Some employers fail to endorse FNPF forms, says A-G

The Government is still receiving calls from employees whose employers have not endorsed their COVID-19 assistance forms.

After Suva had gone into lockdown, the Fiji National Provident Fund (FNPF) extended assistance to those who had been affected by the lockdown.

FNPF also rolled out new forms where the employers did not need to give letters but endorse the forms by filling in a section which also requires a stamp from the company. Attorney-General Aiyaz SayedKhaiyum said employers who had not been up to date with their employee contributions should endorse the forms.

“FNPF, for now, has said they would overlook those anomalies,” he said.

In Suva, employees of a nightclub and a hotel have been without work for almost three weeks. They have filled forms and given them to their employer who is yet to submit the forms to FNPF.

Some employees have taken the initiative to collect forms from the employer and take it to FNPF themselves.

The employees have found out that their FNPF deductions from their weekly wages were not reaching FNPF.

Most do not want to speak out as they fear loss of work when things get back to normal. They said not many places offered work to the unskilled.

Litia Vatiadredre, a retail outlet employee, said she had not been able to get help from FNPF because her employer had not given her a letter. She also does not know of the changes made in the forms.

FNPF is urging people to read the notices and advisories they have been publishing in all forums of the media and know what their right is and who are entitled to the assistance.

Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said the COVID-19 situation was also showing how employers had been hoodwinking employees.