Minimum wage to go up?

In the midst of this week’s labour disputes, it seems ironic that today the Ministry of Labour hosted a seminar aimed at improving employee-employer relationships in an efficient business environment. According to Minister of Local Government and Labour Valdemar Castillo, one key factor in labour relations is to talk, talk and talk some more. But talking doesn’t put food on the table. The good news is that the Minister says the possibility of increasing minimum wage is currently being investigated.

Valdemar Castillo, Minister of Labour

“At this moment, we have appointed a wages council that is going around the country, consulting different organisations, different workers, different employers. They will recommend to government whether we should increase the minimum wage of domestic workers, shop assistants and workers in the agriculture sector.

We need capital, we need employers to provide jobs so we need to work together. We need to bring government, the employers and the workers around the table and talk and talk and talk to solve our industrial disputes. So we are working very hard to strengthen our social dialogue.”