For­mer Prime Min­is­ter and Leader of the Op­po­si­tion, Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar SC MP, has chal­lenged the Row­ley Ad­min­is­tra­tion to take a five per­cent cut in their salaries, to show sol­i­dar­i­ty with the poor and strug­gling cit­i­zens of Trinidad and To­ba­go.

The Op­po­si­tion Leader made the ap­peal as part of her open­ing com­ments dur­ing her three hour re­sponse to­day, to the 2021 Bud­get Pre­sen­ta­tion by the Fi­nance Min­is­ter.

Mrs Per­sad-Bisses­sar not­ed that un­der her Peo­ples Part­ner­ship Ad­min­is­tra­tion, she and mem­bers of Gov­ern­ment gave 10 per­cent of their salaries to the Chil­dren’s Life Fund, which they cre­at­ed in 2010 through an Act of Par­lia­ment.

She called on Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley and his gov­ern­ment to show those cit­i­zens strug­gling un­der the cur­rent eco­nom­ic cri­sis—which has been ex­ac­er­bat­ed by the cur­rent COVID-19 pan­dem­ic—that they un­der­stand their plight, by tak­ing a pay cut.

Dur­ing the first hour of her pre­sen­ta­tion this morn­ing, Mrs Per­sad-Bisses­sar point­ed to the thou­sands of per­sons who were put on the bread­line by T&T’s eco­nom­ic woes even be­fore COVID-19 came to these shores. She made par­tic­u­lar ref­er­ence to those work­ers in the en­er­gy sec­tor who would have lost their jobs dur­ing the past five years, ex­press­ing con­cern that the work­ing class and mid­dle class have been bat­tered be­cause of bad PNM poli­cies.

She al­so called on Gov­ern­ment to con­sid­er draft­ing new leg­is­la­tion that re­flect the re­al­i­ties of to­day’s world, where work­ing from home is rapid­ly be­com­ing the norm. She urged that more pro­tec­tion for work­ers’ rights and lives be draft­ed, to re­duce the like­li­hood of ex­ploita­tion and fur­ther job cuts and re­trench­ment.

The Op­po­si­tion Leader ad­vised that Gov­ern­ment meet with em­ploy­ers and work­ers rep­re­sen­ta­tives to chart a new way for­ward for the labour mar­ket in T&T.