses, the private sector had called for the postponement of the increase given an inability to handle any increase to expenditure.
However, with most businesses being able to return to normal functioning during last year, the Private Sector Commission (PSC) had indicated that it was ready to move ahead with making the increase official.
“A lot of the companies already pay that and more as the minimum wage, and employees need to be comfortable. For those who are below it, it will be a good boost to their income. It’s small, but people need to be comfortable to perform properly enough,” PSC Chairman, Paul Cheong had noted in an interview with the Guyana Chronicle last month.
The national private sector minimum wage has not been increased since 2017, when it was raised from an hourly rate of $202 to $255, taking the monthly salary from $35,000 to $44,200 for a 40-hour week. Comparatively, the minimum wages for the public sector is currently $70,000.
Over the past year, Minister Hamilton had continuously expressed his hope to see the increase become realised, even as he remained patient and sympathetic to the private sector’s situation.
“I have concluded several matters and this is a major one that is outstanding for me and I’m hoping that we can conclude it and bring finality to it,” Hamilton had said.
Aside from the discussion on minimum wage, Wednesday’s meeting also saw the committee discussing prospective initiatives to improve the functioning of the NTC, which includes representatives from the MoL, private sector, and trade unions in Guyana.
“The proceedings featured the renewal of the committee with a total of 18 members, 12 of which were retained from the former committee and six new members. Several fruitful discussions also took place regarding key issues,” the ministry’s statement said.
The minister noted that he hopes to have a tripartite committee that deals with issues beyond wages and salary negotiations for workers in Guyana, including issues on occupational safety and health; equal pay for equal work; the training and retraining of both private and public sector workers, which will enable them to properly function in their respective sectors, as well as social issues that may be affecting both private and public organisations and their employees.
