More than 31,000 to benefit from minimum wage hike

TIMES INT'L

Labour Minister Dr Nanda Gopaul on Monday disclosed that more than 31,000 persons in Guyana will benefit from the Gy$35,000 minimum wage standard slated to take effect from July 1.
He told Guyana Times International that the minimum wage standard caters for fulltime employees working for 40 hours per week or more.

Cabinet Secretary Dr Roger Luncheon
Cabinet Secretary
Dr Roger Luncheon

“All will benefit across the board, from security guards to janitors to domestic workers, all will benefit,” he said.
Boasting about the progress made thus far, Minister Gopaul said for the first time in the history of Guyana, vulnerable workers will be protected by the implementation of a minimum wage.
Employers are pleased
According to him, from the responses received thus far from both the private and the public sectors, employers are pleased with the outlined sum, noting that some businessmen indicated that it should have been “a little more”. He emphasised that this is a move in the right direction, considering the current industrial relations climate.

Labour Minister Dr Nanda Gopaul
Labour Minister
Dr Nanda Gopaul

The government has also received high praise from the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Guyana (FITUG). The union’s general secretary, Kenneth Joseph, in applauding the government, said the Gy$35,000-a-month benchmark is reasonable. While most of the workers that will benefit from this move are not unionised, the FITUG general secretary opined that the other trade unions in Guyana are pleased with the minimum wage standard.
Less than two weeks ago, government’s spokesman Dr Roger Luncheon announced the implementation of the minimum wage. The minimum wage for weekly workers has been set at Gy$8000 while Gy$200 has been set for hourly workers.
This new national minimum wage will be implemented across the board for all business sectors in Guyana, replacing the existing one that covered specific sectors. Before the electorate went to the polls in 2011, then President Bharrat Jagdeo had pledged his government’s support to improve the salaries of workers via the implementation of a minimum wage.

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