Govt to go after security firms that fail to pay workers’ NIS contributions – VP

…says companies can lose contracts with State

Security companies risk losing their contracts with the Government of Guyana if it is discovered that they are not paying employees’ remittances to the National Insurance Scheme (NIS).
This is according to Vice President Dr Bharrat Jagdeo during a recent press conference. He explained that there were a lot of complaints at last Monday’s public outreach hosted by Government about the treatment of workers by security firms that are hired to provide services to the State across the country.

One of the issues that has been prevalent is the fact that these companies would deduct NIS contributions from workers’ wages and salaries but fail to remit these payments to the insurance scheme. This, according to the Vice President, is only discovered, in most cases, by the staff when they seek to recoup their benefits from NIS.
“And so people, if they later have an injury or something of the sort, when they go the NIS, they can’t receive benefits,” Jagdeo posited.
Against this backdrop, the VP announced that the NIS will be conducting a review of the security firms providing services to the state and there will be consequences for those that engage in this practice.
“So, we’ve ordered the NIS to have an inspection of all of these companies that are providing service [to] the Government of Guyana and who have had contracts, and we’re expecting a report in two weeks’ time. And should we have an adverse finding in relation to particular companies on this matter, they run the risk of losing their contracts,” he disclosed.
Jagdeo went onto add, “The security companies, they get paid for a service and they have to pay the people who are working for them and pay them on time, and ensure that their deductions for taxes and for the NIS, especially, that those are remitted to the [the relevant agencies including the] NIS so if people suffer injuries, then they have that recourse to get some benefits from the NIS.”
For years, security guards have been complaining bitterly about companies they work for making NIS deductions but are not paying these over to the scheme as well as the late payment of their salaries.
In fact, the Ministry of Labour has had reasons in the past to issue a statement to security firms reminding them of the rights and entitlements of Security Guards, whether or not they are nationals of Guyana.
Back in 2019, security officers attached to the Radar Security Service and Supplies in Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam) had spoken out about their NIS contributions not being paid although $3427 was deducted from their salaries.
More recently, however, security officers attached to the New Amsterdam branch of Sentinel Security Inc. made similar allegations in January 2023. In addition, some of the officers were forced to work extra hours and were not paid overtime but on the other hand, several days’ pay is deducted from their salary if they report sick for one day.
Several of these officers had told the Guyana Times last year that they made a number of reports to the Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne) office of the Ministry of Labour in New Amsterdam but they were penalised for doing so.
“Just after you leave the Labour Office, you getting a call from the office; they want you to come in and is all sorts of things they accusing you of. One of my friends even get dismissed because she went to Labour,” one officer had related to this publication.
Some of them provided copies of documents from NIS which indicate that no contributions had been paid to the Scheme for the period they claimed to have been working with the security firm.
A former employee, Stefan Williams, who worked with Sentinel Inc for just over two years, had indicated that the last time contributions were paid on his behalf was in 2021, when 17 contributions were made.
Despite claims by Labour Minister Joseph Hamilton that he would ensure security firms pay their workers in a timely manner and they are treated fairly, workers at Sentinel Security Inc related that the situation never changed.
Meanwhile, the National Insurance Scheme has been taking persons to court for non-compliance which includes not deducting NIS contributions from workers. They are also taken to court for not paying deducted contributions over to the Scheme. (G8)