– want fired, suspended colleagues reinstated
Permanent employees of Bosai Minerals Guyana Inc at Linden resorted to industrial action yesterday calling for a review of the snack allowance and the reinstating of workers who were fired, suspended and given warning letters.
A large section of the workforce, mainly from the mines and bauxite plant, converged at the north entrance of bauxite plant. They bore placards which read, “Stop the victimization – Peter Benny want to treat you like a junkie and work you like a donkey”, “MAMMY wuk we like junkie just fuh 2 survival crackers”, “Peter Benny don’t want to give basic rights to workers” among other slogans.
According to representative of the National Associa-tion of Agricultural, Commer-cial and Industrial Employees (NAACIE), Hillary Bobb, workers were forced to work for ten and twelve hours, contrary to their labour agreement, which requires them to work eight-hour shifts. He said that the strike action was called when two employees were fired and others suspended and issued warning letters because they went home after a regular eight-hour shift. He said the workers went home because they were dissatisfied with the biscuits, which they are given when they work the extra hours.
Bobb said that reasons for firing the two employees were not justifiable. “In the dismissal letter, they [Bosai] said that the worker shut down the kiln in an inappropriate manner,” Bobb said. “This was not true because the guy handed over to his supervisor who worked the extra hours.”
According to Bobb, union representatives had an audience with the Bosai’s management. “At that meeting, [Personnel and Industrial Relations Superintendent Peter] Benny wanted the union to acknowledge that we did not follow the procedure with regard to these workers walking off the job.” This he said was not true.
On September 23, he said, NAACIE General-Secretary Kenneth Joseph had called Benny informing him that he had learnt that the workers had planned an industrial action and that the union was in full support of the action. It was after this endorsement, Bobb said, that the employees were fired, suspended and issued warning letters, which was a contradiction to labour laws.
In a telephone interview with this newspaper, Benny said Bosai never forced workers to work extra hours. He explained that a year ago when the company was changing ownership the idea of a 12-hour shift was tabled. This, he said, was communicated to the Ministry of Labour, which said that the labour laws did not cater for same.
However, he said, the idea was discussed with the workers’ union and further with the workers themselves and there was an agreement for the workers to go ahead with the extra hours, for which they would be provided with a snack only for the first month. “We are not obligated to providing meals for scheduled overtime given that workers would have been given prior notice and would have had the responsibility of walking with their meals,” Benny said.
He admitted that the issue was frequently raised at various levels.
He said that following a meeting with the workers’ representative on Saturday last it was understood that management would review the issue of the extra working hours and snack/meals allowances. Nonetheless, it was clear that the workers were going ahead with their industrial action yesterday, he added.
Benny said that following yesterday’s action, management had put systems in place to keep the operation going. In the meantime, the company’s management will be meeting with the Ministry of Labour shortly to iron out the issue.
The workers said that they would remain on strike today. (Cathy Wilson)
