Opposition Senator Caswell Franklyn says Government’s 2021 timeline for finally addressing the decades-old issue of a national minimum wage, is yet another example of the Mia Amor Mottley’s administration’s dim view of labour.
Franklyn, who heads Unity Workers Union, said the protracted issue of a liveable wage for workers deserved the same level of immediacy which Government gave to hoteliers during their ongoing severance bind. He argued that since the 1970s, the issue of a national minimum wage had been used as a proverbial carrot and stick dangled before the Barbadian working class.
“There has been talk of a national minimum wage going back to the 1970s when I was at school, but nobody has ever taken it seriously. It has been a talking point that politicians have used to make people feel good, and then they forget about them and this seems to me like more of the same,” he said.
Referencing the speed at which Government implemented the temporary change to the Severance Payments Act, to extend the period of layoff before a person is entitled to claim severance payment from 13 to 22 weeks, Franklyn queried why the same urgency could not have applied to address the plight of low-income workers, whose meagre wages were especially unliveable during the current tough times. (CLM)
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