Labour Dept to digitise systems to promote transparency

THE Department of Labour will be digitising its systems to enable transparency in the issuing of work permits, Minister Mehrra Kipefa says.
Kipefa told Parliament yesterday the department was working on addressing issues of minimum wage and work permits.
He was responding to questions by Markham MP Koni Iguan.
“Labour Department has a lot of things to clean up, including outdated polices and laws which we are working on to bring to Parliament,” Kipefa said.
“The minimum wage is still at K3.50 and that is too low so we need to increase it to help our people.
“Our board also needs to be replaced and that will help in bringing the changes.
“For the reserved employment, the PNG Institute of Human Resources had reviewed this and they have recommended to the department to bring to Parliament some of the work to be delegated to citizens in the country.”
Kipefa said in the area of work permits, Labour has a lot challenges going through the manual system.
“We want to digitise the system so that everyone can apply online and let the system reject or accept the people coming into the country,” he said.
“I’m working my guts out to get these things to the Parliament to get Labour fixed up for our people.”