The Guyana Post Office Corporation (GPOC) has sacked over 130 casual workers to regularise its employment system–a move that sparked a protest yesterday by the ex-employees who deemed their dismissals unfair.
The GPOC defended the decision, stating that it is faced with a $35 million wage bill, which is $10 million more than its current budget. Chairman of the GPOC’s Board of Directors Bishop Juan Edghill, at a press conference yesterday, explained that the decision to dismiss the workers was taken last week after a “full debate” at a statutory board meeting.
According to him, the decision was made to terminate the services of all casual workers with effect from December 31. He said that the Guyana Postal and Telecommunication Workers Union (GPTWU) as well as workers in the different areas had been informed of the decision by the board. However, representatives of the union are staunchly denying that they were aware of this move and have questioned the timing of the dismissals.
Edghill criticised the protest action by the sacked workers, in front of the corporation’s headquarters in the city, as “political” and he said that if there were an industrial issue, under the Collective Labour Agreement (CLA) the union is expected to raise the matter with the corporation beforehand.
This was not done, Edghill contended.
According to him, data provided by the Human Resources Department of the organisation, shows that as of December 29, the corporation had close to 130 casual staff in its employ. In November, 141 casual employees were paid, Edghill said, while pointing out that the Human Resources Department only has a record of 118 such employees.
Edghill said that casual employees are workers who are taken on the job temporarily, in cases where there is excess work or if other employees are on leave or absent, to ensure that operations run smoothly. He explained that what has been happening is that casual workers continued to be employed, even when the permanent employees return. He also pointed out that some casuals are even performing duties associated with higher positions.
He said often this is a case where post offices continue to hire casual staffers just to ensure that the workers earn a salary at the end of the month. He said the casuals are employed by Post Masters in the various areas and not by the central recruiting system. “The Post Office is not a charity, we’re a business,” Edghill stressed.
The chairman stressed that this was not a retrenchment exercise and was just to regulate the system. He also said that $35 million wage bill prevented the corporation from paying employees their six per cent increase for last year.
Meanwhile, according to Edghill, the management of the corporation has been tasked with the responsibility of accurately determining the number of vacancies and filling these vacancies with competentm qualified people.
The decision to terminate the services of all casual workers instead of some, Edghill explained was to eliminate any appearance of discrimination and victimisation. He stressed that all casuals who have been laid off are eligible to fill any of the vacancies that exist in the corporation.
He said that the process of hiring persons to fill these vacancies should begin by tomorrow. Once approved, Edghill explained, these workers will have to be trained and have to write a test before being assigned jobs. He was optimistic that by this weekend the potential employees would be able to take the tests.
Edghill, meanwhile, stressed that the displacement of these workers will not hinder the work the regular services offered by Post Offices.
