Pay plea

President of the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) Dr Ronnie Yearwood is calling on the Government to give public servants a pay increase in the New Year, as he accused the Mia Mottley-led administration of failing to address the needs of the working class.

He said with Barbadians struggling to cope with the rising cost of living that seems to be spiralling out of control, a five to seven per cent pay rise would be fitting and would not break the bank.

“Everything has gone up. People need more money in their hands. The reality is, folks are struggling to make ends meet and they need extra cash to survive. I think we have just come off the back of Independence and I believe we are entering the Christmas season and I think it is time that we can seriously call for an increase in wages,” he told Barbados TODAY during a DLP event in St Lucy on Friday.

“Now this is something that I believe the Government has to do given the cost of living crisis, given the rise in inflation and given the fact that many people are working poor…. They are working but they are still unable to make ends meet. The prices of everything have gone up but wages have stayed still and stagnant in some cases and your earning capacity has decreased.”

The DLP leader contended that the Government has earned a significant amount of money through fuel taxes, Value Added Tax (VAT) and other forms of taxation and they could give back some of that to Barbadians through wage and salary increases to help them cope with inflationary pressures.

At the same time, he said the public had to be reasonable about the amount of any increase.

“I think the five to seven per cent could be met, and this is for government workers. And what I would also suggest is that the Government return the one per cent Pandemic Levy so that we will be able to address the middle class but we will also be able to address the government workers,” Yearwood suggested.

“I have seen some economists make this point and I agree with it. We can think about the wage increase for those working for $7 000 [monthly] and below, and then if we give back people the Pandemic Levy that would deal with those who were $7 000 and above. So, on both ends, everyone would have a little bit more money in their pockets for Christmas,” he said.

Yearwood also repeated his call for the Government to bring forward reverse tax credits to help working families.

He further suggested that the administration should consider trimming government and parting ways with some consultants and public relations teams to save millions of dollars.

“So, if people are thinking where the money is going to come from, it can come from cuts in other forms of our bloated government. It can come from some of the excessive revenues that the Government would have collected in taxes from fuel duty, from import duties. All through the fact that the prices of everything were going up, they would have had more revenue so we can afford this,” the DLP president contended.

“I would like to see the increase from January. Again, I am not unreasonable and I know that these things take time, there is a machinery in negotiations to have, but I think by the New Year we should have this wage increase. And if you make the trend, the private sector would find some way to help and to meet a similar increase on their end for their workers.”

Yearwood said that he and the party in general had been receiving calls from social workers and other community activists requesting supermarket vouchers and other supplies for families in need.

“I am getting calls from persons in the communities and different constituencies all across Barbados. So we can see it, we are feeling it, we understand this is real, this is not made up. People are struggling, it is really hard, and it is disingenuous for the Government to try to pretend that everything is okay. It is not okay. If every one in three persons in Barbados is living in poverty or in some form of hardship, we know that’s a serious problem,” he said.

anestahenry@barbadostoday.bb