The Ministry of Employment, Productivity and Industrial Relations is investigating claims made by employees of Pioneer Security Services about pending wages.

This was confirmed by Assistant Minister Alvick Maharaj, who said a team was investigating the matter.

The Labour Department had also confirmed receiving complaints from the workers and said a team was working on it.

Meanwhile, former employee Basilio Nanukumate expressed his disappointment over comments made by his former employer, chief executive officer for Pioneer Security Services, Rodney Nand, in yesterday’s Fiji Sun.

Mr Nanukumate said the comments were “all lies”.

“They still owe me more than $300 as my pending salary and they owe other employees too,” he said.

He claimed he was verbally terminated on February 9, 2019, without any explanation or reason at all.

“I was working from the National Training and Productivity Centre (NTPC) in Narere and I was asked to move to Laqere market, I did not agree with them and told them to take me back to NTPC where I was told to pack my things and leave.

“If they can’t pay their workers, might as well close the company,” he said.

Meanwhile, Mr Nand said that Mr Nanukumate was not terminated, but was advised to go home and rest and present himself for a discussion on his behaviour.

“Instead he opted to go to the Labour Department,” he said.

Mr Nand said the matter had been referred to the mediation service pending results.

“Mr Nanukumate needs to understand he hasn’t raised any of these grievances directly with the company formally and there is a pending mediation for his particular case,” he said.

“Any claims or discussion outside the approved Labour Department process at the moment cannot be handled.”

Meanwhile, a current employee who chose to remain anonymous said Mr Nand claimed that workers were giving incorrect FNPF details and over-claiming working hours.

“At times, we would be short of staff or a staff member was absent and there would be no replacement. He would tell us to fill in their names on the record book, even though they are not there,” the employee alleged.

“Now that the clients have found out, he’s putting the blame on us for over-claiming hours, even though the directive was from him.”

Mr Nand said there was substantial evidence from clients on the overclaiming of working hours.

Edited by Epineri Vula

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