Trade union leader and government backbencher Toni Moore has accused businesses of seeking to widen their profit margins during times of global economic uncertainty.
In debate on the Appropriations Bill in the House of Assembly late Wednesday, she said that while the interventions outlined in the Budget were necessary, they would ultimately prove “insufficient”.
“It is my belief that inasmuch as I believe that they are necessary and that they are useful, that they will prove to be insufficient, where cost of living is rising faster than wages, and where too many actors in the private sector—not all, but too many actors in the private sector—treat every global tremor as an occasion to widen profit margin.”
The MP for St George North said that with workers and government carrying their share of the burden, the time had come for private-sector entities to do the same.
Acknowledging that past measures to alleviate the cost of living had failed, she claimed this was because some businesses were passing on increases to consumers out of opportunism rather than inflation.
“In Barbados, the reality and the perceived reality are that even when government had committed similar measures in the past, the cost of living in this country was still going up. Our people were still feeling the squeeze, and as much as we capped VAT on fuel and controlled freight costs, people were still feeling it, and they weren’t feeling it because government failed to act.
“They weren’t feeling it because they weren’t willing to carry the share of the burden, and so they were being ungrateful, but they were feeling it because too many businesses operate only to pass on every single increase, to protect every margin, to suck every ounce of profit out of every situation, no matter what.”
She added that one of the major characteristics of this behaviour was that even when global costs fell, local prices did not.
Highlighting a recommendation for the reintroduction of incentives to encourage long-term savings, particularly through registered retirement savings plans, the trade union head stressed that people could not save what they did not earn, and called for talks on mechanisms that could make such savings possible.
She continued: “No amount of incentive can overcome stagnant wages or low wages or precarious short-term contracts or unpredictable hours, and that’s a fact. It is saying that we in this country stop speaking, therefore, to the symptoms and really examine what is the root cause.
“So, let us discuss the introduction of living wages, not just a minimum wage, but wages that the average household can live on comfortably. Let us pair it with reduced short-term contracts. Let us pair it with predictable income streams. Let us pair it with portable social security benefits. Let us make savings possible in this country, because greater will our nation grow if all hands are on deck.”
(JB)
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