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Seychelles - Minimum Wages - 2011


LAST UPDATE

6 December 2011

SOURCES


Name of Act

Employment Act 1995, Act 2 of 1995, incorporating amendments up to Act 4 of 2006. Published by the Employment Department of the Ministry of Education, Employment and Human Resources at http://www.employment.gov.sc/docs/acts/EMPLOYMENT_ACT_Electronic.pdf and accessed 5 December 2011.

Name of Act

Conditions of Employment Regulations 1991, Statutory Instrument 34 of 1991, incorporating amendments up to Statutory Instrument 9 of 2006. Published by the Employment Department of the Ministry of Education, Employment and Human Resources at http://www.employment.gov.sc/docs/acts/Employment_Act_Reg_Electronic_1991.pdf and accessed 5 December 2011.

See further amendment made by Employment (Conditions of Employment) (Amendment) Regulations 2007, Statutory Instrument 49 of 2007, attached separately.

Name of Act

Employment Act (Exemption) Order 2000, Statutory Instrument 4 of 2000, made 30 December 1999 and published in the Supplement to Official Gazette dated 4 January 2000. Published by the Employment Department of the Ministry of Education, Employment and Human Resources at http://www.employment.gov.sc/index.php?option=com_filecabinet&view=files&id=4&Itemid=75 and accessed 5 December 2011.

Name of Act

Employment (National Minimum Wage) Regulations 2007, Statutory Instrument 55 of 2007 dated 31 December 2007 as amended by:
(a) Employment (National Minimum Wage) (Amendment) Regulations 2008, Statutory Instrument 90 of 2008 made 3 November 2008;
(b) Employment (National Minimum Wage) (Amendment) Regulations 2010, Statutory Instrument 11 of 2010 made 12 January 2010;
(c) Employment (National Minimum Wage) (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 2010, Statutory Instrument 28 of 2010 made 1 April 2010;
(d) Employment (National Minimum Wage) (Amendment) (No. 3) Regulations 2010, Statutory Instrument 45 of 2010 made 1 July 2010.

See also Employment (National Minimum Wage) (Exemption) Order 2010, Statutory Instrument 10 of 2010 made 12 January 2010, repealing the Employment (National Minimum Wage) (Exemption) Order 2008 (SI 6 of 2008) with effect from 1 July 2010.

Published by the Employment Department of the Ministry of Education, Employment and Human Resources at http://www.employment.gov.sc/index.php?option=com_filecabinet&view=files&id=4&Itemid=75 and by the Seychelles Revenue Commission at http://www.src.gov.sc/pages/resources/si.aspx, both accessed 5 and 6 December 2011.

Name of Act

Employment (Wage Increase) Regulations 2010, Statutory Instrument 46 of 2010 made 1 July 2010, as amended by the Employment (Wage Increase) (Amendment) Regulations, Statutory Instrument 100 of 2010 made 31 December 2010. Published by the Seychelles Revenue Commission at http://www.src.gov.sc/pages/resources/si.aspx and accessed 5 and 6 December 2011.

LEGAL DEFINITIONS


Employee/worker

Worker means a person of the age 15 years and above in employment in Seychelles, or on a Seychelles ship or aircraft, or employed in Seychelles for service in an agency of the Government or diplomatic mission of Seychelles abroad, and a trainee.

Persons following into any of the following categories are deemed trainees for the purposes of the Employment Act 1995:
(a) persons employed as trainees on an employer’s training scheme in respect of the whole period of their training;
(b) untrained workers in occupations for which a training course is readily available until they have completed their training;
(c) participants in apprenticeship schemes.
Employment Act 1995 §§2, 27

Employer

Employer means a person having a worker in the employ of that person or, where that person is absent from Seychelles, the accredited representative in Seychelles of that person, and, other than in Part III of the Employment Act 1995, means also the manager, agent or other responsible person acting on behalf of the employer.
Employment Act 1995 §2

Wage

For the purposes of the Employment Act, wages means the remuneration or earnings, however calculated, expressed in terms of money payable to a worker in respect to work done under the contract of employment of the worker but does not include payment for overtime work or other incidental purposes.

