Boss fined $8,500 for not insuring workers

| 23/03/2015 | 4 Comments

(CNS Business): A local employer has been fined $8,500 for failing to pay the necessary health insurance for a worker. Caytech Electronics and its owner, Marcelo Franca, admitted the infraction and pleaded guilty to not insuring the staff member and his family for almost two years. On 10 March Magistrate Angelyn Hernandez imposed the fine, stating that employers know they are legally and morally responsible for health insurance fees.

Superintendent of Health Insurance Mervyn Conolly said the Health Insurance Commission is committed to enforcing the health insurance laws and regulations.

“With recent amendments to the Health Insurance Law, the fines that can be applied to such violations significantly increased from CI$5,000 to CI$30,000 on summary conviction and on conviction on indictment increased from CI$10,000 to $40,000,” he said. “I hope that the recent rulings by the acting magistrate will serve as a reminder to all employers that it is important to provide health insurance coverage for their employees.”

The case was brought to court by the Health Insurance Commission, which regulates any disputes regarding the provisions of health insurance in the Cayman Islands.

With significant numbers of employers failing to meet their obligations under the law to pay pensions, health insurance, and in some cases overtime, the authorities have come in for criticisms for what people see as a failure to enforce the relevant laws.

Convictions relating to workplace infractions are few and far between but last month a local construction company was ordered to pay compensation for outstanding medical bills after on-the-job injuries were sustained by an employee for whom there was no health insurance.

Wendel Wendel was ordered to pay $1,153.07 in compensation plus a $1,000 fine after he pleaded guilty to not providing a health insurance contract for just over a month, leaving the worker without cover when he was injured. The court also heard that Wendel didn’t have cover for himself either and was fined a further $500 for that infraction.

Tags: ,

Category: Insurance, Local Business, Uncategorized

Comments (4)

Trackback URL | Comments RSS Feed

  1. Anonymous says:

    Marcelo Franca, I am your friend for a long time. I know you’re a good hard worker and I know what happened since your baby born and the insurance didn’t accept your payment, because the baby born premature. I know you been chasing to get insurance for your family and business for about two years and get refused. Make sure everybody before get insurer, check the insurance company first. I have to say good luck to you and family and God Bless my friend.

  2. Anonymous says:

    I am confused? Are employers by law to provide insurance for employees and family? At the employer’s cost? Please clarify CNS

  3. Anonymous says:

    We only see it as a failure to enforce laws because of the absolute failure to enforce laws. Nice headline. What about the other 2,000 cases?

  4. Anonymous says:

    This is good news, I just hope it will actually be collected.

Leave a Reply to AnonymousCancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.