The PNCR says it remains unimpressed with the way the government is handling labour issues following last month’s laying off of 274 Barama workers with the closure of the company’s Land of Canaan operation.
“Completely appalled”, was the way PNCR leader Robert Corbin described the party’s feelings on the matter during a news conference at Congress Place on Friday.
“They have been encouraging private enterprise to behave irresponsibly so now they’re confronted with the Barama situation which shows that it is their failure to observe the law which gives companies the belief that they can do as they like and treat workers of Guyana anyhow,” Corbin stated.
The workers were made redundant following damage to a boiler at the company’s East Bank Demerara location in early October and at a meeting with them on No-vember 1 President Bharrat Jagdeo announced a three-month assistance package for the laid-off employees. The deal calls for workers to pursue computer training one day a week over the three months in exchange for a $25,000 monthly stipend over that period. Additionally, the labour ministry would work on finding jobs for them.
But on Friday Corbin criticised the offer saying the government was giving the workers “a handout” instead of seeing whether the company had followed procedures and practices. The government has said that it will be doing an independent investigation of the circumstances surrounding the Land of Canaan closure and has even threatened to revoke the company’s tax concessions if it does not restart plywood production at the location. The company has since indicated it will do so by June next year to meet local demand and hopes to be back in full operation by that year end.
Meanwhile, Corbin said the PNCR had a general dissatisfaction with the way labour matters were being handled and recalled the 2009 issue with the bauxite workers who were laid off from the Bauxite Company of Guyana Inc Aroaima plant, an issue which he said the PNCR will not let slide.
“On the 22nd of this month will be one year since the bauxite issue became a matter of national concern and to date the Ministry of Labour has failed to do anything responsible in dealing with that situation. What they’re trying to do now is dismember the union, they’re trying to call a poll to get the workers to hopefully say they no longer want the union,” Corbin charged.
According to him, the government had failed to resolve the outstanding issues with the recognised union at the time the dispute arose so they are now trying to get a new union in a move to have those issues “fall by the wayside.”
Referring once more to the assistance for Barama workers, Corbin said he was happy that they were getting some help but questioned why the bauxite workers had not received similar treatment from the administration, a move he described as “unconstitutional.”
“You have 57 workers dismissed for nearly a year; you have the law to deal with them, you refuse to use the law to deal with that situation and you have a company now finding an excuse to dismiss their workers and the government adopting an unusual measure to offer some relief to them rather than deal with crucial industrial relations issues … so they could set precedents for companies who want to utilise Guyanese workers.”
The PNCR leader said the party was “standing resolutely” beside the bauxite workers and indicated that he has written to the labour minister on the matter and some action will have to be taken by the time the first anniversary comes around.
The Aroaima workers were fired following an impasse between their union, the Guyana Bauxite and General Workers’ Union and the company while negotiations for improved wages were underway. This situation resulted in unionised workers taking industrial action, bringing the operations at the company to a complete standstill for a number of days.
As days went by, efforts at negotiation yielded no fruit and workers refused to return to work, resulting in the company suspending the services of some of the workers claiming that they had ceased work without permission.
This had put another issue on the agenda for negotiations but at this point the Russian-owned company refused to continue discussions with the union, saying it was not recognising the union because of an alleged breach of the recognition agreement.
The company then said that it had suffered great losses and could no longer carry the full workforce. Although most workers were still on strike, fifty of them were served letters indicating that the company no longer required their services.
