Business and Development
p. 103 · Read in the full issue
Civil servants lead way for higher wages
From a Honiara correspondent Inflation, rising costs and other monetary problems besetting the rest of the world are becoming more and more evident in the Solomon Islands.
And the first to feel the pinch, natur ally, are the lower-paid salary and wage earners.
Add to this the fact that basic com modities in store shelves are con stantly being price tagged and re-tagged on an upward swing fast developing into a free-for-all among traders. Then take away the average minimum wages paid by employers to workers—some $2O a month—and the answer is simply ... a deteriorat ing relationship between employer and employee.
The bargaining power of organised labour in the Solomons, to say the least, is weak, unsure of procedure and badly in need of guidance. A general workers’ union does exist, although many workers cannot even afford the union dues. But the first to take the bull by the horns were the higher-paid members of the local civil servants’ association who called a meeting in mid-April to thrash out demands for either an immediate pay rise or an interim cost of living allow ance.
Invited to the meeting were three government establishment officials to hear a variety of complaints of real or imagined hardships. One of the main targets was the disparity of wages between expatriate and local civil servants. However, until more qualified Solomon Islanders became available from the educational assembly lines there was little the government’s establishment branch could say about this.
The 200-strong meeting did manage to squeeze out a promise that a full review of salaries would take place next year. In the meantime an in
vestigation into various posts in the civil service would be carried out.
So much for the civil servants, local and expatriate. But what about the workers?
Although government’s minimum for its classified workers—at nearly $24 a month—is considered reasonable, salaries paid in the private sector can range from considerably higher to considerably lower. The basic monthly minimum for some categories of workers in the capital, such as servants and store hands, is only 519.80, based on a 45-hour week a by ,u the H l Bh , C 9 m T missioner towards the end of last
P?. a Kii-°c recommendation of the
Advisory Board. which was ongmally asked to do this after a mmimum wage bill was demanded by elected members of the Governing Council earlier in the year.
But in the last six months the price index has crept steadily up. If this continues in the next six months something’s got to give. And it does
not need a crystal ball to tell from what section of the community the action will come. If anything, the current cost-of-living crisis could push indigenous, lower-paid workers to ‘hint seriously about organised labour and bargaining power of unions. u The P ro^ le . m ’ however, is that the word umon . ls stlll a dirt y among some sections of the private sector. The government is just begin n,n 8 I°. * earn to live with it, and some private employers may do well a .t 11 ? sta g e jo show some flexibility ~! f they really want to remain in the Solomons in the next five to eight Just to prove a point, here are com parative prices for some everyday commodities selling in Honiara, with the 197 l price in brackets: 3 , b detergent $1.25 ($1.15); 3 lb powdered milk $1.65 ($1.45); 1 tin condensed milk 23c (18c); 1 lb mar garine 39c (30c); , gal . insect kiUer $2.35 (Si.9o); 1 lb butter 62c (42c); local beef, rump steak 1 lb $l.OO (75c); fillet $1.40 (Si. 15); topside 75c (65c); blade 72c (55c).