THE Ministry of Labour, Human Services and Social Security has launched an Occupational Wages and Hours of Work Survey to gather relevant data from across various industries and occupations. 

A Tuesday press release said the exercise will be conducted in all the Administrative Regions through August 15, 2014.
According to the release, it is expected to provide the ministry with information essential to evaluating conditions of work and employment costs.
The ministry noted that wages of employees vary in keeping with their level of education, skill, occupation, type of industry, size of establishment and geographical location among other variables.
Hence, data collection and analysis of wages and hours of work will enable effective career planning and counseling; facilitate efficient allocation of resources and overall educational planning and provide data to potential investors, employers, workers and trade unions.
The release said April 2014 will be used as the reference month and, therefore, information would be secured from the wages and salaries sheets of businesses for the reference period.
It added that the study will be done in compliance with Chapter 98:01 of the Laws of Guyana, which requires businesses to submit details on labour statistics to the ministry.

CONFIDENTIALITY STIPULATIONS
The Ministry of Labour wishes to assure employers and employees that confidentiality stipulations will be strictly adhered to for the protection of businesses participating in the survey and the final report will highlight trends in industries without identifying specific places of business.
The ministry is also urging entities to participate and ensure a high response rate, which would allow for greater accuracy in the statistics reported.
To date, the Ministry of Labour, Human Services and Social Security has completed eight surveys of this nature, the first of which was conducted in 2003.
Reports on them can be seen on the ministry’s website or by contacting the Statistical Unit on telephone number 592-223-7408.
Meanwhile, the ministry wishes to express its appreciation to all public and private establishments that have supported the surveying in the past and looks forward to their continued cooperation in 2014.