Minimum wage commission presents report to labour minister
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Minimum wage commission presents report to labour minister |
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Contact: Shannon Lebourne
Monday 14 March 2011 – After careful consultation and due diligence, the Minimum Wage Report will be presented to Labour Minister Honourable Edmund Estephane and other stakeholders on Tuesday, March 15, 2011.
The report which was developed by the Minimum Wage Commission using econometric and statistical information and processes, will clearly indicate to trade unions, employees, and employers the lowest wage a worker can be paid for a certain task.
Chairman of the Minimum Wage Commission Cyrus Reynolds says the consultation which was undertaken and the content of the final report is unprecedented for the Caribbean and in certain aspects on the global scale.
“Within the report we have provided a full research methodology package to indicate how we arrived at what we did. We provided quite a lot of literature because we recognised what has been done in Saint Lucia is very much unprecedented; there is nothing like this report in the Caribbean and even outside the region there. are agencies very interested in our report because they do not have anything like it. Saint Lucia has presented a landmark project in this Minimum Wage Report.”
Disclosure of the content of the report which is the prerogative of the Minister for Labour, is expected to be made following a presentation to the Cabinet of Ministers and other key stakeholders.
However, the Chairman of the Minimum Wage Commission while dismissing some myths about a minimum wage, says all Saint Lucian workers and partners in labour relations should be very happy that Saint Lucia is now at a stage to implement a minimum wage.
“Two myths that circulate is that a minimum wage reduces poverty, and businesses may close down because their profit margins may be unattainable. Neither of the assumptions is correct.”
The Chairman of the Commission says research was conducted throughout the region and in other overseas territories to ensure that Saint Lucia was developing a Minimum Wage Report, although unique to the island, is in keeping with international labour laws and standards. |
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