The strike at the power company has been called off after the union representing the majority of employees and management signed terms of resumption, which should also see discussions between the two on Friday.
One of the conditions of the agreement, a copy of which this newspaper has seen, was that the National Association of Agricultural, Commercial and Industrial Employees (NAACIE) call off the strike of its members as of today. Additionally, the parties will meet to discuss the restructuring of the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) Incorporated and the factors used in determining how the 43 retrenched workers were selected.
NAACIE and GPL have also agreed that wherever it is found that any worker was selected for retrenchment outside the agreed criteria, that worker will be reinstated.
The agreement also stipulated that the discussions commence within 48 hours of full resumption and be concluded within a month.
This follows intervention by the Ministry of Labour, which called a meeting with the two yesterday. Following that meeting, Chief Labour Officer Mohammed Akeel confirmed the details of the agreement and said the meeting was cordial and the two will hold further discussions.
NAACIE President Kenneth Joseph said that the meeting was cordial and noted that the union attempted to have the company’s management agree to putting the persons, who have already received termination letters, back on the job.
However, he said, the company did not want to take that risk and so the union was looking forward to discussing whether any of the 43 persons were wrongfully let go and if so, they would be reinstated.
Meanwhile, in a statement yesterday GPL said it was able to mobilise other members of staff and contracted agents to keep all power stations in Demerara, Berbice and Anna Regina in operation and to attend to emergencies in the various networks.
The workers who proceeded on strike action on Monday protested against what GPL says is the initial phase of its staff rationalisation and cost reduction programme. Some of the 43 employees being severed in this phase have already met officials of the company’s Human Resources Division to discuss their financial packages.
Joseph had said on Monday that he had learnt of union members being transferred to the soon-to-be-defunct Kingston power station, which he felt was unfair as it was only “preparing them to be knocked off”.
He subsequently learnt too that management was meeting workers and discussing payment for them, and so he wrote to the company and made his concerns known. He said the letter was copied to President Bharrat Jagdeo and Labour Minister Manzoor Nadir.
Last Friday, Joseph received a letter from management, which informed that as of yesterday it would begin to send off persons. This, the union felt, was in breach of the Severance Pay Act as even while letters informing staff of their termination were being issued, the company was hiring staff.
Joseph also accused GPL of attempting to weaken the labour movement.
