With the increasing number of recruitment agencies in Guyana, the Ministry of Labor (MoL) is intensifying its oversight of them, beginning with the creation of a register.
During his address on Thursday at the launch of the MoL of the Occupational, Safety and Health Month, Labor Minister Joseph Hamilton recruited
Despite several recruitment agencies operating in Guyana for several years now, Hamilton said, to the best of his knowledge, none are registered with the CRMA. Hamilton believes this has resulted from a greater lack of information for the agencies rather than a deliberate violation of the law.
“I would want to believe his ignorance on behalf of the agencies, so we have to take risks and try to engage with them and regulate their operations. I need to know what each recruitment agency is involved with, how many people they plan to engage with and we need to get that information, ”the minister explained.
In existence for some 76 years, the CRMA is a publicly managed recruitment agency which comes under the authority of the MoL.
Recruitment or employment agencies have grown over the past few years as oil was discovered in Guyana.
Recruitment and employment agencies are a middle man between employers and employees. They work directly with the companies to find shortlisted candidates and fill them to fill vacancies with the company.
Hamilton said the ministry will reach out to oil companies such as ExxonMobil to assist in locating the recruitment and employment agencies so the ministry can work with them to ensure they comply with local laws. Labor in Guyana is regulated under the Guyana Laws Chapter 98, including the Labor Act Chapter 98:01, the Employment Exchange Act Chapter 98:05, and the Workers Recruitment Act Chapter 98:06. “I have to be able to gather whether everything they do complies with Guyana’s labor laws. All that information we will have to get in the next few weeks so that we can get a register of all these agencies that are operating in Guyana, ”he noted. Hamilton shared that the ministry had already met with some recruiting agencies who did not properly understand provisions in the laws. He identified a case where overtime was not being calculated correctly. “We hired at least one other agency and company who had their own confusion about what the law is and what isn’t,” explained Hamilton. Hamilton also highlighted that Guyana’s right legislation is not sufficient to cover the needs of the country’s changing landscape and the ministry is currently embarking on a review of labor laws. Better oversight of the recruitment agencies is part of the Government’s better overall oversight of labor-related areas across the country, starting with the return of the Labor Administration, after it was made a department of the Coalition Government. Over the past few months, the ministry has been embarking on a campaign to build capacity and improve monitoring.