SAILESH Naidu, an employment relations consultant, has told public consultations on the national minimum wage review in Lautoka that employers do not want to pay overtime pay after eight hours of work and instead give workers a day off.
“There are a lot of workers with problems with overtime pay as employers do not want to give overtime pay,” he said.
“Although the law says you pay overtime after eight hours, they give a day-off and I classify that as slavery.”
Mr Naidu said most workers would be interested to know how their terms and conditions change at their workplace.
“Apart from the minimum wage review, there are other things such as overtime pay, and meal allowance payment, and I think there is a need to highlight more of this.
“I think your terms of reference would be wider than just reviewing the minimum wage as people are interested to know what you are going to review.”
National Minimum Wage Review Consultant and USP academic Dr Maureen Fatiaki said they had noted the issue raised and had included questions on it in the survey questionnaire.
