News

Measures in place for sick leave abuse says Usamate

September 9, 2018 1:00 am

Abusing sick leave is one of the concerns raised by some employers after the Ministry of Employment carried out a series of public consultations.

The Minister responsible, Jone Usamate says 10 days of annual sick leave is the entitlement accorded to all Fijians.

He says if there is abuse of this entitlement, there are actions that employers can take.

Article continues after advertisement

“Everywhere I have gone so far, employers have been complaining about the abuse of sick leave. People are not sick but they get a medical certificate and they go and hang around in town or they do other things. The law says in that sort of cases, we can take their Doctor to task and the employee to task because it’s basically fraud and when they do that it’s basically like theft”

Meanwhile other issues that were highlighted included workers been underpaid be it less than the national minimum wage, loss of overtime and public holiday wages.

Speaking to the Suva Chamber of Commerce and the Fiji Commerce and Employers Federation, Usamate stressed that all unskilled workers are entitled to the national minimum wage of two dollars and sixty eight cents an hour.