For the purposes of the Employment (National Minimum Wage) Regulations, wage means the payment made for work done by an employee as provided by law or in terms of an agreement but not lower than the amount prescribed by law.
Employment Act 1995 §2
Employment (National Minimum Wage) Regulations 2007 as amended by SI 28 of 2010

Minimum wage

National minimum wage means the national minimum wage prescribed under section 40(2) of the Employment Act 1995.

Mandatory wage or mandatory allowance means the statutory mandatory wage or mandatory allowance, supplemented by an increment earned, prescribed in respect to the work, activity, or occupation in which a worker is engaged.
Employment Act 1995 §2

MINIMUM WAGE FIXING


Procedure


Government decides after consultation of the social partners

The Minister may, after consultation with the Unions, the employer’s organisations and such other representatives of workers of any category who are not members of any Union whom the Minister considers it fit to consult, make regulations prescribing the statutory wages to be paid to workers by employers.

The regulations prescribing statutory wages may:
(a) prescribe a national minimum wage for workers, other than trainees, and mandatory wages in respect of such workers or category of such workers or in relation to any business;
(b) provide for increments and the conditions under which they may be awarded or withheld;
(c) prescribe allowances for trainees;
(d) authorise benefits or advantages provided by the employer which may be reckoned as payment of wages by the employer in lieu of payment in cash and define the maximum value to be attached to them;
(e) provide for any other matter in respect of wages.

The Minister may further, by regulations, prescribe the manner of computing wages either generally or in respect of any class of category of workers.

At the time of writing, these powers were exercised by the Minister by way of:
(i) amendments to the Employment (National Minimum Wage) Regulations 2007, which set the national minimum wage for all workers covered by the Employment Act except trainees; and
(ii) the Employment (Wage Increase) Regulations 2010, which prescribe mandatory increases to the gross wages of every worker who was in employment as at 30 June 2010.
Employment Act 1995 §§40(1), 40(2), 41(3)
Employment (National Minimum Wage) Regulations 2007 as amended
Employment (Wage Increase) Regulations 2010 as amended

Criteria


Other provisions

No provisions imposing criteria for considation when setting the national minimum wage identified.

Coverage


Scope

The minimum wage provisions of the Employment Act apply generally throughout Seychelles to public, private and domestic sectors.
Employment Act 1995 §§4, 40(2)(a)
Employment Act (Exemption) Order 2000 Schedule
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Excluded categories


» Workers

Non-Seychellois workers employed in Seychelles under an international agreement between Seychelles and another country are not covered by the Employment Act 1995.

Trainees are excluded from the national minimum wage rate, but are to be paid allowance rates instead in accordance with regulations 47 and 48 of the Conditions of Employment Regulations.
Employment Act 1995 §§4, 30, 40(2)
Employment Act (Exemption) Order 2000 Schedule
Employment (National Minimum Wage) Regulations 2007 as amended §2
Conditions of Employment Regulations 1991 §§47, 48

» Sectors

Members of the Seychelles Peoples Defence Force, members of the Seychelles Police Force and Prison Officers are excluded from the scope of the Employment Act.
Employment Act 1995 §4(2)
Employment Act (Exemption) Order 2000 Schedule

Specific minimum wage rates


» Minimum wage levels for specific categories of workers


» Trainees

The Employment Act provides that a trainee shall be entitled to such allowances as the Minister may, by regulations, prescribe. The Conditions of Employment Regulations set three different means of calculating trainee allowance rates.

The first is an allowance equivalent:
(a) in the 1st year of training (if a 2 year program), to 70% of the salary payable to a worker engaged in the work for which the training is being undertaken;
(b) in the 2nd year of training (or in the 1st year if a 1 year program), to 80% of the salary payable to a worker referred to in paragraph (a).

The second applies only where the allowance is payable to trainees who work while completing external training programs and, when calculated in accordance with the first method, is less than the national minimum wage. In such cases, the allowance payable shall be equivalent:
(i) in the 1st year of training, to the national minimum wage; and
(ii) in the 2nd year of training, to that wage increase to the increment payable to a worker engaged in the work for which the training is being undertaken.

The third allowance rate is expressed as payable to trainees referred to in section 27 of the Employment Act (see Remarks below), being:
(a) R1100 per month in respect of the first year of training; and
(b) R1300 per month in respect of any subsequent year of training.
Employment Act 1995 §§27, 30
Conditions of Employment Regulations 1991 §§47, 48(1)
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» Domestic Workers

Domestic workers are covered by the national minimum wage, according to the type of contract under which domestic worker is engaged (i.e. continuous, fixed-term, part-time or continuous).

