By NEILL HARTNELL

TRIBUNE Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Trade union leaders are pledging to renew their push for an up to-35 percent increase in the minimum wage to $350 per week, with one asserting: “Everybody seems to be getting their share apart from the workers.”

Obie Ferguson KC, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) president, speaking following a recent meeting of the umbrella body and all its affiliates said that - post-general election - the labour movement plans to revisit key issues with many asserting they have “had enough of it” and “have waited long enough”.

He revealed that increasing the minimum wage from the present $260 per week, which was implemented just three-and-a-half years ago on New Year’s Day 2023, to $300-$350 remains among the TUC’s priority items. That, if achieved, would represent between a 15.4 percent to 34.6 percent increase on the present $260, which was itself raised by $50 or 23.8 percent from the previous $210.

The TUC’s ambitions would, at their peak, represent a $140 or 67.7 percent or two-thirds increase in the minimum wage in three-and-a-half years if it ever came to pass. While the Government has acknowledged the continued cost of living and inflationary pressures impacting many Bahamian families, it has given no indication that a minimum wage increase is likely in the near future although it has endorsed a move towards the so-called ‘livable wage’.

“We had a meeting on these matters, and these are things the affiliates have mentioned, and made very clear to ensure we do what we have to do to make sure these items remain on the agenda,” Mr Ferguson told Tribune Business.

“The $260 minimum wage.. we have resolved we are going to do whatever we have to do in the interests of this country, and the interests of the workers of this country, that the minimum wage be renegotiated and the average Bahamian should be getting a minimum of $300-$350 per week.

“Certainly, everybody seems to be getting their share so we see no reason why workers in this country are not getting that in this regard. The poverty level in this country, we have to address these things. We know that, for a family of four, you cannot expect a family of four to live on $260 per week,” the TUC chief added.

“And if everyone around us can get an increase, salary increases or allowance increases, we see no reason why the doctors’ raise cannot be paid, the nurses’ overtime cannot be paid, the workers at the Grand Lucayan cannot be paid.”

A minimum wage hike, especially at this time, would almost certainly be opposed by the many Bahamian employers and industries that stand to be impacted by the increased marginal costs of labour and hiring. Companies are already grappling with ever-rising expenses, especially electricity and taxes, plus the related paperwork.

Employers in industries such as hotels, gas stations and food stores that typically hire a large number of minimum wage staff, will likely vehemently oppose any further rise.

Companies would likely also argue that such an increase in their labour costs, with the minimum wage rising from $1,040 to $1,400 for a four-week pay period, would force them to either cut staff working hours or instigate lay-offs to remain commercially viable. Robert Farquharson, the Government’s former labour director, previously estimated around 20-25 percent of the workforce is earning minimum wage. 

Mr Ferguson, though, told Tribune Business that trade unions and the wider labour movement would likely accept a phased-in minimum wage increase, rather than a one-time rise, to ease the burden on employers and the wider Bahamian economy.

“We’ve made a suggestion that if you cannot pay all at one time, let us agree on a formula,” the TUC chief added. “It benefits both sides, but this cannot be disregarded. It’s going to create unnecessary industrial action in our country. You cannot pretend that workers are not part of the deal. They are part of the deal, and this is going to remain on the workers’ agenda for the next five years.

“There need not be strike action in our country. We don’t need to do that. But it cannot, cannot be that all is well when it is not. We are not going to allow that to happen. Everyone getting their share and the workers not getting anything. Try to justify $260 per week. It cannot be some getting and others not even surviving. If you have four persons in a house, $260 is not adequate. We all need to get together and do what is right, otherwise we will have a problem.”

A University of The Bahamas (UoB) study, dated September 30, 2020, and authored by Lesvie Archer, Olivia Saunders, Bridget Hogg, Vijaya Permual and Brittney Johnson, concluded that a living wage in New Providence and Grand Bahama is $2,625 and $3,550 per month respectively.

“Our gross living wage estimate for New Providence is 26 percent lower than the Grand Bahama living wage estimate, nearly 200 percent higher than the national minimum wage, 127 percent higher than 2013 poverty line and nearly 75 percent higher than the minimum wage hike proposed by a local union,” they wrote.

“Our living wage estimate for Grand Bahama is nearly 300 percent higher than the living wage, 200 percent higher than the 2013 poverty line and 140 percent higher than the minimum wage hike proposed by a local union.”

The minimum wage, though, is defined differently from the “livable wage” measure employed by the UoB study. It based its work on a model employed by Richard Anker, the International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) living wage specialist, who defined a livable wage as one that can sustain a person’s “physical, emotional, social and cultural needs and that of their family beyond mere subsistence”.

Mr Ferguson, meanwhile, said the TUC has also determined to make the House of Labour on Wulff Road an “historic site”. He added: “We have decided for the movement, as far as the TUC is concerned, we need to ensure the House of Labour is made an historic site.

“The commitment made in that regard, we are going to ensure we do whatever we have to do to make sure the House of Labour is renovated and painted by the Government so we can get on a good foot. We need to get these things done. The workers have decided.”