COMPANIES WILL soon be required to make redundancy payments to laid-off workers a priority when closing their doors for the last time, according to new companies legislation.
The proposal was highlighted during Friday's start of the debate in the Senate, on the Companies Act 2004.
The Bill, already passed in the House of Representatives, seeks to repeal and replace the current Companies Act.
During the debate, Leader of Government Business, Senator Burchell Whiteman, highlighted several provisions within the Bill which were reworked after failing to pass through the Senate in previous years.
DEBT PAYMENTS
Senator Whiteman, who was piloting the Bill, spoke to the formation of private companies and the removal of par value sharing, among other things.
But it was Government Senator Professor Trevor Munroe who pointed to the provision that raises the rank of redundancy payments in the scheme of debt payments from a business that is closing down.
"A major complaint of workers is that, very often, their redundancy payment either doesn't come or comes very late after everybody else," said Senator Munroe, president of the University and Allied Workers Union (UAWU).
He added: "Every conceivable creditor gets their money, and from what is left, the worker might get something way down the road, or sometimes nothing at all."
NEW LEGISLATION TO CURB PROBLEM
The new legislation would curb this problem, as it requires that redundancy payments under the Employment (Termination and Redundancy Payments) Act be put on the same level of urgency as taxes, wages and salaries, and all contributions due to the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) and the National Housing Trust (NHT).
Speaking to The Gleaner on Friday, island supervisor of the National Workers Union (NWU) Vincent Morrison said the provision was a step in the right direction, as anything to bring redundancy payments to a higher scale was a good move.
"We have some bad examples of workers not getting paid because they are ranked lower than bank loans (and other debts)," said Mr. Morrison. He noted that more than 60 workers laid off from one particular company in 1998 have yet to receive their redundancy payments.
