9 Oct 2003

PNG official says some companies flout law on training locals

5:00 pm on 9 October 2003

A Papua New Guinea government official says many companies are not complying with the law that they train locals.

Margaret Elias, the Secretary of the Labour and Industrial Relations Department, says they are targetting 400 companies.

She has told a National Development Forum that more than three thousand companies collectively have over twenty thousand work permits for foreign workers.

The Post Courier reports that Ms Elias was responding to calls for the Government to rethink its ban on work permits.

Ms Elias says the law requires that if a company employs non-PNG citizens then it must train locals.

She says the actions taken by the department do not mean that all applications for work permits will be put on hold.

Ms Elias told the forum that there was no blanket restriction on work permit approvals.