PNP calls for $12,000 national minimum wage amid economic hardships

PNP calls for $12,000 national minimum wage amid economic hardships

The Opposition People’s National Party (PNP) has renewed its call for a $12,000 per week National Minimum Wage in light of the current economic challenges mainly brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.

In noting that the cost of food keeps rising, PNP President, Mark Golding, at a party press conference, said the minimum wage increase would help struggling families.

“I also repeat my call for the minimum wage to be substantially increased to become a livable wage; at least $12,000 a week so that families with breadwinners only earning the minimum wage have a chance to make it in life,” urged Golding.

The current National Minimum Wage of $7,000 per week, was set in 2018.

To make his case for the much-needed increase to the minimum wage, Golding said after the economy shrunk by over 10 per cent in 2020, “the Government is now projecting recovery of only three to six per cent this year.

“So it is clear that the nation will remain poorer than before the pandemic for some time to come,” he opined.

Turning to the Government’s response to the spike in the cost of living, the Opposition leader said it is “inadequate”.

“There has been mention of a $10,000 grant, but it is unclear how it is to be accessed and who is (to be) eligible for it.

“MPs (Members of Parliament) are to be given funds for care packages, but that will only stretch to a small fraction of the people in need in their constituencies,” declared Golding.

“Everybody who goes to a shop knows that food prices have risen far more than the official inflation statistics. Even patty gone up,” he added.

Meanwhile, Opposition Spokesman on Finance and Planning, Julian Robinson, has forecasted that 2022 will be a challenging year for the economy, especially due to the rise in COVID-19 cases locally, which is suspected to be caused by the highly transmissible omicron variant.

“We already have seen significant increases in the cost of food, electricity and gas, and these increases will continue into the New Year and throughout the year,” he shared.

Arguing that the “overburdened public” has not recovered from the effects of COVID-19, Robinson said “We have to ensure, and the Government has to ensure, that there are steps put in place to cushion these blows for the most vulnerable.”

To accomplish this objective, Robinson said the Government has to ensure that “taxpayers’ money are judiciously spent”.

https://jamaica.loopnews.com/content/pnp-calls-12000-national-minimum-wage-amid-economic-hardships

Nurse insists oxygen shortage caused husband’s death

Nurse insists oxygen shortage caused husband’s death

BY HORACE MILLS
Observer writer

OCHO RIOS, St Ann — Adamant that her husband died due to a shortage of oxygen at the country’s public hospitals in August, a nurse is endorsing a call for the Government to facilitate an independent investigation into the shortage of the life-supporting gas.

“I am totally in agreement with that [probe]; totally in agreement,” Denise Ellis declared on Monday, one day after Opposition Leader Mark Golding renewed his appeal for the investigation to be done.

 

Minister of Health and Wellness Dr Christopher Tufton had said an independent probe is not necessary, adding that internal systems are already in place to take on the task.

 

In addition, the island’s Chief Medical Officer Dr Jacquiline Bisasor-McKenzie stated that the authorities are investigating the circumstances of the deaths which took place during the “crisis” when hospitals ran low on oxygen between August 27 and 28.

 

Although no probe has yet been done into the circumstances of her husband Bernard Ellis’s death, the nurse said, based on her family’s observation and another nurse’s comments, she is convinced he was deprived of oxygen.

 

“To say I am feeling bad is an understatement; to say I am feeling upset is an understatement. It is just difficult knowing that my husband would still be here if the country had had oxygen,” she insisted.

 

She explained that, on August 22, she was in the United States, where she works, when she was informed that her husband of 37 years was having breathing problems at their home in Exchange district, Ocho Rios.

On that same day, he tested positive for COVID-19 and was admitted to St Ann’s Bay Regional Hospital, Ellis recalled.

 

She stated that her husband’s oxygen, which was low at the time he started feeling ill, had gone back up to acceptable levels. That sign of progress fuelled the family’s hope.

 

Ellis said her husband was in high spirits up to August 28 when they last spoke. “He said to me, ‘I will see you, honey,’ ” she recalled.

 

She expressed surprise that by the following morning she was informed that her partner’s oxygen level had fallen dramatically to 26 per cent.

 

“His lungs couldn’t come back from 26 per cent to 90 to be alive,” she lamented. “They took him off the oxygen the [Saturday] night; that’s what a nurse told us. They took him off the oxygen, thinking that he was doing too good. They should have left the oxygen on him.”

 

Ellis added that if the hospital had told the family that there was a shortage of oxygen they would have taken their supply to the medical facility for her husband to use, as her husband had oxygen at home a few miles away from the hospital.

 

“By the time we ran for our oxygen at home it was too late… My brother and sister, we [all] work in the medical field and I have oxygen at home. When they called us, it was too late,” added Ellis, whose husband died on August 29.

 

She stated that she was not aware of her spouse having any underlying illness, and she never imagined losing him to COVID-19.

 

“It didn’t cross my mind… He didn’t even know that he had COVID-19 until when the breathing part started to affect him and they called me,” she added. “My husband was one of the kindest, most decent human beings I have ever seen, and everybody around is saying they will never get back another Bernard Ellis.”

 

Up to the time of his death Ellis was employed as a driver supervisor at Jamaica Public Service Company Limited in St Ann. He worked there for 22 years.

 

His wife told the Observer that, had he not died, he would have relocated to the United States to live with her. He got his US citizenship while he was in hospital, his wife disclosed.

