Latest update January 18th, 2025 7:00 AM
Govt. to clamp down on employers who breach labour laws
Kaieteur News – Government, through the Ministry of Labour, will be clamping down on business owners who are not in compliance with the labour laws of Guyana. This will see any business owner found guilty of a breach being prosecuted to the full extent of the law, according to the Ministry’s Chief Labour Officer, Charles Ogle.
Chief Labour Officer, Charles Ogle
Ogle said last week that the Ministry would have conducted outreaches in several regions where many complaints were filed about employers breaching the labour laws as it relates to wages and salary entitlements.
Kaieteur News understands that it was found that many employers were paying employees below Guyana’s minimum wage, some were giving untimely payments of salaries and employees were also being deprived of certain employment benefits. Many formal complaints were also filed directly to the Ministry against non-compliant employers.
Ogle noted that the National Minimum Wage Order No. 15 of 2016 states that the prescribed minimum wage stands at $255 per hour. It also stipulates that employees must work 40 hours, five days per week and any employee working outside of those hours must be compensated with overtime pay.
Further, it was stated that all salaries agreed upon by the employer and employee or salaries prescribed by law must be paid on their payday, which may be weekly, fortnightly or monthly, unless a mutual agreement on a salary delay has been made.
In addressing the issue of leave, the Chief Labour Officer said “Section 3 of the Leave with Pay Act Cap 99:02 states that every worker is entitled to leave and further elucidates how leave is to be computed. Section 4 of the said Act mandates that no employer shall require a worker to take his/her leave with pay in a period less than six consecutive days; provided that any of the days which are Sundays or Public Holidays shall not be computed as leave with pay. Additionally, the rate at which leave is calculated is at an employee’s current daily wage: Section 5 (1).”
Ogle maintained that employers that are in breach should immediately conform to the labour legislation and failing to do such will result in the Ministry publishing the names of the companies and organizations that are non-compliant, along with the managers and employers.
According to a well-placed source at the Ministry, many employers have been using the
COVID-19 pandemic as an excuse for breaching certain labour laws, but the ministry has a zero-tolerance policy against such.
“If your business is struggling to pay employees there are means in which you can lay them off, lawfully. But you cannot keep someone on the job and refuse to pay them, it is practically the same thing. If you are not getting money and you deprive them of theirs, how will the people and their families survive in these trying times? It is selfish,” the source said.
It was also disclosed that many local customer service centres, restaurants and clothing stores were paying employees’ salaries lower than the stipulated minimum wage and were violating other labour laws based on complaints filed.
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