New law to curb late payment of salaries |11 March 2011

Director-general for employment Jules Baker said: “The current law says monthly salaries must be paid by the fifth day of the following month, but we get many complaints from workers saying they are paid too late.

“Sometimes this is by a cheque that needs to be cleared first, making the money unavailable for two or three more days.

“Such late payments cause difficulties for the workers’ families, who say they have financial commitments to meet by the end of the month.”

Mr Baker made these comments as lawyers, representatives of workers’ unions, civil society, employers and the government worked on the new law at the Seychelles Trading Company’s conference room on Wednesday.

He said the law will also seek to ensure people take their annual leave without exchanging it for money “because many people sell their leave and end up too tired, and eventually fail to turn up for work”.

Legal expert Angelika Muller of the International Labour Organisation, who led a seminar that worked on the proposed changes, said the ILO does not recommend the sale of leave because it harms workers’ health and cuts productivity in the long run.

Mr Baker told Nation the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank think it is too difficult for employers in Seychelles to hire or fire workers, especially when the dismissals involve several workers at a time.

He said such factors contributed to Seychelles being ranked 95th out of 183 economies in terms of ease of doing business.

However, Mrs Muller said other issues – “and not just rigidity of the employment law” – contributed to the low ranking.

The difficulty of hiring foreign labour is one other such factor, Mr Baker said.

“They feel given that we have a shortage of skills and do not have long lists of Seychellois waiting to be employed, we should allow more expatriates to be employed, albeit in a controlled manner,” he added.

He said to “harmonise recruitment of non-Seychellois”, the Immigration Division will from next month process the employment of expatriates so it will be the main organisation concerned with recruitment and issue of gainful occupation permits.

It will, however, work in conjunction with the Department of Employment to verify the need to hire foreign labour, he said.