Examining our Wages Regulations

Over the past few weeks we were looking at the Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Protection of Employment Act, 2003. Today we shift to the Wages Regulations, 2024. It cannot be over emphasized the importance for employees to be in the know about their employment rights, as it is important for employers to be in the know about the laws that protects employment.

Often times unscrupulous employers are criticized for their unprincipled practices against employees, when they are discovered. However, employees have a responsibility to know the Protection of Employment Act and the Wages Regulations, for themselves. If you do not know the law, you have no way of knowing when your rights are being infringed on or when you are being abused. If you discover that your rights as an employee are being encroached on, raise it with your employer. If your concerns are being ignored, find a responsible citizen to sound an alarm on your behalf.

Firstly, every employee should know which Order governs the organization they work in. The Wages Regulations 2024 address the following Orders: Shop Assistants, Security Workers, Industrial Workers, Domestic Workers, Agricultural Workers, Workers in Offices of Professionals, Hotel and Tourism Related Workers, Workers in Nursing Homes and Call Center. Over the next few weeks, we will look at what the regulations state as it relates to Hours of work, Overtime Wages, Vacation Leave and Sick Leave under the different Orders. However, there are three areas that are common across all Orders, they are Maternity Leave, Paternity Leave and Compassionate Leave.

The Regulations stipulate that after one year of continuous service with an employer an employee who becomes pregnant is entitled to maternity leave for a period of ten weeks. During this period, the employer is obligated to pay the employee a minimum of thirty-five percent of their wages. The remaining sixty-five percent is usually paid by the National Insurance Services.

Prior to the Wages Regulations 2024, a male employee whose spouse gave birth had the option of vacation leave, or unpaid leave if he wanted time away from work to assist his partner. Now, male employees who have worked with an employer for at least a year, are entitled to paternity leave of one week. However, the regulations specifically state that the paternity leave must be associated with one woman whom the male employee has been living with for three years.

The Wages Regulations 2024, makes provision for an employee to be granted three days’ compassionate leave to make funeral arrangement in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, for a husband, wife, common-law partner, mother, father or child. Where the funeral will take place overseas, the employee is entitled to five days’ compassionate leave.

Shop Assistants Order. Examples of businesses under the Shop Assistants Order are supermarkets, wholesale distributions, furniture and appliance stores, fast food restaurants. An employee working in a business that falls under this Order is referred to as a Shop Assistant. A shop Assistant’s hours of work shall be eight hours per day or forty-four hours per week. The hours may be scheduled over five or five and a half days per week.

Overtime: A shop assistant who is required to work over eight hours per day or over forty-four hours per week is entitled to overtime pay of one and a half hours multiplied by their hourly rate. Imagine Timisha is a Cashier working for $1200 per month. Timisha must know how to work out her hourly rate in order to determine if her overtime pay is correct. $1200 x 12 (months of a year) =$14,400 / 52 (weeks in a year) = $276.92 (weekly rate). $276.92 / 5.5 (number of days’ work per week) =$50.34 (day rate). $50.34 / 8=$6.29 (hourly rate). Therefore, if Timisha worked two hours overtime sometime between Monday and Saturday $6.29 x 1.5 x 2 = $18.88 (overtime pay for two hours). If she works on a Sunday or public holiday, once it is not considered a normal working day because of the nature of the business she is employed in, her over time for two hours on a Sunday or Public holiday will be $6.29 (hourly rate) x 2 (double time) x 2 (hours) =$25.16 (overtime pay for 2 hours on a Sunday or Public Holiday.

Join us again next week as we look at vacation leave and sick leave for Shop Assistant.