A team of senior RUSAL officials is in Guyana to investigate a complaint by the Guyana Trades Union Congress (GTUC) on behalf of Aroaima workers against the General Manager of Operations of the local subsidiary and will meet the Labour Ministry and the union on Friday.
The Ministry of Labour will convene the meeting, which will take place at the Aroaima worksite, this newspaper was told.
Stabroek News was told that the team has arrived and is currently at the Aroaima worksite. The team was to meet workers yesterday afternoon but this meeting was cancelled, a source told this newspaper.
The Guyana Trades Union Congress (GTUC) on Friday called on the RUSAL-subsidiary Bauxite Company of Guyana Inc (BCGI) and the government to sanction Ruslan Volokhov after he allegedly threatened employees with a spade in his hand. Over the weekend, the company announced that a committee consisting of senior managers of the International Alumina Division has been appointed to investigate the matter. Volokhov has proceeded on leave to enable the probe, the company said.
Prime Minister Sam Hinds, who has responsibility for mining, in a press statement said he welcomes the company’s decisions.
According to a release from the GTUC, the workers lodged a complaint that two Sundays ago that the company official threatened them with physical violence. The threat, the release said, “was made to the workers when they were in the company’s bus at the camp site.” According to the workers, the threat was sparked by their inability to attend work on time on Sunday, since there was no water to shower because the pump at the site was cut off, owing to some problem. The water returned at 9 am on Sunday.
One source told this newspaper that following the incident, letters were issued by the company’s management to about 20 employees. This newspaper was told that on Sunday, the management wrote to the workers apologising to them and saying that the warning letters would be withdrawn. Efforts were made to retrieve the warning letters issued to the workers too, the source said. The General Manager, the source said, has not been seen at the worksite since last week Monday or Tuesday. According to the source, this was not the first time that Volokhov had threatened workers.
The GTUC said that it was “very disturbed by this new development and threat to the workers of this country” and it called on BCGI “to sanction [the official’s] actions, and call on the Government of Guyana to sanction BCGI to protect the rights of Guyanese labour.”
In another release issued yesterday, the GTUC said that the “the resolution to this matter has to adhere to universal industrial principles”. According to the union, “Words coming from the site are that persons are dropping subtle hints to workers that should they speak out of turn when the RUSAL delegation visits they may not have a job.
“While the GTUC again calls on BCGI to sanction its manager, more importantly it calls on the Government of Guyana to ensure the sovereignty of this nation is respected, the rights of its people upheld and the laws of this land enforced,” GTUC added.
