The Ministry of Labour and Social Security has examined and assessed 72 wholesale establishments in downtown, Kingston, as part of its investigations into breaches of employment regulations by wholesale operators.

The incidents of breaches came out of a recent case study conducted by a graduate student of the University of the West Indies.

According to a JIS release, chief technical director in the ministry, Faith Innerarity, says that the ministry has taken the findings of the case study "quite seriously", and has launched a special investigation into the matter.

"Whilst the findings are valid, one cannot make broad generalisations based on that small study," she pointed out. "Nonetheless, the ministry took the report quite seriously because it is our role to ensure that workers' rights are respected and protected, and we were quite concerned when we heard of the findings," Mrs. Innerarity said.

She noted however that the response by the Ministry is by no means reactive as it had conducted an investigation into some 42 wholesale establishments in February of this year, after the new minimum wage came into effect.

"In February, our Pay and Conditions of Employment Branch did some assessments with some 42 establishments downtown to ensure that the new minimum wage was being imple-mented and it was generally found that most of the establishments were in fact implementing the new minimum wage," she informed.

She noted further that, "After that study (which was done by the student) came to light, we deepened our investigations, so we did a special investigation that covered about 72 establishments and we looked speci-fically at a number of issues that were raised in the study that was done."

The inspectors looked at the new minimum wage, maternity leave, vacation pay, the required lunch break, overtime pay and other related matters. Mrs. Innerarity said that the ministry will continue its probe, which is being done in two phases. The first aspect focused on compensation, vacation and maternity leave. The other, which is currently in progress, is focusing on the health and conditions of employment for workers.