 

“That is one thing that is bothering me, and I don’t know if I can get over it to know that in a couple of days he wouldn’t be [in Jamaica]. When the embassy called him, he was in the hospital,” said Ellis, who returned to her native land this week to get ready to bury her husband on October 21.

 

https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/nurse-insists-oxygen-shortage-caused-husband-s-death_234090?profile=1754

https://www.loopjamaica.com/content/governments-response-covid-19-timid-and-inadequate-golding

Government’s response to COVID-19 ‘timid and inadequate’ – Golding

Opposition leader Mark Golding has described as “timid and inadequate” the Government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic which has devastated the economy.

“At this time of crisis, people must be the priority. People must be at the centre of policy.

“However, in the face of the deep economic and social crisis, the approach of the government has been to continue its tight embrace of fiscal conservatism,” said Golding on Tuesday as he made his contribution to the 2021/22 Budget Debate in the House of Representatives.

Golding argued that government must make changes to the budget that will more adequately address the needs of Jamaicans most impacted by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

“Madame Speaker, the annual budget is the government’s opportunity to change priorities and adjust policies. This is when the government should alter its direction, if experience and data show that their approach is failing to meet the needs of the people,” the Opposition leader stated.

Golding, in his first budget presentation since he was elected to lead the parliamentary Opposition last September, noted that the budget for the coming fiscal year only makes provision for J$8 billion in direct COVID-related social support for vulnerable Jamaicans. He noted that this was less than 0.5 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

“This is half of the amount provided in the fiscal year now ending, which itself proved to be far too little. This budget does not do right by the Jamaican people, especially the poor, those earning low wages, the unemployed, and elders struggling to survive on the meagre NIS pension that has not been increased since 2018.

“And it is not just individuals who are struggling. Service industries, especially tourism, entertainment, transport and sports, have been hit badly. In those sectors, businesses both large and small now have their backs to the wall. The loan moratorium made available to some of them has now come to an end, but their cash flows have not recovered,” Golding pointed out.

He said these businesses need help from the government to survive.

“Jamaica’s economic recovery requires their survival,” he declared.

Golding lamented that the government has allocated only $5 billion (0.25 per cent of GDP) for business support in the budget. This, he asserted will not be nearly sufficient, given the scale and likely duration of the impact on these industries.

Like the shadow minister of finance, Julian Robinson in his budget presentation last Thursday, Golding also compared Jamaica’s budget allocations to other countries that are also responding to the pandemic.

He said: “Madame Speaker, in contrast, the average expenditure on COVID relief in the OECD countries is 5.8 per cent of GDP. Some, such as the USA and the UK, have provided over 15 per cent of GDP. Many developing countries have spent at least three per cent of GDP to help their populations get through the crisis.

“Madame Speaker, sometimes you must take one step back to make two steps forward. I support the call of the Shadow Minister of Finance for the government to spend an additional J$21.5 billion, or about one per cent of GDP, to fund an adequate programme of support. The focus of this additional support must be spending on the vulnerable sections of the population, and assisting businesses, especially MSMEs, that are struggling to survive,” he said.

Golding argued further that the additional support would also serve as a significant stimulus to the Jamaican economy.

“People who receive the assistance would spend it on food and other basic needs of life, multiplying the flow of money throughout the economy. It would help to reverse the negative growth more rapidly, and reduce the impact on the debt to GDP ratio,” he said.

http://www.loopjamaica.com/content/golding-calls-auditor-general-probe-vaccine-line-skipping

Golding calls on Auditor General to probe vaccine ‘line skipping’

Opposition Leader Mark Golding is calling for the Auditor General to probe reports of breaches in the COVID-19 vaccination rollout programme.

Golding made the call Monday amid concerns over the administering of leftover AstraZeneca vaccines to persons who are not registered for inoculation at this time.

“These breaches violate the principles of efficiency, equity and transparency on which the government had promised that the vaccination programme would be based. They also undermine the Government’s stated objectives of, ‘protecting the integrity of the healthcare system and infrastructure for the continuity of essential services, and reducing severe morbidity and mortality associated with COVID-19’,” said Golding in a statement to the media.

He called for the Auditor General to conduct an audit to ascertain if satisfactory procedures have been established by the Government, and to examine the records as to those who have received the vaccine, in order to indicate the nature and extent of the procedural breaches.

The Opposition Leader also repeated the call for the Government to take a collaborative approach to tackling the COVID-19 Pandemic and the implementation of the National COVID-19 Vaccine Development Plan.

Late on Friday, media reports surfaced that there were purported breaches of the ministry’s vaccination protocols at several health facilities, including the National Chest Hospital in St Andrew.

This resulted in some persons who were not in the priority groups to be vaccinated at this time being inoculated, sending social media into a frenzy as persons questioned the reason or reasons behind the breakdown of protocols.

Health and Wellness Minister Dr Christopher Tufton in an interview admitted that a lapse led to persons who were not registered receiving the COVID-19 vaccines. The persons were given the leftover vaccines from vials that were already open, the minister indicated.

However, he did not provide the total number of persons who were vaccinated as a result of this lapse. Additionally, no information was provided on the groups to which these individuals belonged.

Prime Minister Andrew Holness had assured last week that the distribution of the COVID-19 vaccines would be free of corruption or bribery.

“Regardless of who you are in the society, once the rule is set, you will abide by the rules,” Holness stated, adding that “I’m committed that the distribution of the vaccines does not fall in this category of nationally important goods to be distributed, where people break the lines (and) because of connections, they get.”