Achong’s resignation may not be accepted

High level Government sources told Newsday last night that former Labour Minister Lawrence Achong’s resignation was not confirmed. “He is being spoken to. The resignation might not be accepted,” the source said. But Achong’s statement that his decision was not a “rash” one suggested that he would not change his mind. The proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back is believed to have been the announcement by the Prime Minister at Thursday’s post-Cabinet press conference that the Government had no intention of introducing the sectoral minimum wage at this time. But there was also the simmering dispute over the transfer of his live-in campanion, Marlene Coudray, CEO of the San Fernando Corporation, to Point Fortin.

Coudray, in resisting this transfer, has laid the blame squarely at Manning’s door. Achong’s Cabinet colleagues, including those who felt they enjoyed his confidence, were shocked by his decision. Achong, who remains the Member of Parliament for Point Fortin, joins the backbench of Fitzgerald Hinds and Eudine Job-Davis. The Point Fortin MP was in the Parliament yesterday and appeared quite normal. However minutes before Parliament ended he tendered his resignation. “I did it because it was the correct thing to do,” he stated. In response to statements made by Manning at Thursday’s post-Cabinet news conference, Achong said yesterday that there was no evidence to support the view  that the increase in wages in one sector would have a spin-off effect on other sectors, or that a sectoral minimum wage would have a detrimental effect on the economy as a whole.

The Minister has thrown his support solidly behind the striking workers in the Atlantic LNG matter and had taken to the Cabinet a note recommending a sectoral minimum wage for workers in the construction energy sector. His interest in this matter was not only as a result of his portfolio responsibility, but also directly linked to securing his politicial base, given the fact that it involved many of his constituents. Manning,  at the news briefing on Thursday, stated  that while the Cabinet had not deliberated on the issue, “a preponderance of Cabinet members” believed that the implementation of a sectoral minimum wage would “create more problems than solve.” He said the decision not to implement a sectoral minimum wage was based on the deliberations of a committee of which Achong was not a member.