President’s Welcome to 2021
I am pleased to welcome everyone to a New Year 2021. After a short hiatus we bring to you the first issue of the EFPNG
Bulletin for 2021.
The PNG economy remains sluggish attributed mostly to the Covid-19 Pandemic. However, with a number of new
resource projects being negotiated by the state, there is some optimism that the economy will pick up as the year
progresses. Businesses have had to deal with the effects of the Covid19 Pandemic that saw the reduction in the PNG
private sector workforce further shrinking a comparatively small formal sector workforce.
In this context, assisting our members in reorganizing their workforce and rearranging their workplaces to adapt to the
effects of COVID19 on businesses has been a learning curve for everyone. Nevertheless, we had the pleasure of assisting
our members to stay within the parameters of the law, while on the other hand maintaining harmonious relations with the
organized sectors of the PNG workforce. Hopefully, these learnt experiences are captured in government policy and law
going forward so that a new normal in work practices is established in case of emergencies such as Covid19.
In 2020, the Employers Federation successfully resolved a number of individual members’ industrial matters at the
Department of Labour and Industrial Relations, including the successful negotiation and signing of an Industrial Agreement
in the Maritime Industry. As one of our main functions, the Federation is and will continue to assist and advocate for our
members where there is disagreement between workers and employers at the respective stages of the industrial dispute
resolution process.
There are numerous Acts and Regulations currently under review, some of which have been drafted numerous times
without being finalized such as the Employment Act., and others include the Worker Compensation Act., the
Occupational Health & Safety Bill., revision of the Reserved Activities List and Employment Classifications under Work
Permit guidelines, and more recently the Income Tax Act. re-write of which we made a submission to Treasury.
The Employers Federation of Papua New Guinea is highly engaged with government on all these issues, and whilst we
agree a reform of most of these Acts is well and truly overdue, the EFPNG’s mandate is to ensure that our members
interest as private sector employers in PNG are properly considered with all proposed legislative changes.
Over the course of this year, the EFPNG will continue our focus on enhancing and developing our relationship with the
DLIR through the Secretary, to continue address a myriad of topics including long term capacity building to address
employment shortfalls, collaboration in terms of the review of outdated legislation, updating of the Good Corporate
Citizen category, amongst others already mentioned.
A new EFPNG website will also be launched shortly which will provide members with access to a resource centre where
they will be able to find and download copies of the various Acts & legislation, and handy templates for Employment
Contracts, policy templates covering things like Business Conduct, Drug & Alcohol, OH&S, etc. There will also be a FAQ
section covering numerous employment issues that we have members frequently seeking assistance and guidance on.
On a concluding note, the Ministry of Labour and Industrial Relations now has a new Minister in Hon. Tomait Kapili, MP,
Member for Lagaip-Porgera, and we hope to establish closer working relations with the new Minister to further the interest
of employers.
David Doig
President
New Minister for Labour & Industrial Relations
The Ministry of Labour and Industrial Relations now has a new Minister. He is Hon. Tomait Kapili, Member for Lagaip-Porgera. The Employers’ Federation witnessed a Handover Takeover Ceremony between the outgoing Minister and new Minister on 14 January 2021 at the Minister’s Office on Level 3, Gaukara Rumana Building, Gordons. Minister Kapili promised to pick up on some of the work the outgoing Minister had started including work on Legislative review.
The Employers’ Federation through Executive Director Florence Willie expressed its concern over the implementation of the New Work Permit Fees which came into effect on 01 January 2021. Ms Willie asked the new Minister to intervene to have the fees reviewed and allow the views of the private sector to be accommodated. She stated that the private sector view that, there should not be any increase in fees at this time of the state of economy, should be seriously considered because businesses are already under pressure from the effects of a Covid19 induced economic downturn. Any further pressure would hurt businesses resulting in consequential loss of jobs and this is not what Papua New Guineans needed now.
Ms Willie further encouraged the Minster to get at least one legislative review, among the many, passed in parliament during his term in office and leave a legacy for himself. She assured the employers’ support in progressing the work of the government in the Labour and Industrial Relations space.
New Website for EFPNG
We are excited to inform that the Employers’ Federation will soon have a new website going live in the coming weeks. Members will be able to log in to a member’s section and download various Acts and Regulations, copies of government policy documents, various templates for company HR policies, employment contracts, workplace health and safety policy templates, workplace Codes of Conduct Templates, and etc.
There will also be a section for “Frequently Asked Questions” containing issues that are frequently encountered by employers and the respective answers provided to members.
Members will be informed of the website’s launch date through a Circular Notice.
Tentative Announcement of 2021 AGM
The Federation’s tentative Annual General Meeting date for this year is Wednesday 05th May 2021. A more comprehensive program containing the dates for the calling of nominations for the election of office bearers of the Executive Committee will be announced soon. More updates will be provided when the dates are confirmed in the coming weeks.
Public Holiday Updates 2021
For your information and noting, following are the upcoming 2021 Public Holidays for Papua New Guinea as published in the National Gazette (Numbers G583 dated 7th Sep 2020 and G642 dated 25th Sep 2020).
Good Friday – Friday 02 April 2021
Easter Saturday – Saturday 03 April 2021
Easter Sunday – Sunday 04 April 2021
Easter Monday – Monday 05 April 2021
Queen’s Birthday – Monday 07 June 2021
National Remembrance Day – Friday 23 July 2021
National Repentance Day – Thursday 26 August 2021
Independence Day – Thursday 16 September 2021
Christmas Day – Saturday 25 December 2021
Boxing Day* – Sunday 26 December 2021
*When a Public Holiday falls on a Sunday, the next Monday is declared a Public Holiday unless declared otherwise. In the case of the 2021 Boxing Day Public Holiday which falls on a Sunday, no changes have been declared. We have written to the National Executive Council (NEC) requesting clarification on the matter, but we have yet to receive a response. Once we get feedback, we will inform the membership accordingly.