Dodoma — THE government has maintained that hospitality industries, especially hotel and tourism sectors should abide by existing labour laws and stop discriminating workers on salaries and other benefits.

Deputy Minister for Labour and Employment, Dr Makongoro Mahanga said here that the government is aware of some of the companies which violate laws and procedures governing the industry and that it will continue hunting them accordingly.

He was responding to a question by Mr Rashid Abdallah (Tumbe-CCM), who wanted to know the government's action on employers who violate the constitutional rights of workers in the hotel industry, paying them poorly, while they work for longer hours.

In his clarification, Dr Mahanga said last year, his ministry conducted over 2,100 inspections countrywide to verify the problem and found a number of employers deliberately working against normal procedures and two of them had already been arraigned.

"We conducted a survey on the matter and found out some snags in this area that involved a number of employers and one of them was fined 500,000/-. We urge all employers to stop such harassments at once, short of which the law should deal with them accordingly," he said.

However, the deputy minister urged the workers to be familiar with relevant laws and regulations, to enable them to take immediate action whenever they suspect violations.

He directed all employers to pay their workers as stipulated by the labour laws and that both employers and employees should always seek interventions of legal bodies like Trade Unions, the Commission for Mediation and Arbitration (CMA) and the High Court- Labour Division in case of any wrangles.