Wage Cheating Remains a Concern, Employment Minister Warns
Some employers owing millions: Agni Deo Singh
Wage cheating remains a concern with some employers identified by the Ministry of Employment, Productivity and Industrial Relations, allegedly owing millions of dollars to their workers.
Minister for Employment Agni Deo Singh revealed this in Labasa, recently.
The figures and disclosures of employers alleged to be involved in this were not given.
Mr Singh made these comments after officiating in the 2023 World Day for Safety and Health at Work celebration with Northern Division stakeholders, last Friday. He said they continued to receive complaints from workers regarding employers failing to pay overtime hours, Public Holiday (PH) pays and other reports of not following labour laws.
Mr Singh said their labour and compliance officers were following up on many of these complaints. Some operators had also faced legal implications for wage cheating and are now being taken to Court by the Ministry.
Ministry to boost manpower for monitoring
Mr Singh highlighted the issue of compliance monitoring because of shortage of manpower in his ministry.
The shortfall was impacted by the failure of the ministry under the previous Government to timely advertise and process some 44 vacant posts.
Mr Singh said he alluded to this issue in his last Parliamentary presentation.
Despite the drawback, work was in progress to fill these key positions.
“We have advertised 19 positions last month and the rest will be advertised gradually and filled which will improve our labour inspection and compliance area of work,” he said.
Mr Singh made these comments after officiating in the 2023 World Day for Safety and Health at Work celebration with Northern Division stakeholders, last Friday. He said they continued to receive complaints from workers regarding employers failing to pay overtime hours, Public Holiday (PH) pays and other reports of not following labour laws.
North employers under spotlight
When questioned on the divisional statistics of this wage cheating complaints, Mr Singh confirmed receiving complaints from the Northern Division with regards to non-compliance.
Some of these operators had undergone legal implications for failure to comply with some employers being warned to rectify this fault.
The positive awareness of this has seen some operators starting to comply after being cautioned. “We are taking this matter very seriously because wage cheating denies the worker the basic right to fair wages,” he said.
However, Mr Singh acknowledged the good work of a reasonable number of employers who abided by all the Employment Act laws and complied with the standard wage requirement.
“But, there are those that must continue to be monitored and also taken to task if not complied,” he said.
Fiji Trades Union Congress representative Rohit Karan Singh said workers’ performance at a workplace was determined by the favourable working conditions. He applauded Government and the Ministry of Employment for removing the short-term contractual appointments.