SSNIT drags over 4,000 employers to court for defaulting payments

The Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) has revealed more than four thousand cases are pending in court against employers for various offenses as at June 2019.

According to SSNIT report, a total of 4,310 employers are currently in court for numerous offenses.

Speaking at a breakfast meeting in Accra, the Director General of SSNIT, Dr. John Ofori-Tenkorang gave an instance where employers in the private sector owed SSNIT GHc63.67 million as at the end of June this year.

He noted “As at the end of the first half of this year, we have about 4,310 criminal cases pending in court against employers for various offences including failure to register their establishments or the workers, failure to submit contribution reports or the employers records as required or refusal to pay worker’s contributions and associated penalties. ”

The Director-General assured employers at the meeting that management of SSNIT remains resolute on delivering on it mandates in the interest of workers and contributors.

“If we fail to collect these debts, it does not absolve us of our responsibility to and obligations to the worker,” Dr Ofori-Tenkorang noted.

He added SSNIT understood that businesses “go through hard times and hence the need to engage employers who might for one reason or the other delay in complying.”

“So, when employers default and we show up with that demand notice, there is a 30-day grace period within which you can pay up or negotiate mutually beneficial terms of settlement, ” he indicated.

He, however, noted that sometimes SSNIT is compelled to take legal action against recalcitrant employers because the law places an obligation on us to pay benefits to workers and or their dependents.