On Wednesday, July 5th, the full slate of Opposition Parliamentarians were guests on the Keith “Stone” Greaves radio talk-show Talk Anguilla Rebranded. The host, Mr. Greaves, during the session raised the issues of the controversial GST, gaming and casinos, political plans and prospects for the next general election in 2025, and the Minimum Wage.
Each Opposition member contributed their views on the subject.
When the Opposition Leader, Mrs. Cora Richardson-Hodge, gave her view on the minimum wage, while giving due compliments to the Honorable Minister of Labour, Mr. Kenneth Hodge, for working towards the production of the Minimum Wage Bill, she claimed that the former administration of which she was Minister of Labour, had laid the ground work and the foundation upon which the Minimum Wage had now become a reality.
“Keith, I wanted the other members to give their views first,” she said, “because as a former Minister of Labour, I have a certain perspective in terms of the minimum wage. I am happy that the Minister of Labour is now bringing the minimum wage to the fore. And again, we see that the work which this Minister is doing is based on a foundation that was laid by the previous Anguilla United Front administration. The minimum wage structure was revised in the Labour Relations Act 2019 which was passed in the House of Assembly while I was Minister of Labour, under my guidance and my leadership.”
“The previous minimum wage structure that existed under the Fair Labour Standards Relations Act provided for a minimum wage based on sectors…There was no provision for a flat minimum wage which exists in many other countries that applies across the board,” Mrs. Richardson-Hodge said. “We found that the Fair Labour Standards Relations Act, which provided for sectors, was not ideal, so we changed it to allow for both sectors, as well as to apply across the board. This would have given the Government more flexibility to set a minimum wage that would be applicable to every industry.”
She said that her Ministry had set up a minimum wage committee on the heels of passing the Labour Relations Act, and that persons were reached out to be members of that committee. Her Ministry had also reached out to the ILO for expertise and assistance, but due to the pending elections of 2020, [there were some hindrances].
“However, a lot of work, a lot of foundation and planning had already been put in place for this Minister now to take it up and to move forward with the minimum wage. So, that is why you can see, that three years after taking up office he is able to bring [the] minimum wage to the fore, all because of the foundation that was laid from before.”
Later, during another segment of Talk Anguilla Rebranded, an upset Minister of Labour, Mr. Kenneth Hodge, called Mr. Greaves to refute all that Mrs. Richardson-Hodge had claimed.
“Since 1988, with the Fair Labour Standards Ordinance, and then the Fair Labour Standards Act of 2014, and since the Labour Relations Act 2019, none of them provided for a minimum wage – none of them. So, that is why, when I refer to 35 years and counting, Keith, I am saying that the issue of minimum wage has been around since 1988, or perhaps even earlier,” Minister Hodge vehemently said.
“So, for the former Minister to come on radio this morning and indicate to the people of Anguilla that she laid the ground work and a foundation for the minimum wage, that is a lie,” he said.
Minister Hodge, ever since he began work on the documentation for the minimum wage, had always declared that he and his committee were initiating the work on the Bill, starting from scratch.
“There was nothing there to work with,” he said. “When the Ministry set up the committee to deal with formulating the minimum wage [under the chairmanship of Dr. Wycliffe Fahie] the committee started from ‘ground zero’. I have said this on numerous occasions. The committee found nothing there to work with – absolutely nothing. This is why I praise that committee to the highest – the Chairman and the members. They started with a blank page, Keith.”
A substantive motion to debate the Minimum Wage Bill will be presented in the House of Assembly on Tuesday, July 11th at 10:00 a.m. Minister Hodge has invited the public to fill the gallery of the House of Assembly and witness the Parliamentarians debate.
