Strategic Action Security Services owes hundreds of millions in unpaid wages to its employees and will be taken to court by the Labour Ministry as it seeks to have the firm’s employees paid what is owed to them, Labour Minister Nanda Gopaul said today.
In June 2012, the government raised the minimum wage for several categories of workers, including security guards, from $4,500, to $6,160 per week. An increase was also granted to workers in categories including hotel workers, night clubs, guest houses and discotheques.
Earlier this year the government fixed the minimum wage at $8,080 per week but the security firm is yet to start paying the 2012 minimum wage, the ministry says.
The disclosure was made to members of the media during a briefing at the ministry during which Gopaul added that two charges are pending against Home Safety Security Services, while eight are pending against Supreme Security Services on similar grounds. Unlike Strategic Action Security Services, these services have only failed to abide by the 2013 minimum wage order and will be dealt with accordingly.
The ministry said that so far 19 charges are pending against Strategic Action Security Service, and he suggested that additional charges may be filed subsequently.
The ministry’s lawyer is currently handling the matters, and the minister said that he is in the process of soliciting assistance from the Attorney General’s Office and the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions. If these bodies are unable to assist, he continued, the ministry intends to acquire the services of a private lawyer.
“Too many workers have been underpaid by the company,” the minister said, adding that “they have a lot of money to pay workers.”
These revelations, the minister says, are a result of its inspections exercises which he said were stepped up for 2013. A total of 2218 inspections were carried out for 2013. According to Gopaul, some of the exercises were in response to complaints by employees, while others were routine inspections carried out to ensure that businesses and companies are complying with the laws, including the recently implemented minimum wage order and forty-hour work week/five-day work week.
But, the ministry was also looking into other employee grievances such as wrongful dismissals and unfair treatment. Gopaul said that the ministry has been able to get employers to pay $14.1 million to their aggrieved employees where it was found that their complaints were valid.
Investigations also exposed the fact that several establishments had not been abiding by the 40 hour/five-day work week order. But, Gopaul said that after meeting with these institutions and hearing their concerns the ministry was able to convince them of the sense of the order.
