On the eve of a meeting with Guyana’s Chief Labour Officer, the Russian-owned Bauxite Company of Guyana Inc (BCGI) has laid off nearly all of its employees, a move that has left the Minister of Natural Resources Raphael Trotman shocked.
The company yesterday notified workers of their employment status by way of letter on its notice board outside the company’s premises, which listed some 146 persons along with their job identification numbers. “That is nearly all if not all of us,” an employee told the Stabroek News via phone last evening.
“We wish to advise that we are forced to further reduce operations and to lay off employees due to adverse operating circumstances including shipment interruption due to the blockage of the Berbice River. Unfortunately, the employees listed below are affected by the reduction and have to be (laid) off effective the 30th January 2020 and to be recalled as soon as the situation returns to normal,” the correspondence said while informing that individual letters would be sent via post to the homes of the employees.
The blockage was installed on the river by workers after 142 of them were laid off last week after the company said it had experienced a fuel shortage.
Guyana Bauxite and General Workers Union (GB&GWU) representative Lincoln Lewis could not be reached by this newspaper for comment last night.
Efforts to contact Minister of Social Protection Amna Ally, who is responsible for labour, proved futile as calls to her mobile and home numbers went unanswered.
When contacted, Trotman said that he had not heard of the layoff.
“I haven’t heard that at all and am aware that the Chief Labour Officer should be heading into the area tomorrow. The duty-free concession requested by Rusal was issued and so I believe that all the workers should be reinstated and the blockade removed so that we can regain normalcy,” Trotman last evening told Stabroek News.
Close to a year ago, workers began striking following the imposition of a unilateral 1% increase in wages by the company, along with other unaddressed issues, including BCGI’s unwillingness to recognise the union as the workers’ bargaining agent. They had said the move was a signal to the company to show the need for urgency in finding a resolution.
The company fired 90 workers following the initiation of strike action with 60 workers being dismissed initially and an additional 30 being sacked in the ensuing days.
Since then, the acrimonious relations over wages and salaries between the company worsened and talks on the issue have been stalled for months with workers seeing recent layoffs as an attempt to pressure them.
The union has vowed that it would not relent in getting its members their fair due in wages, salaries and fringe benefits and blocked the Berbice River last week after 142 employees were laid off by the company which at the time said it had no fuel. The Union had said that operations in the river would not continue until their demands are met.
In a statement, the Union representative said that during discussions, BCGI changed their position on the rationale behind the layoffs. The union said that the company created the “pretext that it was not granted approval” by the government for duty-free importation of fuel. “This is not true. The Guyana Revenue Authority issued that letter of approval. When the management was confronted on the deception the position was changed that the laying off is the result of the company scaling back operation,” it noted.
Lewis had told Stabroek News that when they objected to the manner in which the workers were laid off, which violates the country’s labour laws, representatives of the company responded by saying that they were given expert advice to operate in the manner they did, including posting the list of workers to be laid off on their notice board.
The union also pointed out that according to industrial relations practice and the Termination of Employment and Severance Pay Act, companies are required to inform unions of their intention to retrench.
