Pointing to the rising cost of living, President of the Bahamas Hotel Catering and Allied Workers Union Pat Bain is pushing for an increase in the minimum wage from $175 per week to $250 or $300 per week.
Mr. Bain said many hotel workers are suffering from the impact of high energy costs and other price increases.
“Theyﾴre not fairing too well with the increases in fuel prices,” he said.
“The increases in the cost of living are having an affect on them. As you are aware there is a large number of them who are just on the brink with the minimum wage and so the National Congress of Trade Unions has been advocating for the Minister [of Labour] to make some changes in the Minimum Wage Act to increase the minimum wage to at least $250 or $300 because with the rising cost in fuel, transportation, clothing and housing theyﾴre now finding themselves totally affected by the rising cost of living.”
He added, “Weﾴre putting as much pressure as we can on the Minister. Iﾴm convinced that to some degree it may not go as far as we would like it to go, but Iﾴm convinced that the Minister finds himself in the position where he feels that he has to do something with the Minimum Wage Act, so I believeﾅsome changes will be made.”
Mr. Bain also welcomed a recommendation made by the Social Security Reform Commission for the gratuities of hotel workers to be included in their insurable wages.
It means that those not now earning at least $500 a week in their base wages would be required to pay more contributions into the fund. They would also be entitled to greater benefits, something Mr. Bain said his union has been pushing for for a while now.
“Our concern would be to what level would they raise the insurable wage and then after that we can go from there,” Mr. Bain said.
The Commission is recommending that the insurable wage be raised to $500 a week and thereafter be adjusted annually in line with the average change in the national wage index over the previous three calendar years.
Mr. Bain said, “One of the concerns weﾴve had is that for a long time our workers who are at the minimum wage or just above that, at the point in time when theyﾴre due to receive benefits from National Insurance itﾴs only paid on their mean wages and in some extent that is very low.
“They average around $450 in gratuities on a weekly basis and so the increase would allow them to receive better benefits from National Insurance and also to improve their pension contributions at the end of the day.
“As we know it now there are a number of persons who are making preparations for retirement. Those persons who retire now would only be affected by their particular wage at this time.”
He said the hotel union is already on record as giving full support to the recommendations of the Social Security Commission.
But he added, “We would like to know how the deductions would be implemented and to what level we would be able to do the education process so that our people would be totally aware of what they now have to do and what their benefits would be.
The hotel union president said that most of his members seem to also support this key recommendation of the commission.
“When weﾴve had a few meetings to outline what the unionﾴs position is, they were totally in support of it. In fact, theyﾴve been advocating for quite some time that we find the solution to being able to pay more or being able to pay some National Insurance benefits so they are in support of it.”
Candia Dames, The Bahama Journal
