In the wake of the dismissal of 11 workers, management of Demerara Timbers Limited (DTL) met with the Guyana Agricultural & General Workers Union (GAWU) and presented the option of selling or restructuring the operations.
An official from GAWU told Stabroek News that the company was looking at “having a new buyer or restructuring the operations with a view to have more contractors doing various work.”
Over one week ago the company had issued letters of termination to eight of the workers who protested in front of its head office in Georgetown on October 3 over their salary.
Subsequently, the three others were also given marching orders. The workers had told Stabroek News that they have been expecting an increase since last year.
The official said: “The termination act requires that before they make workers redundant they have to discuss with the union, the measures to mitigate against that [redundancy].”
He said the union would be meeting with DTL again and based, on what was proposed at the last meeting, they would communicate in writing in order to have the matter more fully discussed.
Now, GAWU has to wait on the company to respond to its request to reinstate the workers. The official also said that even if the company has suffered financial problems, as it claims, that is no justification for termination.
The workers had said that the new Chief Executive Officer, Martin Tim, never had any dialogue with them to regarding their increase.
This newspaper attempted to contact Tim at his Georgetown office but was told that he was not available.
Meantime, the workers had all returned to the Mabura Hill location and continued working as normal the day after the protest. That evening another worker served them the letters at their homes.
The letter, signed by Ralph Trotman, the administrative manager (ag.) stated that they were “hereby informed …that as a result of the strike action taken by you unlawfully and without print notice to the company on the 3rd of October 2016, the company would no longer require your service.”
