DILI, 01 may 2022 (TATOLI) – Timorese workers called on the government of Timor-Leste to increase Timor-Leste’s monthly minimum wage from US$115 to US$200.
The workers made the comments through a long march organized by Timor-Leste’s Trade Union Confederation (KSTL), in the capital Dili, to celebrate the “International Workers’ Day” or Labor Day.
“On behalf of Timorese workers, I called on the Government of Timor-Leste, particularly the Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs (MKAE) to raise the current minimum wage to US$200,” the President of KSTL, Almeiro Vila Nova made the comments during the commemoration of the Labor Day, in front of the Government Palace, in Dili, today.
Vila Nova revealed that according to a joint survey conducted by the Secretary of State for Vocational Training and Employment (SEFOPE), the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Timor-Leste (CCI-TL), and KSTL in 2014, increasing the minimum salary to US$200 was sufficient to ensure a good life for Timorese workers.
Vila Nova emphasized that if the government wouldn’t take any serious move to increase the minimum salary within 2022, then KSTL would organize a big demonstration in the capital Dili: “It has been a decade now and we have been waiting for so long. We are running out of patience, and therefore, we will submit a letter to the National Parliament to consider the minimum wage in its agenda.
“We want the National Parliament to help us with the acceleration of the evaluation process of the minimum wage,” he said.
The scale of Timor-Leste’s minimum wage hadn’t been reviewed since its approval by the National Working Committee of SEFOPE, in may 2012.
Regarding how frequently the minimum wage should be adjusted, Vila Nova said the revision of the scale of the minimum wage has to be taken place every two years.
ILO’s Minimum Wage Fixing Recommendation, 1970 (No. 135) clarifies that “Minimum wage rates should be adjusted from time to time to take into account changes in the cost of living and other economic conditions.” In principle, this revision can take place “either at regular intervals or whenever such a review is considered appropriate in the light of the variations in a cost-of-living index”.
He said the set of the current minimum wage (US$115) is too low, saying it would have little effect in protecting workers and their families against unduly low pay or poverty.
“Again, therefore, we want the Government to ensure a living wage for all Timorese workers to combat poverty. Increasing the minimum wage is the only solution for the government to combat poverty and malnutrition in the country,” He reiterated.
KSTL had so far registered more than 300.000 workers across the country, of which the majority of them earned US$15 per month: “Of these workers, more than 200 workers experienced job loss in 2021 and 36 in the first quarter of 2022.”
At the same place, Zelinha Da Costa Noronha, a Timorese worker from One Love Motorcycle Repair Shops said that the minimum wage of US$115 is not enough to cover all of the living costs in Timor-Leste.
“I think, it’s time for the Government to increase the minimum wage to facilitate the poor from getting poorer,” she stressed.
Journalist: Filomeno Martins
Editor: Nelia Borges Rosario
