President announces Cabinet support for $60,000 per month minimum wage

In what will be seen as a reversal of an earlier position, President Irfaan Ali yesterday announced Cabinet’s approval of the recommendation for a $60,000 per month minimum wage.

Ali’s announcement came at at the 74th commemoration of the Enmore Martyrs at the Enmore Monument and only days after he had said that a “holistic” paper would have to be presented by Labour Minister Joseph Hamilton on the $60,000 minimum wage incorporating the views of the private sector.

The President did not mention the paper in his presentation yesterday. The announcement by the President came amid a charged exchange with GAWU President Seepaul Narine who in his address had called for the removal of the Chief Executive Officer of GuySuCo. This apparently incensed Ali and he then asked several questions of Narine with the intention of eliciting answers to show that the problems of the GuySuCo should be attributed to heavy rainfall and low cane replanting under the previous administration.