Over Half a Million Recovered from Unruly Employers

By: Hertha Ekandjo

The Ministry of Labour says it has recovered over half a million of workers’ unpaid wages from unruly employers during the second quarter of 2023.
This followed the resolutions of 1,082 labour complaints out of 2,048 labour cases handled by the Office of the Labour Commissioner which resorts under the ministry.
According to information provided by the Ministry, the second quarter of 2023 recorded 118 more labour cases compared to the previous quarter.
Despite the reported successful recovery of worker’s unpaid wages, the Ministry stated in a quarterly update issued this week that a number of challenges are still hindering the speedy resolution of labour cases.
This includes postponements by parties or arbitrators, ongoing negotiations, and arbitrators’ tight schedules due to the high volume of cases.
As a result, 979 or 48% of the cases reported during the second quarter are still pending.
This figure also includes cases which have been arbitrated (evidence already adduced), but the awards were not yet issued, cases which were conciliated, but not yet arbitrated and cases which were partly arbitrated.