The Labour Ministry has launched an investigation into the recent dismissal of five employees of the Bauxite Company of Guyana Inc. (BCGI) and will also be probing the complaints about the insanitary conditions of the kitchen and the quality of meals prepared at the company’s Aroaima work station.
Labour Minister Manzoor Nadir told this newspaper yesterday that while neither the Guyana Bauxite and General Workers Union (GB&GWU) nor the workers had approached the ministry on the matter, the ministry has acted based on media reports. “What we have read gives us enough to act,” Nadir said.
Nadir said he has asked the Chief Labour Officer Yoganand Persaud to look into the matter. He said that the nature of the investigation would involve “reaching out” to the affected persons and visiting the site.
The five employees of BCGI, a subsidiary of the giant Russian bauxite company Rusal, were fired on Friday – four days after the company’s management investigated complaints by more than 50 workers about the state of the kitchen and the poor quality of meals prepared and found them to be legitimate. When the kitchen was scrutinized by a team comprising company executives and employees last Monday, it was discovered to be roach-infested and to have contained spoilt and expired food items.
This is the latest of a series of industrial disputes involving the BCGI and comes almost a year after the company fired 57 workers after union members engaged in strike action over increased wages. The company and the union have been in conciliation talks for over a year with the Chief Labour Officer. The BCGI had indicated its intention to have the GB&GWU derecognized as the official bargaining unit for its employees.
More recently the GB&GWU had applied to the Labour Ministry for arbitration with Oldendorff Carriers Guyana Inc after conciliation talks between the union and the company collapsed. Oldendorff Carriers Guyana Inc is the company which does the transshipment of bauxite for BCGI/Rusal at Aroaima, Berbice River.
When contacted yesterday the General Secretary of the Guyana Bauxite and General Workers Union (GB&GWU) Leslie Gonsalves said that the union will be sending a letter to the company today requesting a meeting with the entity. He suggested that should the company fail to respond, the union will ask the Labour Ministry to intervene. Gonsalves said that the Chief Labour Officer had called him yesterday requesting additional information on the issue.
The five workers who were dismissed, Stabroek News understands, were accused by the company’s management of encouraging the workers not to work, despite the assurance given by management that their concerns about the state of the kitchen would be addressed. However, the dismissed workers are claiming that they were discriminated against because of their affiliation with the GB&GWU.
One of the fired workers is Winsworth Blair, who is the 2nd Vice President of the GB&GWU. He told Stabroek News yesterday that he believes that he was fired because of his close connection with the union in addition to his outspokenness on several matters. According to him, this is the third time he has been dismissed from the company. On the two previous occasions, Blair said he was rehired after his colleagues protested.
This time, Blair was accused by management of “instigating the workers not to work”, a claim which he has found mind-boggling since he and the majority of the persons scheduled to work the evening shift that Monday turned up for work. He said that the four or five persons who did not turn up for work did so because of medical complications. According to him, when this was pointed out to the Personnel Officer who handed him the letter, she appeared surprised but did not resile from her position. He was given his leave pay and was told that if he wanted any other benefits he would have to go to the court.
Blair was one of five employees who highlighted the state of the kitchen to the Personnel Manager. However, only three of these five persons were dismissed by the company.
According to Blair, the insanitary state of the kitchen had been discussed at a meeting with management on August 11 and the company had promised to improve the condition of the kitchen. However, this was not done, Blair explained.
Blair, who has been employed with the company as a Heavy Equipment Operator since 2007, said that the quality of meals has been a problem for a long time. He said that whenever pressure was placed on the Head of the Catering Service, he would fire the supervisor of the kitchen. He said that when the Head of the Catering Service met with the workers and management last Wednesday, it was clear that the company did not want to sever the contract with the Catering Service.
Marcia Allicock, who was formerly tasked with managing the kitchen before being dismissed in May, told this newspaper recently that the practice of spoilt materials being used to prepare meals for the employees had been going on for some time.
She said that during the months she was in charge of the kitchen she wrote several reports each month to the Head of the Catering Service indicating the poor quality of food being sent to prepare for the workers. In May, she alleged that when she told the contractor that she would not be using expired and contaminated goods to prepare the workers, she was dismissed and replaced by another supervisor. This newly appointed supervisor was dismissed on Monday, after the conditions of the kitchen were investigated.
