Labor Ministry rules in bad labor practices case

The Ministry of Labour has finally handed down its findings in case between Duraplast Incorporated and its Workers Association concerning alleged unfair labour practices.

Following a hearing recently, the Ministry mandated Target HR which hired some of the workers as third parties to within 90 days process those contractors within its employ assigned at the various Sethi Brothers premises to become full employees of the respective Sethi entities with all rights, duties and privileges.

The Ministry at the same time has fined Target HR US$500.00 for violating Chapter 9 Section 5 (c), Clause i of the Decent Work Law of 2015. The money according to the Minister of Labour is to be paid to the Ministry of Finance within three working days.

The Ministry has further requested Sethi Brothers Management, with the advice of Target HR to provide a plan for upward adjustments to the salaries of Liberians already in its employ.

It says long service and expertise developed should be recognized, rather than almost everybody subsisting on various variations of the minimum wage.The mandates of the Ministry further that Sethi Brothers Management should within the space of the next three months provide to its workers in an incremental fashion, those items of workman safety which are most appropriate for the role assigned.

In addition, the Ministry has mandated the management of Sethi Brothers to share its plan for catering to persons who had already been injured while working on the site with an indication of whether or not they were contractors to Sethi directly or to Target HR.

The Ministry of Labour has given a mandate for all parties involved to abide by the decision in the spirit of harmonious relationship in the working environment.
At the end of the rulings, Labour Minister Moses Y. Kollie expressed thanks to all parties for their tolerance in seeking redress from the Ministry, rather than the workers continuing their initial strike actions.

In separate remarks, the workers and Management of Sethi Brothers thanked the Ministry of Labour for the timely intervention in the matter and promised to abide by the decision of the ministry.

It can be recalled that on Friday March 16, 2018, Duraplast Incorporated Workers Association submitted a complaint to the Ministry of Labour, requesting the ministry’s intervention into alleged unfair labour practices which they claimed, are being meted against them by the Management of Sethi Brothers and Target HR consultant services, a firm through which some of the workers were hired as third parties.

By Sally Gaye–Edited by Winston W. Parley