The Labour Ministry has intervened in the current dispute between the Guyana Post Office Corporation (GPOC) and the union representing the fired casual postal workers and has called representatives of both entities to conciliatory talks.

President of the Guyana Postal and Telecommunications Workers Union (GPTWU) Harold Shepherd said yesterday that the union has been invited by the Chief Labour Officer Yoganand Persaud to commence conciliation talks today with the management of the Post Office Corporation.  The meeting is set for 1:30 pm at the Labour Ministry. The move is a welcome one Shepherd said, since the union had written to Persaud on Monday seeking such an intervention.   According to Shepherd, there have been breaches of the Termination of Employment and Severance Pay Act on the Part of the Post Office’s management since the workers were fired without notifying the Ministry of Labour at least one month before.

The Guyana Post Office Corporation (GPOC) sacked over 130 casual workers last week in an attempt to regularize its employment system–a move that sparked protests by the ex-employees who deemed their dismissals unfair. The Corporation has defended its 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 said that the accurate number of vacancies will be determined and that the fired workers are free to apply if they so desire.

Yesterday, union members and the fired workers took their protest to the Office of the Ethnic Relations Commission (ERC) on Peter Rose Street, Queenstown where they called for the resignation of Edghill from the post of Chairman of the GPOC’s Board.   Edghill currently also serves as the Chairman of the ERC.

Explaining the choice of location of the protest, Shepherd said that having Edghill serve as Chairman of the ERC and the GPO represented “a conflict of interest”.  Shepherd said that as the ERC head, Edghill is supposed to be ensuring racial harmony. The union’s President however, accused the GPO chairman of engaging in discriminatory action against employees of the GPO by firing all the workers without notice. He called for Edghill to resign as the Chairman of the GPO Board.

According to Shepherd neither the union nor the workers were formally informed prior to the decision being taken to fire the workers.

Edghill said that prior to the workers being dismissed the union had been informed.  Shepherd said that while he is a Director on the GPOC board and was present when the decision was made, he is sworn to confidentiality since he could not divulge what came out of the meeting. He said that the union is a body run by an executive and a letter should have been sent to the General Secretary of the union by the Corporation’s management.  He said employees were only given letters informing them of their immediate dismissals at 4:00 pm on December 31.

Asked if he had objected to the decision being taken at the Board meeting, Shepherd answered in the affirmative and said he pointed out that such a move would have serious consequences.  Edghill, on Monday, said that the decision to fire the workers was taken after a full debate by the Board.

Shepherd said that if the Corporation wanted to reorganize this system it could have been done in a better manner. He said the Human Resources Department and the various managers could have developed a more efficient scheme rather than dismissing over 130 employees.  He also argued that the fact that there were so many casual staffers was totally the fault of the Corporation’s management since this matter was discussed before but the Corporation continued hiring persons.

Meanwhile, General Sec-retary of the union Eslyn Harris lambasted Edghill for his micromanaging of the Corporation and said he was “usurping the functions” of the GPOC’s management.  She also questioned why the decision was taken to terminate the staffers in order to hire new ones when the ex-workers have the basic entry requirements and the necessary skills gained from working in the field.

When it was raised that Edghill said that the fired workers could apply to fill the vacancies, Harris said that the ex-workers had applied before and would have had interviews with Post masters and the Human Resources Department before being hired.  She said based on this fact, the workers should not be made to repeat the process.