Workers at Bauxite Company of Guyana Incorporated, mainly owned by RUSAL, are to get thinner pay-packets whenever they are about to go on vacation because the company has decided to stop paying them vacation allowance.
After numerous attempts throughout yesterday RUSAL officials could not be contacted for a comment. The Working Peoples Alliance (WPA) said the workers have been given one week to sign a new contract of employment that would see them taking home only their leave passage assistance.
Opposition political party the Alliance For Change (AFC) also weighed in on the issue saying that they believe the move was an act of victimization and spite against the workers for the support they gave to the AFC during the last General and Regional Election Campaign.
Speaking with Stabroek News AFC’s Raphael Trotman added “Following the 2006 elections and the results giving the AFC a clear victory in the Aroaima and Kwakani areas many of the proposed plans for the community development and improvement of workers benefits were shelved. The AFC demands that RUSAL recognizes and honours national and international laws and conventions.”
Trotman added “the payment of leave allowance has been a standard feature in remuneration packages and there is no economic reason why it should be withdrawn; especially when the company’s financial fortunes have been steadily improving over the past years. We will wait to see whether the new labour minister…has any more strength and courage than his predecessor to confront this blight on the workers.”
The Alliance For Change promised to initiate a parliamentary investigation into every aspect of RUSAL’s operations.
Meanwhile at the centre of the talks with the workers, according to the WPA, is BCGI’s Industrial Relation Adviser, Mohammed Akeel who is a former Chief Labour Officer.
It is Akeel, the WPA noted who “advanced the argument” that workers had been receiving both payments since 2006 in keeping with their employment contracts and recently informed workers that their vacation allowance was in violation of the laws of Guyana and that it would be withdrawn.
They were also told that new contracts would be drafted and they should sign them and return same within one week or face termination of employment.
In a statement the WPA said “WPA wishes to urge the Government of Guyana, which owns the remaining 5% of BCGI, to intervene immediately and put a stop to RUSAL/BCGI’s high handed and aggressive behaviour to Guyanese workers,” adding “RUSAL’s anti-union high-handedness no doubt derives from its well established habit of ignoring the weakened trade unions in Russia where rampant privatization has reduced the once powerful trade union movement to irrelevance…”
