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by pltm
(PLTM) - It is time that government goes after those employers who are deducting monies from their employees pay cheque for National Health Insurance (NHI) and Social Security, but are not paying it into the agencies.
This is according to Hon. Melville ‘Mitch’ Turnbull, Second District Representative and Second District Representative.
“We have to find a way. If you are not contributing on behalf of your employees for NHI stop taking it out their pay cheque, if you not paying in social security, tax, stop taking it out. There are complains all over. People are going to Social Security to access, if they are pregnant or ill, they can’t get nothing because they are told that they are not up to date,” he lamented in the House of Assembly yesterday, July 2.
Hon. Turnbull, who was at the time speaking under the Medical Act 2019, said that the employees are left surprised as to what occurred.
"Look my (employee) slip it came out my cheque. NHI is the same thing. You killing a brand-new baby by allowing the habits of other systems and failing systems within departments to carry over tax,” Hon. Turnbull stated.
He pointed out that it is time the government seriously start collecting unpaid revenue which is in the millions.
Hon. Turnbull said that in some cases the employers who are not paying into these programmes are the ones who continue to get government contracts from the same government they owe.
“I am not talking about just investment, I am talking about us who live in this country, who operate businesses in this country, who have employees in this country that we deduct Social Security and NHI from their payroll, pay cheque and don’t pay it in and not a man ain’t going for collect it, but they continue to get contract from the same government,” he lamented.
The Opposition Member added, “when NHI came in one of the questions I asked is what is going to be penalties for non-compliance for both employer specifically and employees…I still don’t know. We can’t continue to develop systems and we are the ones enabling the breaking down of the same systems. We are our own enemies.”
Hon. Turnbull said that another practice is giving certain persons a break.
“Boy is so and so, give him a break, but when Jim or John come, if we don’t like Jim or John, we squeeze the life out his throat. We beating them till we get this money. How is that, is that how we plan to continue down the road? Or we going to say ain’t it start with me,” he stated.
Last month, Hon. Vincent Wheatley, Minister for Natural Resources, Labour and Immigration, with responsibility for Social Security Board (SSB) said that several employees maybe unable to access the Government's unemployment benefit package because their Social Security payments are not updated.
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