The Federation of Independent Trade Unions and Non Governmental Organisations (FITUN) did not put a dollar figure to its minimum wage request, deputy president Joseph Remy said yesterday.

Speaking at a media conference at the Communications Workers Union (CWU) headquarters in Port of Spain, he responded to Minister of Labour Errol McLeod's statement recently that FITUN called for a $15 minimum wage.

Remy said FITUN asked for an increase based on the sectors.

"Let us be clear, I don't want us to be misquoted, we asked for an increase in the minimum wage and we were leaning more toward a sectorial type of minimum wage discussion," he said.

Remy said the way the union was structured it was more feasible to have sector-by-sector discussions rather than one broad minimum wage figure.

"Minimum wage is not even the appropriate term, it should be called the living wage," he said.

The union also called for the immediate disbanding of the Public Sector Negotiating Committee (PSNC), which was high on its proposal list presented to Minister of Finance Winston Dookeran last week.

Remy said the PSNC interfered with, and delayed the collective bargaining process and should be removed from the negotiation process.

He listed other concerns, among them the development of the telecommunications sector.

He said the change in government should auger a change in the political landscape and end "tit for tat" governance.

Remy said while the present government was not responsible for the current state of the economy there had been almost three months of talk from the government and it was now time to act.

"Time for action. Let us get down to work now," Remy said.