Recession pushes up labour law breaches

Avia Collinder, Business Writer

The Government department that polices the country's labour laws, the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, is reporting an increase in breaches of the Employment (Termination and Redundancy Payment) Act in the 2009-2010 financial year, as recession-induced pressures appeared to have forced more firms to stretch the regulations, with some workers appearing more tolerant of employment rights breaches as long as they kept their jobs.

But employee tolerance notwithstanding, the government department pursued the collection of nearly $37.3 million in settlement of termination and redundancy breaches for 2008-2009, some 72 per cent more than the $21.6 million collected in fiscal year 2007/08. When all types of breaches area considered, the settlement figure for 2008-2009 moved to $78 million, a whopping 87 per cent more than the $41.7 million that employers were forced to fork out the year before. Figures for the just ended 2009-2010 year were not available.

While breaches of the Employment Act constituted the greater part of settlements made by business owners, $14 million was paid over in relation to breaches of the Holiday with Pay Act, $5.6 million for minimum-wage breaches and $476,325,000 for maternity-leave infractions.

"Indications are that in 2009 a number of workers were laid off in excess of the legally stipulated time frame of 120 days and eventually made redundant without compensation," director of the Pay and Conditions of Employment branch in the ministry, Michael Kennedy, said.

The ministry official also noted that the breaches in 2009 were similar to those committed by employers in 2008.

"A number of employers used the fact that there was a global recession to commit a number of breaches," said Kennedy.

"These included the reduction of wages to workers, refusing to grant vacation leave with pay, the laying off of workers and failing to recall them or make redundancy payments in a timely manner."

Low-income earners

Breaches, he stated, occurred daily across all income categories, with low-income earners appearing to take the brunt of the injustice.

"Low-income workers are generally less marketable and appear to be willing to accept breaches of the labour law as long as they are still employed."

Compensation for breaches of the Employment Act accounted for the lion's share - 47.8 per cent of payments followed by breaches of the Holidays with Pay Act which constituted 40 per cent of payments.

This level of fines arose even though, by the ministry's own admission, less than half of all complaints from workers were formally investigated during the 2008-2009 year. Kennedy said, however, "most complaints were looked into".

He explained that many workers, in bringing matters to the attention of the government department, "merely sought information concerning their rights but elected not to have their specific case investigated by the ministry".

Some 2,829 investigations were done for 6,288 complaints in 2008-2009. Among the complaints, 3,112 were related to the Employment Act, 2,473 concerned holidays with pay, 83 were about maternity leave, while 604 related to minimum-wage payments.

avia.collinder@gleanerjm.com