“The minimum wage of workers in Liberia’s private sector, comprising thousands of our youthful population which now stands at a staggered US$143.00, will soon increase to commensurate with current living standards. Equally, our investment conglomerates, contributing to our economy and labor growth must have a stake in any minimum wage adjustable dumbbells, so that they don’t introduce stringent austerity measures, including redundancy to lay off workers contrary to the ARREST Agenda program of President Boakai, aimed to create jobs,” the Minister of Labor, Cllr. Cooper W. Kruah, Sr. has stated.
Minister Kruah spoke at the official launch of the Tripartite Stakeholders Roundtable Meeting on the discussion of the Revision of the Minimum Wage of Liberia for Private Sector and Autonomous Commissions.
The one-day session, which was held on Friday, October 10, at the Labor Ministry on the compound of The EJS Ministerial Complex in Congo Town, was the 3rd in a series of nationwide broad-based consultations by the government under Minister Kruah as Head of the Minimum Wage Board.
A Labor Ministry press release issued over the weekend revealed that the Minimum Wage Board, which comprises the tripartite constituents: employers organizations, workers unions and government, is chaired by the Minister of Labor and had not convened a single meeting for over fifteen years under previous regimes, prior to the ascendancy of the current administration of President Joseph Nyumah Boakai and Vice President Jeremiah Kpan Koung, with Cllr. Kruah as the Labor Minister.
Minister Kruah, addressing delegates at the one-day roundtable, challenged them to take into consideration all indicators of the current stark economic, social and general realities of the living standards of the Liberian people, mainly workers categorized into the formal and informal sectors.
The Labor Minister is further quoted by the release as calling on the delegates to demonstrate remorse in making the obvious upward adjustments in mitigating the current minimum wage bankruptcy affecting workers in the private sector across the country. “This decision must consider as well the strategic investment interests of our trusted partners so as not to compel them into instituting hard austerity measures with adverse effects on the very workers whose economic wellbeing our government seeks to improve,” sounded the labor minister.
In his overview of the exercise, Minimum Wage Board Head of Secretariat, Jerome Kollie, stated that key resolutions emanating from the on-going nationwide broad-based consultations on the revision of Liberia’s minimum wage is aimed at creating the legal framework for the possible upward adjustments of the current “take home pay” of private sector workers, which no more addresses their current respective economic living realities.
Kollie called on delegates to build on a series of resolutions already derived from the previous Gbarnga, Bong County, and Kakata, Margibi County, consultations in making relevant recommendations, aimed at reviving the current minimum wage for private sector workers, in line with government’s desire to improve the economic stimulus of the citizens, balanced against investment conglomerates compressing employment against maximum desire for job by the citizens.
Earlier, key Minimum Wage Board Members, Cllr. Geegbae A. Geegbae, Cllr. C. Alexander B. Zoe, veteran female trade union leader, Theresa T. Veskinda, and Charles Collins, among others, lauded Labor Minister Kruah for the initiative to work, review and revive the country’s stagnant minimum wage in a bid to benefit private sector workers in addressing current uprising living standards.
They then outlined key basic indicators, including housing, education, food, transportation and health, which must be considered in the on-going Minimum Wage Revision Exercise in order to positively respond to current living realities of private sector workers, as in the West Africa sub-region and other parts of the world.
The Labor Ministry press release revealed that key points under debate by minimum wage revision delegates are whether to place separate caps to wages of people in various labor sectors, such as mining, agriculture and service.
Final resolutions from the on-going nationwide exercise will form the legal basis for the dramatic reform of Liberia’s minimum wage for thousands of private sector workers across the country.
Meanwhile, Labor Minister Kruah is expected to resume his nationwide labor sector inspection across the southeastern regional counties of Grand Gedeh, Sinoe, Maryland, Grand Kru and River Gee counties. The tour was launched by the minister just upon assumption to his office, when he released the “Liberians First on Job Placement” program, as his primary program in support of the AAID Platform of the government.
The Minister toured Margibi, Grand Bassa, Grand Cape Mount, Gbarpolu, Bomi and Nimba counties, where he gave strict compliance instructions to key investment conglomerates to transition and elevate Liberian workers to managerial positions with commensurate fringe benefits. He, however, delayed the southeast tour for the pending dry season, citing unforeseen circumstances.
