DALLEY... seeks more punitive sanctions for non-compliance

Dalley also reminded employers of private security guards of the latter's right to freedom of association.

He said that he would enforce the law to protect the guards' right to join trade unions and negotiate through the collective bargaining process.

The minimum wage increase is more than six times the three per cent proposal put forward by employers, and was for them an unpleasant surprise.

Last night, the Jamaica Employer's Federation said it was "shocked and concerned about the rationale" for the increase.

The government has linked it to inflation, which is now running above 13 per cent.

JEF executive director Jacqueline Coke-Lloyd said it appeared that the labour minister had disregarded most of the submissions on what the increase should be, adding however that employers had little choice but to accept the decision.

"We have to look now at how to manage this increase," said Coke-Lloyd.

The new rates announced by the minister, and which become effective January 31, are as follows:

. the national minimum wage moves from $2,000 per week to $2,400 per week; and

. the hourly rate for industrial security guards moves from $80 to $90;

The security guards have also been granted an increases in their laundry allowance from $16 to $18 per hour; firearm premium allowance from $17 to $20 per hour; and doghandler's premium allowance from $12 to $14 per hour.

Dalley said that the increases were predicated on the 13.1 per cent inflation rate between January and November last year and the projection that it will not exceed 14 per cent for the calendar year.

The increase, he said, would keep "the most vulnerable Jamaican workers" ahead of inflation.

The labour minister said special note was taken of the sacrifice made by public sector workers under the Memorandum of Understanding between government and unions and that the rates were balanced in the interest of those workers, as well as the helpers they employ.

Dalley, in an obvious reference to the JEF, said that some groups, in lobbying for a lower increase, "advanced the argument that any double-digit increase in the national minimum wage would lead to the possibility of job loss."

Last night, Coke-Lloyd raised that same argument, saying the consequence of a large increase is likely to come later in job cuts as companies recast their figures to factor in the new wage bills, especially those, she said, who were guided by the Memorandum of Understanding between unions and the government which pegged increases at three per cent.

The JEF itself was projecting for an average five to six per cent increase, Coke-Lloyd said.

"We have seen a 24 per cent decline in the security indus1try already," said Coke-Lloyd, speaking with the Observer. "That could continue."

Dalley said however that while a fall-out in employment is possible, "empirical data from a range of developed and developing countries have failed to establish any direct link between these two variables".

The JEF proposal would have added $60 to weekly rates.
Employers now have to find four times that amount had proposed a $60 increase in the weekly rates which, they said, would be in line with what is affordable for public sector workers, the main employers of household help, whose wages were currently frozen.

The federation had also suggested that a higher increase could lead to job cutbacks, as was the case in the private security industry following the last increase.

The Jamaica Confederation of Trade Union had proposed a 14 per cent increase in line with the projected calendar inflation rate; the Planning Institute of Jamaica had said that an 11 per cent increase would keep the average low-income household out of poverty, while the Jamaica Household Workers Association had suggested 50 per cent.

Coke-Lloyd said that the debate now needs to shift to the cost of living for Jamaicans, and how to properly manage that on a 'living wage', in order to end the perennial battle over the minimum wage issue which arises with each increase.

Dalley said yesterday that he had also rejected a revival of the suggestion that the ministry re-impose differentiated categories of minimum rates based on sector or category of employment.

"Upon careful examination, this is not a practical course. It would involve the introduction of layers of bureaucracy and be extremely difficult to enforce," he said.

He also gave notice that the ministry would be seeking an amendment to the relevant legislation this year to ensure that a more punitive schedule of sanctions are introduced for non-compliance with the new minimum rates.