Toucan Connections Incorporated, which recently shuttered its call centre operations in Linden and left some 84 women without jobs, had no records of the workers ever being employed with the company, according to Junior Social Protection Minister Simona Broomes, who says the government is exploring ways to assist those affected.
The St Kitts-based company shut its doors on August 28, without warning and the women who would have worked with it for many years are now calling for their severance packages.
However, officials from the labour department of the ministry have been unable to contact company officials.
Broomes, who had travelled to Linden to meet the former employees, said yesterday that the ministry is working with the ministries of Foreign Affairs and Legal Affairs in an effort to contact the persons who owned the business. Once this is done, she said, those persons would be taken to court for breaching the labour laws.
The minister was very critical of the former PPP/C administration, saying the company was allowed to operate without following Guyana’s labour laws and the workers were forced to endure inhumane conditions.
Some of the former employees recently told Stabroek News that while they knew the conditions were inhumane, they kept working because jobs were difficult to find.
The minister yesterday suggested that foreign companies lodge funds when setting up operations so workers would not be left “high and dry” if they decide to close their doors suddenly.
Ironically, PPP General Secretary Clement Rohee yesterday issued a call for the government to find a solution to the plight of the workers.
“The solution to the plight of these workers must be to the satisfaction of the workers and consistent with the manifesto promise of the APNU+AFC to provide a ‘good life’ for all Guyanese,” Rohee said at a press conference.
Broomes told the media at the Department of Labour that the report on the company is ready and there are matters for which it will be taken to court. She made it clear that workers only became aware they had lost their jobs when they were met with a padlock at the gate of the company’s premises.
She noted that she had received a tip off but the company closed before she could have conducted an inspection. Workers, she said, were also unwilling to give information. “So, by the time we get in there they don’t have an address, they [labour officers] are going through all of that,” she said, while adding that Senior Minister Volda Lawrence spoke with Legal Affairs Minister Basil Williams to determine what can be done overseas.
Broomes said too that over 70 statements were taken from the workers and will be used to do an evaluation “to see the next move because government is not only concerned that they have to be paid. It is lots of workers.”
According to Broomes, government has taken a broad look at the Toucan situation, which goes beyond the severance payments. She said she and Lawrence spoke on the issue and they are awaiting the evaluation before the issue is taken to Cabinet.
Asked if it is known how much money should be paid out to workers, she said, “no, because there is no record… it is not a straightforward situation… these workers didn’t even have a contract with the company. They don’t even have a pay slip,” she revealed.
“Hopefully the money was placed in the bank. Whose name the bank account is in and all of that, we still have to get all of that. We checked to see where the business is registered and the name on the registration. We can’t find a registration and all of that,” she said before stressing that this will be a long process.
No senior representative of the company is based here. “They just had these two ladies who were the supervisors… there was no senior representative and that is why I am saying that outside of the company the government is looking at this matter… we are looking at plans to assist the persons who were dismissed on a short and long-term basis… We are working definitely on a plan but bear with us, it is not something straightforward,” she added.
Asked if there will be any efforts to seek international assistance in tracking down company officials, Broomes said the Minister of Foreign Affairs will also be involved.
Noting that she is very concerned that a foreign company could just close and leave workers without paying them, the minister said, “It is a shame on the past government. I want to know if workers had no voice. This is a nightmare.”
Labour officials, Broomes added, went into some of the most rated companies and though reporters were present “the story never even reached the media and I want to know why? It is straight across the board…. Some of them operate as if it is a slave camp. Workers are so timid. They can’t speak…”
The minister said there are people in the timber industry who are being paid below the minimum wage. “It’s horrible,” she declared, while adding that there are also foreign nationals who are being horribly treated by their employers.
She spoke of a foreign national who was brought here and then dismissed. “He is a foreigner. They bring him here to work and just dismissed him and threw him off of the compound and he was just left languishing…. Some Guyanese took him in their home… We have a language barrier so we can’t even relate,” she said.
Meanwhile, Rohee said the callous attitude towards workers’ compensation, and industrial relations will do more harm than good to the economy, which is already experiencing serious problems at the commercial and manufacturing levels with hundreds of workers in both sectors being laid off. On the latter point, he accused government of adopting a “scarecrow policy” towards foreign and local investors.
