LABOUR: GOV'T TONE DEAF TO  ADVICE - video Dailymotion

As government announced the day for the budget debate, the labour movement laments that government is not willing to listen to advice.

Transcript

00:00The joint trade union movement doesn't just want to make demands, it wants to see the

00:05economy grow and foster prosperity for all.

00:09But Jeytham says when officeholders sit to crunch numbers in the upcoming budget, they

00:13must understand that for many, it all comes down to the nitty gritty.

00:18We're looking at the low and middle income, you know, persons, citizenry within our society

00:28because they are the ones who are crucially affected by what we tend to call bread and

00:36butter issues.

00:38Most public sector workers are getting by on 2019 salaries.

00:42Jeytham has been calling for an increase in the minimum wage to $25 per hour.

00:49Minimum wage single parent household is earning $3,280 a month with the increase.

00:57The average rent in Trinidad and Tobago, unless you probably rent in a single room, is easily

01:06$2,500, $3,000 at minimum, at minimum.

01:10And while government has been toying with the idea of raising access to NIS benefits

01:15to over 60 years of age, this is not something they will support.

01:20One of the government's argument, of course, is that because people are living much longer

01:25and et cetera.

01:27But David, that's a bit of a mute point because many people are also, I mean, dying, whether

01:33it's due to crime or other, you know, lifestyle diseases.

01:38Is there a future for young people in TNT?

01:42When you look at what's happening with the education system and 50% or more students

01:46at CSEC not getting five subjects with maths and English, and as we agree on for decades,

01:51the education system is failing a lot of our young people at one end, and the employment

01:56market is failing our young people at another end, and therefore there's no future for our

02:03youth in Trinidad and Tobago.

02:05While government is not inclined to listen to the advice of the labor movement, there

02:11is a growing sense of consciousness among young people.

02:14There's a need to begin to also make them, of course, as you would know, politically

02:18conscious because issues like labor legislation, et cetera, we need to have a government in

02:29office that will pay not just lip service, but to things like labor, updated labor legislation

02:37and the rights of workers in the workplace.

02:40And right now for the past 10, 15 years, we have not been seeing that.

02:47The finance minister has announced budget date to be September 30th.