Junior Social Protection Minister Simona Broomes yesterday said the labour department would be taking Baishanlin to court over alleged labour violations that have been reported by workers.
Broomes announced the decision after the Chinese-owned company Managing Director Baishanlin Chu Hongbo did not attend a meeting that she had invited him to at the department yesterday to discuss more than 20 labour violation complaints.
Broomes said the company has a poor track record in its dealings with the ministry and accused it of being disrespectful to her office and the rights of the workers.
“…There is it we have a company… a foreign company that is in breach of the law and the rights of workers. And they are so confident in their disposition of disrespect that they feel that it would be allowed, that they could disrespect the minister’s office. It is shameful,” she said in an invited comment yesterday.
“I am here as a minister of the government and it is the government writing to ask you to come in and you are still refusing and sending your junior staff. It is a clear disrespect. It speaks volumes. It confirms to me what I was told and how I was advised about the behaviour of Baishanlin over the year with this department and the ministry,” she added.
Efforts yesterday to make contact with the Managing Director and other senior company officials were futile.
Broomes said that when she took office Baishanlin was one of the companies that was brought to her attention with respect to complaints of labour breaches. She informed that there was documentation at the ministry that pointed to the involvement of a union in an attempt to settle the complaints filed by 18 persons. Recently, the ministry received additional complaints from about at least eight women.
The complaints related to wrongful dismissals, severance package issues and no off days, among other things.
Broomes said Chief Labour Officer Charles Ogle has been meeting with the company’s Human Resources Manager Shavdar Ali in a bid to sort out the issues. She noted that the company sent a proposal to the ministry for repayment of monies in the vicinity of $3.2M. However, she said it was subsequently discovered that the calculation that was used to come up with the figure was wrong, in light of a prior agreement that was reached with the union representing the workers. Ali, she said, later admitted that the calculations where wrong and had promised that it would be rectified. She said that subsequently the ministry was told that money was paid to some of the aggrieved workers but an investigation found otherwise.
According to Broomes, after examining the situation and the company’s track record, she decided that she wanted to speak with one of the directors. A call was made to the company but Ali indicated that the director would not accept an invitation to a meeting via telephone; rather, it had to be done in writing. Broomes noted that Ali specifically said the letter had to clearly identify the person that the ministry wanted to meet. She said this was done in a letter, dated November 9th, 2015, which was addressed to Hongbo and also indicated that “an alternative officer of the company below the level of a Director would not suffice.” The meeting was scheduled for 10 am yesterday.
Interpreter
However, Broomes said Ali turned up yesterday with two Chinese nationals and an interpreter. There was no director. Upon inquiring, she said she was told that the director was in the country but he had instead sent the persons who were seated before her.
Broomes said that she asked the delegation if they had received the letter of invitation and they responded in the affirmative. Broomes said that it has been very hard dealing with Ali, as he always says that he needed to get directives from his “boss.”
“So when he comes you can’t deal with anything. He comes and go back, comes and go back and you never get to close anything,” she stressed.
As a result, the minister said she indicated to those seated before her that she did not request to speak with them but rather a director and since this had been done in writing and because of the pattern before the Ministry, she took the absence of a director as a sign of “total disrespect.”
Broomes subsequently told Stabroek News that given what has occurred, she has asked that all the matters before the department against the company be taken to court. She made it clear that there is no longer room for talks between the company and the ministry.
Broomes added that she has not encountered a similar situation with any company. She said that on a request for a meeting, officials would willingly turn up. “I have had big companies, reputable companies, that came right here and sit down and say minister is true… and I want to go into an arrangement that we do not have these matters in court,” she emphasised. She said that there were matters before the courts which were withdrawn based on this willingness to settle.
Broomes said Baishanlin’s behaviour speaks a lot about the company.
“I was advised by the senior people here that in the past nobody come, they don’t care. They couldn’t even write to them. So, that is how they operate and because of the number of complaints before me that is not surprising,” she said.
“If the company could operate like that, it tells me what Guyanese workers are faced with. So, I am saddened—I am not upset—I am saddened to be faced with the reality of what workers are faced with out there,” she added.
Since the company started operations in Guyana, a number of complaints have been made against it, particularly as it relates to the treatment of local workers.
