Guatemala City, January 5 (RHC)-- Guatemalan workers have filed a lawsuit against the minimum wage regulation the government signed late last week.

The government modified the minimum wage regulations, which will put workers far below the extreme poverty line. The MSICG Guatemalan Indigenous campesino union blasted the government's move, calling it unconstitutional.

MSICG Director Efren Sandoval told reporters that the document, handed to the Constitutional Court over the weekend, contains three arguments to prove the unconstitutionality of the government’s decision to lower the minimum wage in four of the country’s states.

First, the group disputes the legality of the procedure on the basis that Labor Minister Marlon Garcia had disagreed with the measure and refused to sign it. Sandoval explained that the government of Alejandro Maldonado Aguirre got around this by dismissing Garcia and replaced him with a representative of the business industry, meaning it was signed by an official who was in the post for less than 24 hours.