Rosso to enforce wage laws

NO worker in Papua New Guinea must be paid below the minimum wage, Deputy Prime Minister John Rosso says.
He said the minimum wage was K3.50 per hour.
He told Parliament yesterday that amendments would also be made to laws to increase penalties against businesses that paid any worker below this level.
Rosso said the K5,000 penalty would be increased to K100,000.
Rosso said this response to a question from Alotau MP Ricky Morris on whether the Labour Department had oversight on ensuring compliance and monitoring the minimum wage in all sectors.
Morris asked Rosso to review clause seven of the minimum wage legislation that exempted workers in the agricultural sector from the minimum wage determination.
However, Rosso explained that the exemption on the agriculture sector in the minimum wage was important because some aspects of the sector were in rural settings.
But in all sectors of urban areas, the minimum wage was K3.50.
“Many of our companies don’t pay the minimum wage. In our shops, security companies, most of the security guards are paid 80toea an hour, K1 an hour.
That comes back to compliance on the part of the Department of Labour which I currently held,” Rosso said. The Lae MP said he had issued instructions last month to ensure that the department provided him a budget and informed him why it was not actively enforcing the minimum wage.
“Once I have a budget and work plan for this done, I will find the money so that they will roll out minimum wage enforcement in Port Moresby, Lae, Hagen and all our major centres. Every single person must be paid at least the minimum wage of K3.50 an hour as set by law. The problem is enforcement and compliance.
“The security industry itself, there are about 25,000 guards in the country. If all of them were paid (at least) the minimum wage of K3.50, they would be able to take home (at least) K500. Unfortunately, that is not happening.
“We will bring amendments to the floor of Parliament that companies who knowingly pay below the minimum wage of K3.50 will be penalised K100,000.
“Right now, the K5,000 penalty in the law is insufficient.”