Economy Minister Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum. [File Photo]

Government says it will overlook a lack of FNPF contribution from employers for the time being.

Economy Minister Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum says they suspect that some employers are behind in their employee contributions – hence not issuing out letters to their employees.

Sayed-Khaiyum says they will go ahead and list down the employers affected by the COVID-19 situation.

“FNPF is going to ignore that for the time being. We simply want employees to get those letters. But we’ve gone one step ahead and told the FNPF to say we can now get the employers directly being listed in that list of employers who should be passing on the benefits to the employees.”

Sayed-Khaiyum adds they’ve also received concerns from Fijians who were working off the books.

“I received a phone call from a lady who has been working at a restaurant but she has never been registered as an employee. So it’s cash under the table. Now that she does not have that work – the employer won’t give her the letter saying well you were kind of illegally engaged. So we have situations such as that.”

The Minister says such situations show that Fijians doing things illegally get caught out particularly during this time.

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