The Ministry of Labour and Manpower Planning has recovered more than GY$71 million on behalf of employees so far this year, resolving over 550 complaints from workers who were owed money by their employers.
Minister of Labour Keoma Griffith disclosed the figures at a Conditions of Work Labour Seminar for workers in the oil and gas sector. The ministry also reported that its officers carried out nearly 3,200 proactive workplace inspections over the same period. That compares with 2,700 inspections conducted across all regions in 2023, according to figures the ministry published at the time.
Outstanding wages accounted for the largest share of the money recovered, at 46 per cent. Severance payments made up 30 per cent. Annual leave pay and notice pay were close to equal, at 9.9 per cent and 9.7 per cent respectively, and overtime accounted for the remaining 4 per cent.
Aslim Singh, the Chief Labour Officer, said security firms remained the main source of violations. He described the position as a continuation of a long-running pattern of default by companies in that sector. The ministry's earlier reporting supports the point. In its review of 2023, it said that a significant proportion of complaints came from private security employees, and that their share of all complaints had fallen from 27 per cent to 25 per cent after seminars and other outreach.
The current total is the highest in recent years. The ministry recovered GY$36.6 million in 2025 and GY$31.7 million in 2024. The 2023 figure, at GY$69 million, is the closest to this year's result. The ministry said in January 2025 that it had recovered more than GY$200 million in unpaid wages over the preceding four years.
Previous ministry statements have also set out how some employers have avoided liability. Joseph Hamilton, who held the labour portfolio at the time, said in January 2025 that certain security companies changed their business names from one year to the next, so that a firm accused of withholding wages in one year appeared under a different name in the next. He said this was done to evade conviction, and that the ministry had widened its complaint channels in response. These included a labour app that allows workers to report problems without lodging a formal complaint, which he said would help those who feared losing their jobs.
The 2023 review also recorded that some complaints proceed to court. The ministry filed 32 cases in the magistrate's court that year, which indicates that a minority of disputes are not settled through the department's conciliation process.
Griffith said the ministry prefers voluntary compliance by employers to regulatory intervention. The combination of complaint resolution and inspections reflects that position in practice, since inspectors visit workplaces before a complaint is made as well as after one is received. The seminar for oil and gas workers forms part of the same programme of information and education on conditions of work.
The sector is of particular interest to the ministry because of its growth. Oil and gas operations employ a workforce that includes contractors, and security services are among the functions commonly supplied under contract. Workers in that position depend on the compliance of the firms that hire them, which is where the ministry has recorded the most frequent failures.
The ministry has not said in the figures released so far how much of this year's total came from security firms, or how many of the 550 complaints involved that sector. It also has not stated how many of this year's cases required court action. Those details would indicate whether the rise in recoveries reflects more cooperative employers or a larger volume of enforcement.
