THE Ministry of Employment is working on tracking down private security firms that are operating illegally in Fiji.
This assurance was given by Minister for Employment, Productivity and Industrial Relations Jone Usamate during his meeting with employers in Suva yesterday.
He said stories shared by security officers during his consultations were very moving and majority of complaints received by the ministry were from the security sector.
He said during his consultation in the Western Division, some security officers were very emotional when they shared how they were still paid $2.40 an hour.
“Some people have been paid two weeks later, some people are given half their pay this week and then after that the other half just disappears, so those are some of the things that we are trying to track down,” Mr Usamate said.
“I want to do two things and that is, I want to make sure the security business survives and does well and at the same time I want to see as to how we can protect the workers.”
He said he had spoken to officials in the ministry to ensure that those security companies that were operating illegally be taken to task.
Mr Usamate said it was imperative for employers to ensure that they paid their workers an hourly minimum wage of $2.68.
He also said they would be re-looking at the provisions that had been made in the family care and paternity leave which would be made effective from January next year.
