Cabinet reviews new Wages Council

While members of the citrus industry will have to rely on unions to help them meet their demands for higher wages, domestic workers and shop assistants will have their pay reviewed by the new wages council. This week Cabinet Ministers discussed the recently established council, chaired by Phyllis Cayetano. It will advise government on a new minimum wage for domestic workers and shop assistants, whose minimum wage ranges from as low as $1.75 to $2.25 an hour. Currently the lower rate is paid to those who work in private homes or establishments which do not sell liquor and the higher rate is for those working in hotels, hospitals and boarding houses as well as shops. The Women’s Issues Network and other civil society agencies have been asking for a single minimum wage which would elevate the pay for domestics and shop assistants to the same rate as manual workers, $2.25 an hour. The council will also take into account the International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention. Members of the council are: Reverend Leroy Flowers, Belize Council of Churches, Carolyn Williams, Women’s Interests Network, Margarita Burrowes of the Belize Chamber of Commerce, Lourdes Smith of the Belize Business Bureau, Blas Rosalez of the Cane Farmer’s Association, Eduardo Melendrez, National Trade Union Congress, John Pinelo of the National Teacher’s Union and Doreen Quiroz of Belize Telecommunication Worker’s Union and Paul Williams of the Labor Department. In other Cabinet business, the Ministry of Education is reporting that principals from government schools have agreed to limit the amount of textbooks families will have to purchase each year. Beginning in September the children will need only one text each for Social Studies, Science and Mathematics and a maximum of two texts each for Reading and Language Arts. This applies only to government schools. In higher education news, five more Belizeans will receive scholarships to study medicine in Cuba. They are Janine McField, Melanie Grange, Lydia Batty, Mirella Pech and Abbey Lisbey. Their scholarships begin in March.