Employers owe FNPF $7.6 million

by Rejieli Kikau

Fiji Times - Monday, May 24, 2010

MORE than 100 employers owe $7.65million to the Fiji National Provident Fund for outstanding contributions, says FNPF chief executive officer Aisake Taito.

In an advertisement last Saturday, FNPF gave the employers 10 days to clear all outstanding FNPF contributions owed to their workers.

"This is another option explored by the fund to recover unpaid contributions from defaulting employers," he said.

"We're now asking them to do the right thing to their employees by complying with their statutory obligation as prescribed under the FNPF Act," he said.

He said the employers needed to pay FNPF contributions as these had been deducted off workers' wages and income.

Mr Taito said that was not the first time they were giving employers time to pay up their outstanding arrears to the fund.

"Once an employer has defaulted on payment, we send them reminder notices and our inspectors visit them," he said.

"If they still do not comply, we refer the matter to our enforcement team, who send them demand notices; non-failure to pay these contributions then leads to court action."

He said employers are also surcharged for failing to meet their payment deadline.

Mr Taito said the deadline for contribution deducted in one month, was set to the end of the next. (i.e contributions for April, would be paid before May 31).

He said in the last few weeks they have been publishing names of these employers in the newspapers asking them to pay outstanding contributions.

"The names of these defaulting employers will be forwarded to the Director of Immigration for further action. Specifically, the Immigration Department will also extend the reminder notices to these employers when they try to leave our shores.," he said.

He said the advertisement therefore served as a reminder to these employers to pay-up or make necessary payment arrangement before they intend to travel overseas.

It is believed employers who did not pay up their arrears on time could be placed on a travel ban.