Full brunt of law for minimum wage breach

THREE local security firms which have, allegedly, been failing to pay their employees the approved national minimum wage, will face the full brunt of the law, Minister of Labour, Dr. Nanda Kishore Gopaul stated Wednesday.

He identified the accused defaulters as Home Safe Security Services, Supreme Security Services and Strategic Action Security Services.
The last, he said has been found guilty of not even paying what was ordered in 2012.
Gopaul disclosed that the ministry is, currently, pursuing 19 cases filed against that company, so far, and intends to file, en bloc, for all the workers who have not been paid.
The Labour Minister said that with respect to the other two, the ministry intends to seek the assistance of the Attorney General’s Chambers and the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).
Gopaul said his ministry will also, if necessary, recruit a lawyer in private practice, with the skills to prosecute, for ensuring that those companies do not get away with their non-payment, based on what was agreed upon for the workers in that category.
“Too many workers have been underpaid and we are not going to let it go easily,” he said.

PERSONALLY MONITOR TRIALS
He added that hearing of the charges filed, to date, are ongoing and he will, personally be monitoring the trials to ensure that the workers get their due.
Gopaul assured, too, that the other security services in the country have all been complying with the new minimum wages and the national 40 hours work week.
The minister made the disclosures during a media briefing on some of the activities of his ministry in 2013, which he said has been an exciting year.
He said the ministry had been successful in introducing a national minimum wage with respect to all workers in the country and national 40 hours work week.
Gopaul said, at the beginning, there had been a few employers who expressed concerns over the 40 hours per week application in a period of five days.
“But, after some persuasion, we have been able to get them to understand that this is necessary for a country where we are seeking to enhance workers’ conditions, especially those at the bottom,” he said.
The minister reported that, during the year, the Ministry’s Labour Department placed emphasis on inspections of hotels, restaurants, dry goods stores and hardware establishments, among others.
The Department received nearly 1,100 complaints from aggrieved workers in various industries and concluded 218 inspections.
Interventions by the Ministry of Labour led to it securing, from employers, the sum of $14.1M and paying several workers who had filed complaints about such violations as unlawful termination of employment, outstanding wages and overtime and outstanding payments for annual leave.

JUSTIFIED COMPLAINTS
A large percentage of the monies secured from defaulting employers by the ministry was received following justified complaints by workers about wrongful dismissals, Dr Gopaul reported.
In the area of Occupation Health and Safety, he said reports indicated a significant drop in the cases of accidents and fatalities in the gold mining sector.
To date, Gopaul said 486 accidents were reported to the ministry, including 10 involving fatalities.
He said: “Last year, the bulk of the fatalities occurred in the gold-mining sector but, this year, out of the 10 fatalities reported, only one was associated with the gold mining sector.”
Five had occurred in the manufacturing sector, three were associated with the bauxite industry when three persons died in a vehicle accident and one in the tourism sector.
The minister disclosed that, last week, he signed regulations relating to HIV and AIDS that were gazetted at weekend and will be laid over in Parliament shortly.
These regulations will ensure that persons afflicted by HIV/AIDS are not discriminated against at workplaces and denied the right to employment or dismissed as a result of their being infected.
Additional protection for workers, which are imminent, include Occupation Health and Safety (OH&S) Regulations for the Forestry Sector, the Construction Industry and Mining.
Dr Gopaul said: “Mining regulations have been approved by Cabinet and we are going to lay them in Parliament soon, because we believe that it is important to have the legislation so that violations of the OH&S Act in this area can be successfully prosecuted.
These regulations are lying in the AG’s Chambers and will be released soon.

(By Clifford Stanley)