Wage Negotiators Seek Break

Employers are asking for flexibility in the negotiation process of the minimum wage this year, and workers have asked to suspend the talks for 15 days. If agreed, the negotiations would reconvene on January 21, 2010, six days before the inauguration of President-elect of the Republic, Porfirio Lobo Sosa.

The director of the National Association of Industrialists (ANDI), Fernando Garcia, said that delaying negotiations will slow new investment into Honduras, and the opening of local businesses that depend on determining a new minimum wage.

According to Garcia, the three labor unions are requesting this additional time to hire economists and technicians to validate the economic data and projections submitted by the Ministries of Finance and Commerce, and by the Central Bank of Honduras (BCH).

The representative of the Confederation of Workers of Honduras (CUTH), Jose Luis Baquedano, said that during the break, they will study the impact that the new wage would have among the teaching profession, micro, small and medium enterprises, as well as factory workers. The maquiladora industry requested that the new minimum wage be raised to 6,000 lempiras.

Minister of Industry and Commerce, Benjamin Bogran, agreed to withdraw from the commission after a complaint was lodged by the CUTH because Bogran has strong links with the COHEP.


One Response to "Wage Negotiators Seek Break"

  1. Axel Reyes Bogran  January 8, 2010 at 7:24 am

    I still do not hear those negotiators promissing to make the Honduran worker a better worker.

    It still sounds to me as if all they want is to make a lot of money with out a sense of responsability toward the employer.

    The economy simply do not work like that if you want it to be a sound a healthy one.

    When an employee/worker is paid, it is not only for his/her presence at the job site.

    A salary is a business transaction, the employer is buying the capacity of production that the employee has.

    It is a very simple transaction;

    If the employee does not return a certain level of production and quality, he has failed to deliver his portion of the deal.

    For some reason, in Honduras, over the last 35 years or so, both the Human and Labour rights laws have become very lobe sided and confusing, protecting only one side of any conglomerate of groups, instead of as much of society as possible.

    Why is it so difficult for the labour and union leaders to comprehend that if the place of employment is destroyed they ultimatilly have failed their protectees, since they no longer will have a place to work at.

    When you demmand better pay, you better be willing to provide better work results. A salary is not a gift, it is part of a business transaction, both sides have to deliver.

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