The Seychelles Employment Department will use all means including legal action to compel employers to comply with the minimum wage regulation that was set up in January 2008.
Jules Baker, the Director General for Employment explained that the decision has been taken as there has been an increase in the number of employers who are not abiding by the law and are still refusing to adjust the salaries of their workers.
He added that the government has announced a rise of 20 US cents/hour of the salary of workers and that they should be paid $2.5 an hour as from July 2010.
Also Baker added that the government has decided to include non-Seychellois workers on the list of minimum wage earners and to reduce the fee for gainful occupation permits (GOP) as there is an acute shortage of qualified Seychellois workers especially in the tourism and construction sectors.
The GOP now costs around $100 instead of $300, added Baker, who indicated that the reduction in the fee was a way of reducing costs for employers.
Baker also announced that the government has set up a national taskforce to review the entire application procedure for GOPs and the employment of foreign workers and to set up a new system which will allow better control of the employment of non-Seychellois workers.
Source African Press Agency
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