A letter written to the Managing Director of the majority Russian-owned Bauxite Company of Guyana Inc. (BCGI) by Natural Resources Minister, Raphael Trotman and which seemingly heaped praise on the relationship between the company’s Russian management and its Guyanese work force has been criticised by Guyana Trades Union Congress (GTUC) General Secretary Lincoln Lewis on the grounds that its contents “do not accurately portray the state of management/worker relations at BCGI.”
In a comment on the letter by Trotman to Valery Vinokurov, who represents RUSAL, the Russian-owned company that has a majority stake-holding interest in BCGI, Lewis said that he was surprised that the sentiments expressed in the Minister’s letter to Vinukorov “did not appear to reflect an awareness of the true nature of relations between the Russian management of BCGI and the workers even after the extensive publicity afforded the relationship in the local media. “While I am disappointed in statements made in the Minister’s letter regarding the relationship between the parties, I shall be using this unfortunate occurrence to try to meet with Minister Trotman to brief him on the true nature of the relationship”, Lewis, who is also General Secretary of the Guyana Bauxite & General Workers Union (GB&GWU), the bargaining agent for the BCGI workers told Stabroek Business. The December 20th letter addressed a number of issues including a recent ground-breaking decision that allowed for BCGI workers to be refunded income tax paid on overtime work. In his letter Trotman expressed satisfaction over the fact that the bauxite company and the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) had reached an amicable resolution on the issue of the refund of the monies paid as income tax on overtime worked.