Wage talks to continue

[NewsWhore]

Negotiations between labor representatives and business leaders are to continue after a four-hour meeting was adjourned last night with no conclusive outcome. A spokesperson for the labor sector, Rafael Abreu, said that while the business sector representatives did up their offer to increase the minimum wage, no decisions had been reached. Abreu said that the offer would provide for pay increases of between 10% and 15% for minimum wage earners, with the greater increase going to the lowest earners on the minimum wage scale - workers earning RD$3,900 per month, and the 10% increase going to workers at the higher end of the minimum wage scale, who earn up to RD$6,400 per month. The talks were mediated by Monsignor Agripino Nunez Collado, who said that they would continue until they reach an agreement. No date was set for the next set of wage talks, but the unions seem to have hardened their position. Monsignor Nunez told reporters that there were some new items on the table, but as the private sector representatives still hadn't discussed them, he refrained from providing specific details. The tenth meeting in this series of wage talks was generally considered to have reached a stalemate, according to El Caribe. CONEP spokesperson Lisandro Macarrulla said that the negotiating process is quite delicate since the results will affect a great many people. Business sectors have alerted that a large increase could have a boomerang effect of less hiring and would affect businesses that are already hurting from increased costs in electricity, cargo costs and taxes.

More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#6)