By Samantha Solomon
In one of the recent parliament sitting a concern was raised by the member for Alotau Open Ricky Morris on the minimum wage for the all the sectors in the country.
Deputy Prime Minister John Rosso responded that he has instructed the department to do more enforcement to make sure everyone is paid the minimum wage.
Member for Alotau Ricky Morris asked two questions to the Deputy Prime Minister who is the acting minister for the department of labour regarding the minimum wage.
Morris asked if the Department have an oversight over the compliance and monitoring of the minimum wage of K3.5
Rosso says he has instructed the department of labour to bring forth a budget and also tell me why they are not enforcing the minimum wage. He says he will sure that the budget and the work plan is done and brought to him and he will find money to fund the rolling out of the enforcement of the minimum wage throughout the main cities.
He says Most of the companies do not pay the minimum wage and it comes back to compliance with the depth of labour.
He gave a highlight on what he is doing with the labour department to address this issue.
Deputy Prime Minister assured the parliament and the people of this country that some amendments will be made to penalize those companies with an amount of K100,000 fee for knowingly underpaying their employees.
Rosso further says if the laws are not being enforced on the current minimum wage what is the point on increasing the rate, therefore amendments have to be made to the existing laws.
