…still working for minimum wageChairman of the Linden Interim Management Committee, Orrin Gordon, has called the $9.2M approved by Cabinet to help the local municipality pay workers’ wages up to the end of the year ‘a temporary plaster without a solution’.He said that the move was ‘disingenuous’,Cheap Soccer Jerseys, as there had been no prior consultation with Council on the matter.Gordon said that because the move was just a temporary ‘fix’ the problem will recur.He expressed concern as to where Council will find the money to pay salaries come 2014, given the fact that one of its main sources of revenue- the toll booth – has been cut off.Gordon acknowledged Minister within the Ministry of Local Government Norman Whittaker’s suggestion that the Council has to garner more revenues from rates and taxes, but said that this has been a huge bugbear for the Council over the years.The Linden toll booth was ordered closed recently by the Minister after being in operation for about 16 years. Its closure has put the financially strapped municipality under even more pressure, and has resulted in widespread disillusionment amongst workers despite the recent pay increase.Workers who were paid a paltry $24,Authentic Jerseys Cheap,000 per month now receive $35,000,Cheap Jerseys From China, the minimum wage level.Gordon said that there might be some restructuring, but that the Council is not interested in sending anybody home, under the ‘prevailing circumstances’.He said that the municipality has survived because of its ingenuity, but that there is a limit to what can be done.Minister within the Ministry of Local Government, Norman Whittaker, had on Friday met with members of the Linden Interim Management Committee, headed by Chairman Orrin Gordon, and several heads of department of the municipality. The forum addressed the toll booth closure and the rationale behind its closure by Government, among other issues.Whittaker had asked the media to leave,Cheap NFL Jerseys Wholesale, promising to hold a press conference,Cheap NFL Jerseys, after the meeting. They had been told by the IMC Chairman that they had been invited.A visibly upset Gordon reminded the Minister that it was not the first time that the media was present at such meetings.In the media briefing following the meeting, Whittaker said that the toll booth was ordered closed, because ‘concerned citizens’ had been complaining, and in any case its operation was illegal as it had not been gazetted.He also spoke about the $9.2 M that was approved by Cabinet and which should be available to the council by next week,Wholesale NBA Jerseys Authentic, to take care of workers’ wages up to the end of 2013.The Minister said that the money would assist the Council to bring workers salaries to the minimum wage of $35,000 per month.He called the increase significant, more than forty percent, and as such, there would be no more increases for the workers in 2014.The issue of workers retiring and not being able to receive their NIS benefits and gratuity were other areas for concern, the Minister said, noting that while all the money was being garnered from the toll booth at Kara Kara, NIS payments were still not being made.Meanwhile in alluding to the ‘no increase in 2014’, because of the ‘significant’ increase in the workers’ salaries the IMC Chairman said that the increase had to be significant because the workers’ salaries were way below the minimum, and that there had not been any increase in the recent past.