Oilfields Workers’ Trade Union (OWTU) president Ancel Roget says the Government has reneged on its 2010 election promise to increase the minimum wage to $20 an hour. Roget expressed the union’s dissatisfaction with the new $15 an hour rate at the OWTU’s post-budget forum on Tuesday and called on Government to provide a “living wage” for low-income earners. Describing Finance Minister Larry Howai’s last budget before the 2015 general election as “vie-ki-vie,” Roget called on Government to honour its past promises. He said while it boasted of raising the minimum wage twice since coming into the office, that came after protest from unions.
Addressing the audience, including secondary school students, he told them to never forget government promises as that allowed politicians to get their way. “There was a percentage increase over what they met in 2010 and that might be so in terms of the figures. They did not think about what they said to the country in 2010: That they were going to raise it to $20—a target that they have not reached as yet,” Roget said.
Pensioners Under Stress
Also commenting on the $500 increase to pension grants, Roget said senior citizens will continue to live under dire straits, as $3,500 per month can’t cover their needs. He said Government had promised a universal pension grant to senior citizens, but had also gone back on that promise. Fitun president Joseph Remy also chastised Government’s claims of settling the majority of wage negotiations, as he said TSTT workers are still working for 2007 salaries. TSTT workers are also protesting the lack of protective wear, he said.
He added: “We are not happy, and our position is that those who form the lowest level of the economic ladder in this country ought to be given a living wage and not any minimum wage. “Every citizen should be given the consideration to live a decent life with an ability to produce, an ability to send their children to school and have a dignified life. No $15, which falls far from the promise they had made to the population, is going to be pocketed.” Last Friday, the union had protested outside the Ministry of Labour, Small and Micro Enterprises, calling for the rate to be increased to $20.