Linden call centre Toucan Connec-tions Incorporated shut its doors last Friday and sent home 83 workers without paying severance, sparking anger in the mining town.
The situation attracted the attention of Minister in the Ministry of Social Protection Simona Broomes who led a team on Wednesday to Linden to meet with officials and staff of the centre. Toucan had been one of Linden’s major employers.
GINA said yesterday that Broomes advised the company that it has to pay severance. Moreover, an investigation has found that NIS contributions were not remitted to the Scheme and Broomes said that legal action will be taken against the company.
In the meanwhile employees of the St Kitts-based enterprise have been reportedly removing property from the facility.
Yesterday, Chairman of Region Ten, Rennis Morian, called on the authorities to take action to prevent three of the employees of the company from leaving the country without making good on payments to the laid off employees.
members (GINA photo)
Eighty-three workers of the company are now on the breadline without prior warning and with no assurance of when they would receive severance pay, or if they would receive any at all.
Workers of the call centre, which is based in Kara Kara, Linden, staged a protest on Monday in front of the Georgetown office of the Ministry of Social Protection after they were told on Friday after working hours not to return to work and that they would receive their severance payment at a later date.
During the engagement on Wednesday with the manager, supervisor, and 86 staff members at the Centre, GINA said that the Minister explained that she was informed of the issue by Regional Chairman, Morian, who was also present.
The Minister was informed by the staff that the Management of the Centre had advised them that the benefits due to them would be paid by the Government.
This contention was rebuffed by Broomes as she told the now unemployed persons that this is not true. “If it was told to you, that it is the responsibility of Government to pay your severance, I would like to say to you, this is not true. It is the responsibility of the person who employed you to do so,” Broomes said.
The minister charged that the management of the Call Centre violated the labour laws in Guyana, as these mandate that businesses upon their closure or intentions to do so, must first inform their employees and then the respective Government or State agency.
GINA said that Supervisor of Toucan Connections, Shontel Brooks, told the Minister that the company misinterpreted the laws, since she thought that the severance package was the responsibility of the Government, but later apologized to the staff. Broomes viewed this as ‘misleading the employees’ and pointed out that ignorance of the law is no excuse.
“How can you be here and establish a building and say to me that you didn’t know the law? You are misleading workers to say that it is Government’s responsibility to pay severance,” Broomes queried.
The Toucan Call Centre was an investment project of the European Union-funded Linden Economic Advancement Programme of a decade ago.
Broomes said that investigations were also done by the Ministry’s team only to discover that NIS contributions were not remitted to the Scheme, since, they were told by the supervisor, that all documents are managed in St. Kitts. However, these contributions, along with the PAYE were deducted from the workers’ salaries.
GINA said that Broomes stated that “the reason I had sent for inspections to be conducted is that I had received complaints from workers that they are being abused and they are made to work in terrible conditions.”
Labour, Occupational and Health Officer, Dawn Gardener, said that she witnessed the abuse while conducting her investigations at the Centre.
Broomes committed to ensuring that all the necessary contributions are paid up to date and said that the Ministry intends to take the Company to Court for breaches of the labour laws, under the Termination of Employment and Severance Pay Act, Chapter 99:08-Laws of Guyana.
One of the now unemployed persons, Adele Bakker, told Broomes that the Company is robbing them of their monies, pointing out that whenever an employee logs out of the system, whether it be to visit the washroom or to visit the supervisor upon request, money is being deducted from their salaries.
Morian, GINA said, stated his intention to have the building secured, since it belongs to the State, and has appealed to the Minister, to launch an overall investigation into the operations of the Centre, as he was advised that valuable assets have already been removed from the building. He is asked that the travel documents of the foreign managers of the Company be placed on hold, until the workers are paid all their benefits and all arrangements are completed.
Owner and Managing Director of the Company, Gordon Walker, was not present during the meeting with Broomes.
According to Region 10 councillor Douglas Gittens, the owner of the company has left the country for St. Kitts where he resides but two officials are still in Guyana and they are surreptitiously moving the company’s computers and other equipment from the building in which the company operated.
“Computers have been removed. Chairs have been removed. Last night we found out that they were moving other things out of the building at 11.15 in the evening,” Gittens said. “Nobody knows where they are moving them to. Yesterday, GINA took some photographs of the two people, who are here. …..”
Gittens said that one of the remaining officials of the company sarcastically told a worker, “take a computer and sell it and you will make your severance”. He added: “The severance money that they have to pay out is a lot of money. I am thinking that if you have to pay $100,000 to eighty three people that is $8.3M – and some people would be entitled to three and four hundred thousand dollars. So, imagine how much money this small company will have to pay.”
Gittens said another meeting was held yesterday at the LEN Building, Republic Avenue but he and the Regional Chairman could not have attended because they had to be at the Region Ten Democratic Council’s statutory meeting. Stating that Minister Broomes also did not attend that meeting, Gittens said that she had left instructions for all the terminated workers to write a statement listing their name, age, length of service, salary and an expectation of the amount of severance they expect to receive.
A supervisor, who commenced working with the company when it began operations on 7 May 2007, said that when she looked at the statements of the terminated workers, many of them have loans with Republic and Citizens banks and are now uncertain how they will service those loans.
According to the supervisor, who requested anonymity, “the main man for the company left in May this year” and he has not been speaking to local workers. The supervisor said that work has been slowing up and the company was doing the last of its programmes last week, the next batch of programmes were expected in October. The supervisor said that there was no indication that new programmes would arrive for September.
