“The Minister of Tourism, Randall Mitchell, has said that increasing the minimum wage will cause inflation… This is a ton load of gobar. “We are presently suffering from the highest inflation rate since the turn of the century. Is it caused by increasing the money supply? Or is it because …
Read More »Kangalee: Why Private Security Industry Bill will cement exploitation of workers—and why you should care
“[…] One year later, the 1995 minimum wage order removed the provisions for sick leave, vacation leave and the provision of uniforms that the 1994 order contained [for security workers]. “[…] Due to this removal, security companies are denying their employees the benefits of sick leave and vacation leave that …
Read More »Noble: Looking after the poor is a good investment; T&T’s Budget should reflect that
‘Poverty is not an accident. Like slavery and apartheid, it is man-made and can be removed by the actions of human beings.’ These words of Nelson Mandela should resonate as we approach our upcoming budget debate. A national budget is more than an economic forecast; it is a declaration about …
Read More »Dear Editor: Trade unions must organise minimum wage workers
“[…] There are hundreds of thousands of workers in the service sector, retail stores, fast food joints, the hospitality sector and the private security sector who are not unionised and have no tradition of organised struggle. This has resulted in workers being super-exploited, with atrocious industrial relations practices becoming the …
Read More »Being disabled in T&T; how the Disability Grant serves as a poverty trap
The Government in its 2019 Budget statement announced with great fanfare that the Disability Grant has increased from $1,800 to $2,000. A little extra cacada from the government always sounds good, not so? Let’s put this into real perspective. I asked Tyron Bishop, disability advocate, to talk about this his …
Read More »Rambachan’s appalling miscalculation of T&T wage statistics is playing with lives
Official statistics is not a negotiation game, it affects the reality of people’s everyday lives. The cavalier televised response of MP Suruj Rambachan—“If you say 41%, I say 75%, you could say 60%”—in attempting to justify his claim that 75% of Trinidadians work for less than TT$6,000 per month is …
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