Dear Editor,
With the ongoing discussion on Local Content policy it is instructive to note that local companies and individuals need to be brought in line. This is an area that seems to be totally overlooked but needs regulating.
1. A locally owned company that is the middleman for employees in the Oil and Gas (O&G) Sector pays Guyanese who they contract a flat salary while they work and the time they are home they are not paid – despite proof that the oil company pays. No benefits package is offered.
2. Trinidadians who are hired by the same local company are paid thrice as much for the same work as their Guyanese counterparts as well as compensated for the off-days.
3. Another local company is hiring Guyanese at $74,000 monthly to work as cooks on the ships while paying the foreigners attractive packages.
4. I have experienced Guyanese consultants instructing foreign companies to pay fellow Guyanese way lower than they intended to with the flimsy excuse that “it’s too much in our economy”.
5. Some Guyanese O&G employees have brought to my attention that one company is demanding that the requisite training – paid for by the oil companies – must be reimbursed to them before they release the international certification. This particular issue is engaging the attention of the Clerical and Commercial Workers’ Union where I recommended they air their grievances.
It’s sad that many who are screaming loudest for Local Content policy – and rightly so – are the ones who are fleecing their fellow Guyanese while also being remunerated for the talent they source, separate to the employees’ remuneration.
Even before O&G was a thing for Guyana, Guyanese have been made to collect the crumbs from many foreign companies whose local directors/consultants have chosen to drastically reduce the compensation packages of these companies to their fellow countrymen.
In many instances, Guyanese have also complained that the stench of corruption at the Labour Department has been to their detriment.
It is time that they, too, be brought in line and be made to treat with Guyanese in a manner that is fair and just. Guyanese also need to understand the importance of a union and its role in their interests and not be “penny wise and pound foolish” while Unions have to be more aggressive in their approach to workers’ rights and representation in an effort to rid themselves of the stain/perception that they’re only about collecting union dues.
Yours faithfully,
Stan Gouveia
