FOLLOWING several complaints from employees, the Ministry of Labour was able to recover $38,208,204 from employers in 2021.

The recovered sum included money owed for wages, overtime, severance, annual leave and payment in lieu of notice of termination.

Meanwhile, for yet another year, security companies dominated the labour complaints. Of the 867 complaints received, more than 20 per cent were made against security companies. The commercial sector came in second with 20 per cent.

“[A] seminar was held with the security companies to educate them on the labour laws and regulations because the ministry continues to receive a lot of complaints,” a report from the ministry noted.

For 2021, the ministry held more than 700 meetings with employers in an attempt to resolve the respective issues they had with the employees.

Additionally, as part of efforts to improve employer/employee relations, representatives of 930 employers were trained in labour laws and regulations.

The labour department was able to conclude 837 or 77 per cent of the open labour complaints in 2021. The year’s complaints also included 219 complaints from 2020. A total of 1,086 complaints being dealt with in 2021.

The 867 complaints received in 2021 marked a 37.4 per cent increase in complaints compared to what was received in 2020. Some 1,200 complaints were received in 2019.

The lower number of labour complaints over the past two years has been attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic, which resulted in the closure of many businesses. With most businesses returning to normalcy, increases in the labour complaints were to be expected.

Speaking with this publication, Minister of Labour, Joseph Hamilton said he is satisfied with the amount of work and new developments that the ministry was able to accomplish over the past year, particularly given that it had only been re-established in 2020.

In other developments for the year, the MoL was also able to oversee the signing of 22 new collective labour agreements and held 19 conciliations.

“Never in history of the country [and] in just one year, we have had several CLAs signed. Some of these matters have been outstanding for years, and in some cases the parties have been refusing to meet each other and we were able to bring them to the table and talk to each other, and even have them sign agreements. In some cases, it was a multi-year agreement signed,” Hamilton noted
As it pertains to strikes, the ministry was able to barter a resolution between Chinese-owned bauxite company, BOSAI, and its employees for the resumption of work in October, after a few days of strike action.