Further, domestic workers (as defined by the Income and Non-Mandatory Benefits Tax Act 2010) were entitled to a monthly increase of R50 from 1 July 2010, on top of the gross wage the domestic worker received on 30 June 2010.
Employment (National Minimum Wage) Regulations 2007 as amended §3
Employment (Wage Increase) Regulations 2010 as amended §3(1)(a)
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» Piece-rate workers

Wages may be calculated on a task or a piece work basis wherever the Minister is satisfied that such calculation will encourage productivity, but where wages are so calculated, the worker shall not receive less than the national minimum wage.
Employment Act 1995 §41(2)

Level


Minimum wage level(s) in national currency

An employer shall pay a national minimum wage of R19.80 for every hour of service by:
(a) a worker under a contract of continuous service;
(b) a worker under a contract for a fixed term; and
(c) a part-time worker.

Casual workers shall be paid a national minimum wage of R22.80 for every hour of service.
Employment (National Minimum Wage) Regulations 2007 as amended §3(1), (2) (as amended up to SI 45 of 2010)

Last minimum wage update

1 July 2010
Employment (National Minimum Wage) Regulations 2007 as amended by SI 45 of 2010

In-kind allowances

Wages are payable to the worker in the currency of the country where payment is made:
(a) in cash at or near the place of employment; or
(b) by cheque or bank transfer but with the worker’s consent where the wages are less than R.2000 a month or such other monthly sum as may be prescribed.

Where a maximum sum to represent food or housing or both food and housing has been prescribed and the worker’s wages exceed the national minimum wage, the employer may deduct from the worker’s wages, in payment therefore, the least of:
(a) the maximum sum prescribed;
(b) the actual cost of the food or housing or of both food and housing; or
(c) the difference between the worker’s wages and the national minimum wage.

Where no sum has been prescribed, no deduction from the worker’s wages is allowed in respect of food or housing or both food and housing except with the written approval of the competent officer.
Employment Act 1995 §§32, 33(1), 42
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Rate of payment


» Monthly

Wages payable in cash are payable at regular intervals as agreed between employer and worker but not less than once a month and not later than the fifth day following the date on which they fall due.
Employment Act 1995 §32(2)

Scheduled frequency of adjustment

No provisions imposing a scheduled frequency of adjustment identified.

Enforcement mechanisms


Labour inspection

Labour inspection is to be carried out by competent officers, who shall be authorised by the Minister and whose powers shall include:
(a) entering any office or work place or site at any time, making any necessary examinations or inquiries, and taking extracts from, making copies of or removing any books, records or other documents;
(b) interrogating any employer or worker on any matter concerning the application of the Employment Act;
(c) requiring the employer to produce for examination, copying or taking extracts from any register, record, return or other document prescribed by or under the Act;
(d) requiring an employer to make any worker available for interrogation;
(e) giving any directions or advice necessary to ensure compliance with the Act.

Employers, other than those who solely employ part-time, casual or domestic workers, shall keep a record of the wages due to each of the workers in the employment of the employer, of the deductions made therefrom and of the amounts actually paid. The record shall be kept at the place of employment and shall be available for inspection by the competent officer.

All employers shall keep a record of the payment together with evidence of receipt of payment by the worker.
Employment Act 1995 §§35, 36, 74, 75

Fines in national currency for non-respect of legislation

Non-compliance with any provisions of the Employment Act relating to the national minimum wage and payment of wages generally is punishable by a fine of up to R.20,000, with a mandatory daily penalty of R.400 for further offences following conviction. Where an offence relates to or affects more than one worker, the fines and mandatory daily penalty imposable under the preceding provisions of this section may be imposed in respect of each worker.

Non-compliance with regulation 3 of the Employment (National Minimum Wage) Regulations 2007, which sets the minimum wage rate, is liable on conviction to a fine of not less than R.1,000 and not more than R.10,000, with a mandatory daily penalty of R.200 for further offences following conviction.
Employment Act 1995 §§76, 77
Employment (National Minimum Wage) Regulations 2007 as amended §5

Other penalties

No other penalty provisions identified.

Results generated on: 28th March 2024 at 17:24:37.
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