This week in payroll - we cover information about:
Malaysian Government approval of amended Employment bill 2021 (and concerns among representatives and locals)
United States EEOC provided guidance on identifying and addressing caregiver discrimination in the workplace
Ghana's Ghost Payroll initiative aims to correct ghost payroll in Government systems by December 2022
Malaysia Payroll
Government Approved Amended Employment Bill 2021 Amid Concerns
Earlier in the week, the Malaysian Government approved the amended Employment Bill 2021. Touting 46 clauses, including 28 amendments, 10 new clauses and 6 repealed clauses; the bill has been highly criticized as being not enough to adequately address the issues that were present in previous revisions.
Klang MP Charles Santiago, sited that the bill will remove provisions that protect workers, including concise language to identify sexual harassment, protections for maternity without discrimination based on income, as well as reducing the number of workers that would even be covered by the Act based on recent income stats.
“The current amendments have also failed to identify grounds for discrimination unlike the initial proposal, which included comprehensive language and identified specific grounds such as gender, religion, race, disability, marital status, pregnancy, language, and age,” he said.
Santiago and many concerned citizens urge the government to re-evaluate the amendments, as they feel that in its current state, it is unaligned with the initial purpose of the bill.
US Payroll
Caregiver Discrimination Addressed in EEOC Guidance Article
The EEOC has recently provided guidance in addressing situations of suspected caregiver discrimination, protected under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and other EEOC-protected laws.
The guide addresses many COVID-19 related obstacles of discrimination, such as opting not to hire or promote female workers assuming family obligations, such as caring for children attending remote schooling; LGBTQIA+ employees to provide documentation on familial relationship that is not required of non-LGBTQIA+ employees; Harassment of pregnant employees who adhere to the social distance protocols; Denying male employees requests for flexible work to care for sick family and more.
Along with an outline, the EEOC provided videos to explain in full what caregiver discrimination, which can be found [HERE].
Ghana Payroll
December 2022 Goal in Elimination Government Ghost Employees
In 2020 the Auditor-General reported that the state has lost over Gh¢467.6 million through ghost names on the public sector payroll.
Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, estimated that the ghost employees will be eliminated by December 2022 under a new initiative.
Resources:
Malaysian Payroll
United States Payroll
Ghana Payroll