Govt. to name and shame non-compliant security firms – Minister Hamilton

Security firms found non-compliant with Guyana’s labour laws will be publicly shamed. This is according to Minister of Labour, Joseph Hamilton.
The Minister’s warning was vocalized last week on Kaieteur Radio’s ‘Wake Up Guyana’ programme, where he addressed concerns raised about compliance with Guyana’s labour laws within the security industry.
He said that the “public shaming” will include publishing the names of the security firms, their principles, their directors and managers.

The Minister said that a forewarning was given to security companies last month, where he lamented on issues regarding equal pay, proper overtime salaries and adequate working conditions for their employees.
Further, he disclosed that he had engaged an umbrella organization for security firms, during which he spoke on these issues, in hopes of reaching the entire security industry. However, that organization, according to the Minister, only represented approximately three percent of security firms in the country. There are currently over 200 security firms in Guyana.

The Minister also announced plans to have a conference in early January 2021 with all security service providers in hope of having more coverage.
Hamilton stressed that the Labour Ministry would have outlined what the Labour Act says about working conditions in several releases but companies are still not compliant, so maybe publicly shaming them will provide better results.
According to the Labour Minister too, he has received complaints about issues relating to late payment of workers, improper overtime salaries and inadequate working conditions in every region.

Concerns were also raised about payments to the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) on behalf of workers, where, in some instances, employers were not paying their workers’ NIS contributions on a monthly basis. He described this as them not only robbing their employees but also robbing the NIS.
He said that the Labour Ministry cannot solve NIS problems since it does not have that mandate, but there are laws to take persons to court who are NIS non-compliant. Since this is not being done, the Minister said that this means the NIS is not applying the law across the board and he is questioning how these persons are receiving NIS compliance.

Kaieteur News was informed that an individual’s NIS contribution is 14 percent of their actual salary. Of that 14 percent, a 5.6 percent deduction is taken from the employee’s pay, and the other 8.4 percent is supposed to be paid by the employer on behalf of the employee.
For these issues to be solved, he said NIS needs to ensure that its officers do their work.