A bill has been submitted to the People's Majlis proposing amendments to the Employment Act. These amendments aim to cease the practice of resorts paying service charges to employees in Maldivian Rufiyaa (MVR) and instead mandate that these payments be made in the original currency in which the service charge was collected.

The bill was submitted to the Parliament by Mauroof Zakir, the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) member for the Kendoo constituency.

The proposed amendment, to Article 52 of the Employment Act, stipulates that service charge funds must not be converted into Maldivian Rufiyaa when disbursed to employees.

If this amendment is passed into law, service charge payments to employees will be mandatory in the currency in which they were originally received by the establishment. The bill explicitly outlines this requirement.

Furthermore, the bill also proposes that service charges should be extended to employees working for outsourced services within resorts, guesthouses, and hotels, ensuring they also receive these payments.

Currently, there is no legal provision mandating service charges for outsourced services. Moreover, under the present regulations, these employees are not paid their salaries directly by the resorts.

According to the bill, if an employee involved in outsourced services within a tourist facility directly provides services to tourists, that employee must also receive service charges.

The reason cited in the bill for its submission is that despite the law stipulating that service charges collected by establishments in the tourism industry should be distributed among employees, the current practice of converting these funds to Maldivian Rufiyaa before distribution hinders employees from fully benefiting.

Therefore, the bill states that its objective is to ensure employees receive their full entitlement of service charges.