Dominican Republic national Luis Antonio Corniel has filed a US$30,000 lawsuit against Alpha Petroleum Trading Inc., and the Guyana Seafarers and General Workers Union (GS&GWU) for what he says are salaries owed to him for almost half a year and other entitlements.
In his application lodged with the Supreme Court, Corniel said that since December 2019 he has been working as chief engineer on the oil tanker, M.T. Louis IMO 8317459 which was formerly owned by a company operating out of the Dominican Republic before its owners abandoned the vessel here in Guyana.
He said that Alpha Petroleum Trading Inc., (APTI) along with a person he identified by the name Dorwain Bess subsequently took over ownership of the vessel. Meanwhile, he said that GS&GWU is the union representing the rights of the workers of the vessel and he named Simone Fortune as the General Secretary of the union.
They have all been listed as respondents in the suit.
Corniel said that since arriving in Guyana more than a year ago, he has been working as the chief engineer of the vessel.
According to him, after several months, the crew of eight have not been paid and despite several demands for payment, the respondents have failed to pay salaries.
He explains that he has visited the union to voice his complaints and to seek assistance—flowing from which he said that Bess, the Union, himself and the other affected employees entered a written agreement on July 24th, last year by which Bess agreed to make part-payments to him of his outstanding salaries.
Corniel said that pursuant to that agreement, Bess agreed to pay him the sum of US$11,400 or GYD$2,439,600 no later than August 7th, 2020. However, Corniel said that Bess failed to make the payment by the due date, while noting that he has since been unsuccessful in his numerous demands to be paid.
Corniel said that as a term of the agreement, Bess had also agreed to foot the US$800 bill for his airfare back home to the Dominican Republic but failed to do this as well.
The applicant goes on to detail in his application that sometime around last November, Bess paid him the sum of US$ 2,100, leaving a balance of US$ 9,300—some GY$1,990,200.
The applicant said that following this payment, he had his attorney write Bess the very next month, requesting the balance, but to no avail.
Corniel said that he then discovered that Bess had paid $1,000,000 to Fortune and the union in trust for him (Corniel), but despite numerous demands for payment, he has been told that it “accidently spent the monies.”
The engineer said that notwithstanding this, he continues to honour his oral agreement to his employers, and continues to work on the vessel.
He does, however, note that the respondent had expressly agreed to pay him the sum of US$3,800 or its equivalent in Guyana dollars every month, while stressing that to date, he has not received any salary for the months of August, September, October, November and December of last year for which he says he is now owed the sum of US$ 19,000 or its equivalent in Guyana dollars. As a consequence, through his attorney Rajendra Jaigobin, Corniel, is asking the court to grant him orders directing his employers to pay him the sum of US$ 4,627 equivalent to some GY$990,178 as salary due pursuant to the July 24th agreement; as well as the US$ 19,000 or its Guyana dollars equivalent for the last five months of last year he has not received salary.
He also wants the court to order his employers to pay him the US$800 for his airfare back to the Dominican Republic as well as the $1,000,000 which had been paid in trust for him to Fortune and the Union.
Apart from interest, Corniel’s suit is pegged at just under some US$29,427 or GYD$5,885,400.
In accordance with the Law Reform (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, the applicant wants all the payments made with interest at the rate of 6% per annum from December 29th last year when he filed his application to the date of judgment and thereafter at the rate of 4% until the judgment is fully paid.
He is also hoping to be awarded court costs and any further or other orders the court deems just to grant.
