After six months without pay, a dozen employees of Canada-based mining company Mahdia Gold Corporation (MGC) yesterday decided that enough was enough and staged a protest to demand the company pay them for their labour.
Following the protest at the company’s offices at Barrack Street, Kingston, one of the workers, Nigel Bacchus, said they were given partial payments. When this newspaper asked Bacchus if the protestors were still employed at the MGC, he was not certain.
But when contacted, Allan Zaakir, the former Chief Executive Officer who is now described as MGC’s Managing Director, said the protestors were ex-employees.
“There’s no story here,” he said, explaining that the money was paid over yesterday. Stabroek News asked him why it took so long for the workers to be paid and he said it was because there was a change in administration and management but remained insistent that the story was dead.
As the protest was going on, Zaakir called a protestor’s phone and asked them to desist from protesting because the money owed to them would be paid to them in the afternoon.
Bacchus was angry about not being paid and accused the management of the company of being heartless.
Bacchus noted that recently K&B Mining Company formed a partnership with MGC. He said MGC asked K&B mining for an advance to pay their workers but he noted that no money was given to them and the company took the money for itself and used it for its own purposes.
Stabroek News was told that K&B Mining Company official did partner with MGC three months ago and injected $20 million after MGC found itself in financial trouble. This newspaper was told that it planned to give a further $2 million yesterday to pay the workers.
Despite the financial straits faced by the company, Bacchus accused company officials of flaunting their wealth, without any concern about the impact their actions have on the workers.
A single mother, Rohanna Charles, who was part of the protest, said that MGC owed her almost half a million dollars.
Charles said the company kept putting off her and other workers when they attempted to find out about payments. She further charged that their constant demands for their hard earned cash made the company stop accepting calls if they were recognised as originating from an employee’s number and it would also bar them from entering the compound of its offices.
The woman complained about the behaviour of local General Manager, Linden Primo. Primo was recently charged with firing a gun at the People’s National Congress Reform’s 18th Biennial Congress. The case was, however, dismissed after his accuser kept failing to make an appearance in court.
Charles supported Bacchus’ claim that company officials would usually travel from Canada and collect ridiculous sums of money without paying any mind to the workers’ livelihoods.
She added that all of this started in May, when another manager was let go by MGC. She said the former official was accused of theft. She said when he was in charge the workers were paid for their work. She said even if he paid them late, it was only a few days late and they were paid their full salaries.
She added that he left a salary for the employees in May but it was slashed in half and not all of the employees were paid. Since then no money has been paid to the workers.
