The Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) today said that the state-owned holding company – NICIL – on December 31, 2020 fired, without any hint of warning, approximately sixty workers who were employed by the company at Wales Estate.
A statement from GAWU today said that the workers were mainly engaged in providing security as well as other labouring tasks.
“The sudden termination dumbfounded the workers who were completely unprepared for the bombshell announcement”, GAWU said.
The union said that the workers, during last year, had approached it to speak on their behalf. The Union on November 06, 2020 applied to the Trade Union Recognition and Certification Board (TURCB) seeking to be recognised as their bargaining agent.
“Following receipt of our application, the TURCB approved the conduct of a survey, in keeping with the Trade Union Recognition Act. The survey sought to determine whether the GAWU enjoyed the workers support. Attempts to commence the survey were short-circuited by the NICIL which, on two (2) occasions, did not turn up for meetings organized by the TURCB to commence the process. Subsequently, NICIL, by letter of December 11, 2020, wrote the TURCB seeking to commence the process, strikingly, on December 31, 2020. The Board, having considered the letter, had acquiesced to the request”, GAWU said.
GAWU expressed shock at the decision by the state-owned National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited to dismiss the workers.
Earlier this morning, it said that it wrote TURCB Chairman, Dr N.K. Gopaul to apprise him of the developments.
“In our correspondence, we pointed out that the actions of the NICIL are in grave contravention of the Trade Union Recognition Act ….and we sought the Board’s immediate intervention to apprehend the matter and ensure that the workers rights are upheld”, the union said.
The union said it finds the actions of NICIL to be deeply disturbing.
“For the workers, given the depression that has gripped Wales since the estate was closed at the end of 2016, it represented a cherished source of sustenance. We are aware of the efforts of the incumbent Administration as they seek to breathe life back into the former estate communities and the actions of the state-owned holding company, in our view, serves to gravely undermine those efforts”, the union said.