Junior Social Protection Minister Simona Broomes yesterday vowed to end a long running dispute between management and workers of the Chinese company Bosai Minerals Guyana on the calculation of wages and salaries paid.
At a meeting with the company’s top management officials and union officials from the National Association of Agricul-tural, Commercial and Industrial Employees (NAACIE), Broomes emphasised her intention of resolving the issue once and for all based on the law.
NAACIE President Kenneth Joseph, who represented the workers, said the formula being used by the company to calculate the workers’ wages and salaries, which will affect their benefits, is not in accordance with the labour laws, while the company strongly denied the claim.
Labour officials from the Ministry’s Labour Department, including Deputy Chief Labour Officer Nadia Samuels and consultant Francis Carryl, also stated that the formula being used by the company is not in accordance with the labour laws.
However, the company’s Senior Personnel Officer Trudel Marks, who along with the company’s General Manager Robert Chang and its Company Secretary Norman Mc Lean were at yesterday’s meeting, maintained that the company’s calculation is above board and that it would have been “inherited” from the Omai gold company.
Samuels said the ministry would have gone as far as to develop a guideline for the company to follow in its calculations of the wages and salaries but it was rejected. Marks yesterday said while the ministry’s calculation is not wrong, it is not applicable to the company’s circumstances.
According to Carryl, the calculation being done by the company brings serious disadvantages to the workers. He noted that nowhere else in Guyana, including the public service, is using the formula being employed by Bosai or anything close to it.
“This is not rocket science and thank God we are custodians of all the agreements…,” Carryl said, while stressing that if the formula being used by the company was inherited, it is still wrong and should end.
Broomes yesterday said that she will “kill the matter” tomorrow, when it is expected that a decision will be made.
The minister requested a spreadsheet detailing the wages and salaries of all company workers and how those are calculated. She pointed out that if the company is objecting to the formula created by the ministry, then it should have given evidence to support why it is objecting. She said the only evidence is the spreadsheet, which can clearly illustrate that its payment scale is not contravening the law.
She said if what the union is saying is found to be correct then corrective action has to be taken.
“We are going to kill this problem. It is not a big problem because based on the law it is what has to happen. What is written in the Act has to happen, we are not going to argue and dance that one around. When I intervene I am going to be guided by the law,” the minister stated.
“The law is not optional so what is in the law we will have to abide by it…” the minister told the management team of the company. “This government is not against investors; foreign or local, we welcome. All we are saying is because we are policy driven we have to guide all in accordance to the law,” she added.
The minister also took issue with the company not responding to a letter written by the ministry since July of this year. While Marks indicated that the company did not respond because its General Manager was out of the country, Broomes said it was “disrespectful” and such actions should end “forthwith.” She questioned whether there would be no response until next year if the General Manager would have remained out of the country until that time.
She also stressed that the union should update its workers so that they remain informed of what is happening.
While the company had other matters at the Labour Department, McLean said many of them are being wrapped up. The main bone of contention is the calculation being used for the wages and salaries of the workers.
