Act requires employers to save

By JIMMY KALEBE
ALL employers employing 15 employees or more are required under the Superannuation Act to pay 8.4 per cent as savings for their employees, Bank of Papua New Guinea (BPNG) assistant governor Ellison Pidik says.
Every employee has the right to 8.4 per cent employers’ contribution and a six per cent requirement as per employees’ contribution from their gross pay per fortnight.
Pidik said BPNG in partnership with Internal Revenue Commission (IRC), Labour and Industrial Relations Department and other stakeholders were doing awareness to employers to make sure they paid their due.
In his presentation at the 2020 superannuation awareness workshop in Lae on Friday, Pidik said, the committee would try to give time to employers not paying those fees and processes would be followed to get them to pay.
“We will give them (those employers who do not make the 8.4 per cent payment) time and liaise with them to make sure they comply with what the Superannuation Act requires from them,” he said.
Pidik said they would make certain that processes were followed to get them to pay and if those employers could not make those payments, then the committee would resort to legal action.
“We are working closely with the public solicitor’s office as well as police and when we find out that those companies (employers) not complying, then legal action will be taken,” he said.
Pidik said majority of the companies that were not complying with the Act were nationally owned and most were security firms.
He asked that employers should see superannuation contribution they make for their employees as a tool for them to negotiate on productivity and improvements.
“Some security companies charge their clients huge rates, but the wages are too low without any contributions for the employees’ savings for future.”