750 worker complaints received in 2024 – Chief Labour Officer

…as job bank expansion gains momentum

The Labour Ministry has recorded some 750 complaints from workers in 2024, covering issues such as termination, severance pay, overtime, and annual leave. According to Chief Labour Officer Dhaneshwar Deonarine, 90 per cent of these cases have been successfully resolved.

Speaking on Tuesday, Deonarine highlighted that the figure represents a reduction in complaints compared to the previous year. “We have seen a significant reduction in the number of complaints coming to the Ministry of Labour,”, adding that the remaining unresolved cases were filed late in the year and require additional time for investigation and resolution.
The remarks were made during the Ministry’s second annual Labour Laws seminar, held at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre (ACCC), Liliendaal on Tuesday. The seminar, which was attended by some 300 persons, aims to enhance awareness of workers’ rights and labour regulations among employers and employees.

Job bank
This year, the is prioritizing the improvement of its job bank website to enhance user-friendliness, ensuring individuals can effectively access and capitalize on available employment opportunities in the country.
The National Job Bank is a fully online platform responsible for improving jobseekers’ access to employment opportunities from the comfort of their own homes or anywhere with an internet connection, at no cost. It enables employers and potential employees to connect in order to fill open positions based on their competencies, skills, and qualifications.
At an event on Tuesday, Labour Minister Joseph Hamilton revealed that efforts are underway to enhance the website.

“We have established a job board where you could get the email address of a Ministry of Labour contact person, but we now allow people seeking employment and those who need employees to register on the platform. You can then engage directly. I’ve already spoken with the IT (Information Technology) team, and we’ve made it a priority for 2025. We need to make the job board more user-friendly,” the Minister said.
According to the Minister, the programme is now two years old, and the Government is encouraging more people to utilise the site in their quest to find employment. Meanwhile, he noted that enhancements to the platform will allow both employers and employees to access a chat room for communication and collaboration.
“It’s been two years now, I think since March 2023, I’m told there are nearly 300 employers registered on the job bank. We hope that those of you who are not registered will do so after this. Employers can source employees by posting their vacancies free of cost, and for jobseekers, you can upload all your credentials. We aim to create a platform where there can be direct interaction between employers and employees through a chat room or something similar,” Hamilton added.
This initiative is consistent with President Dr Irfaan Ali’s vision of creating 50,000 jobs in five years. The platform is also part of an expansion of the Central Recruitment and Manpower Agency (CRMA), Guyana’s leading employment agency, founded in 1944.
The CRMA’s mandate is to match suitably qualified individuals to existing vacancies, canvass for job openings to place jobseekers, maintain vacancy records, provide career advice and counseling, and build capacity for jobseekers.
The public can access the National Job Bank at jobs.gov.gy.