Minister of Labour Joseph Hamilton during an engagement with media representatives recently said the ministry has intervened on many occasions including cases of labour breaches.
He explained that with intervention from the Government, a Jamaican national was paid some US$15,000 that was owed to him by a company that refused to pay him for months.
According to him, the company was looking to deport him out of the country without being paid.
“Several months they did not pay him. I think so far he was here for six months and based on the investigation they deposited in his account, a couple months and I think for the last several months he wasn’t paid.”
So far, the Labour Ministry has recruited over $14M for employees from their former employers.
“We already recruited about $15M for workers that employers did not want to pay for all different types of violations. So it’s a continuous engagement and I normally engage and then turn it over to the labour officers.”
The Minister during a recent interview told MTV News Update that most of these issues are prevalent in the security sector.
Some 400 companies are currently before the courts for labour breaches.
“They had not paid them; they have not granted them their leave and refused to pay them for it, issues of overtime and all those things.”
