by STACEY RUSSELL

BE CAUTIOUS in expanding your wage bill!

This is the advice of the executive director of the Barbados Chamber of Commerce & Industry (BCCI), Lisa Gale, who says she is not recommending a wage freeze in the private sector, but reminding the business community of an anticipated tough year ahead.

"The Chamber would urge caution on expenditure, including the wage bill, so that there is no obligation that cannot be serviced," she told the BARBADOS BUSINESS AUTHORITY in a telephone interview on Wednesday.

Two Sundays ago, Minister of Economic Affairs and Empowerment, Innovation, Trade, Industry and Commerce Dr David Estwick said at a Democratic Labour Party Constituency Report branch meeting in St Philip : "I will be asking Prime Minister David Thompson to articulate a position of a wage freeze," describing it as "something we have to do . . . . [as] we don't have a choice [and] we don't have the fiscal room".

But, Robert "Bobby" Morris, deputy general secretary and director of industrial relations of the Barbados Workers' Union, said last November that the union would not be accepting any blanket wage freeze.

" 'Can't afford to pay' would have to be explained to us," he said, as "contraction in profits" would not be enough for companies to lock into a wage freeze.

Last month, industrial relations officer of the Barbados Employers' Confederation, Sandra Cadogan, said that several employers had already acceded to wage increases for this year, but that the standard proposed by Government for the public sector could set the benchmark for decisions on wages in private enterprises.

In addition, the BCCI's Gale suggested that if companies could not increase wages at this time, they ought to preserve or improve the quality of their goods and services, as well as their administrative structures.