Centre clients hit 8600 mark

The National Employment Centre (NEC) now has a total number of 8697 registered unemployed clients as of the March 31 this year. Minister for Employment Jone Usamate told Parliament yesterday said that the ministry was now keeping records of clients for two years.

He said the ministry completed a comprehensive exercise of cleaning

the NEC database, which previously had 56,962 registered clients. Mr Usamate said with a cleaner database the ministry now had a leaner number of clients to work with and find employment for.

He added that details of clients outside of the two-year data retention period could still be reactivated upon client request because this data was not completely removed. Meanwhile, in response to other oral questions in Parliament, Mr Usamate said the ministry was mandated under the Employment

Relations Act, Health and Safety at Work Act, Workers’ Compensation Act and the NEC Act as well as the respective regulations such as the Wages Regulations to provide protection for the workers and employers, including the unemployed, in the labour market.

He said these legislations promoted the fundamental principles of decent work and employment growth for all. Furthermore, Mr Usamate said, from January 2015 to February 2018, the Ministry conducted a total of 11,801 workplace inspections.

“From these inspections, a total of 59,543 workers’ wages and time records at workplaces were verified. As a result, we have recovered and paid to workers a total of $959,149.63,” he said.

Mr USamate said over the same period (2015 to 2018), a total of 6913 complaints were lodged and investigated. As a result a sum of $397,885.16 was paid out to the workers.