guest column:Emmanuel Zvada WAGE theft is no longer only a private sector phenomenon, but has extended to the public sector where many workers have mismatched salaries vis-à-vis efforts or being promised a pie in the sky in terms of wages. Millions of workers lose billions in stolen wages every year. Workers of all types can fall victim to wage theft, hence it’s a subject that needs to be unpacked. Wage theft covers a variety of infractions that occur when workers do not receive their legally or contractually promised wages. It normally happens if an employer doesn’t fully and honestly pay an employee for their labour. There is a huge gap between the cost of living and the cost of labour. The number of workers going for months without wages or with mismatched wages is on the rise, contributing to the disintegration of the families, higher rates of poverty and greater numbers of the working poor. The cost of living has gone up, the chances of living have gone down and the wages do not match the efforts due to minimum wage violations. What is wage theft? Wage theft refers to any activities, actions or practices that prevent workers from receiving their lawfully earned or contractually promised compensation. In other words, wage theft can mean the non-payment or underpayment of earned wages to employees by employers. Wage theft occurs in situations where workers do not receive minimum wages or overtime wages, failure to pay workers their final paycheck, misclassifying employees in terms of grading to avoid paying actual wages. When employers get away with wage theft, it creates an unfair advantage over honest employees, hence employee complaints and wage claims should be promptly and carefully attended to. The Labour Act Section 6 of the Labour Act speaks to the protection of employees’ right to fair labour standards, it states that: “No employer shall pay any employee a wage which is lower than that specified for such employee by law or by agreement made under this Act.” In Section 12, the Act goes on to obligate the employer to provide particulars of the employee’s remuneration, the manner of its calculation and the intervals at which it will be paid. Section 12A states that remuneration payable in money shall not be paid to an employee by way of promissory notes, vouchers, coupons or in any form other than legal tender. These provisions and sections of the Labour Act clearly spell out the obligation of the employer in terms of remuneration, how it should be paid. Failure to abide by the Act becomes an unfair labour standard in form of wage theft. Common forms of wage theft Paying below minimum wage: Minimum wage violations, in particular, are most prevalent in the industries that employ a lot of low-wage workers like service industries. Statutory Instrument (SI) 81 of 2020, which may be cited as the Labour Relations (Specification of Minimum Wages) (Amendment) Notice, 2020 (No 15), specifies a minimum wage. According to the SI, an employer cannot just decide not to pay employees minimum wages. It will be deemed wage