The Guyana Agriculture and General Workers Union (GAWU) is making efforts to position itself as a reputable bargaining agent for workers in the oil and gas sector, where it says locals face issues that include unequal pay, uncertified sick leave benefits, and lack of personal protective equipment.
“One of the issues in the sector is offshore workers are not being paid while they are off the rig. Another issue is that some don’t have access to benefits such as medical schemes and those who have it say it is only valid while they are on the job,” Singh said as he explained some plights faced by workers,” the union’s General Secretary, Aslim Singh, told Sunday Stabroek.
The union, which has long been known as a representative for agriculture workers, made a decision a year ago to establish an Oil and Gas branch to aid in championing the workers’ rights in the industry, Singh noted.
While he acknowledged that the union has not been able to formally represent any employee from a specific company, the union has been helping workers who feel they have been exploited by way of complaints to the Ministry of Labour.
Singh added that workers from the sugar industry now working in the emerging sector and aware of the union’s track record, “have been coming for advice and guidance on labour issues.”
While workers have been welcoming to the idea of being unionised, Singh said there have been some challenges from employers as they have not been welcoming to union representatives.
“A challenge is how do you bargain for someone who was hired by a third party? Traditionally it has been employee and employer but now there is the recruitment agency who supplies the workers to the company so we have to flesh out how we deal with that,” Singh explained.
Singh also pointed out that employees are afraid in some cases to make their working conditions public as they are often victimised and intimidated by superiors.
The union had stated that third party recruitment agencies have been contributing somewhat to exploitative workplace practices.
From a review of documents shared with the union, GAWU has recognised that not many workers were employed by the enterprise for whom they were undertaking their tasks.
“Many workers are employed by agents who assign workers to work at one company or another. We have seen in some instances, workers from various agents working at different companies. Alarmingly, each agent apparently has their own benefits and conditions-of-employment. Thus, workers who are undertaking the exact job in a particular company can have a completely different range of benefits. This on the surface appears discriminatory as workers undertaking the same job should lawfully receive equal benefits and reward,” the union said in a statement to the press earlier this year.
The union had opined that the practice of agent employment is an attempt to control workers’ attitudes and have them “hanging by a string” possibly with the aim of making them subservient.
“Such relations enable firms to remove employees without rhyme or reason and without any legal link to their enterprise. Such actions may be an attempt to send a clear message to workers should they wish to speak up and engender, possibly, docility among workers. The fragmentation of the workforce undoubtedly promotes greater division among the workers seemingly to perpetuate exploitative policies. It also constrains workers from becoming organized and being able to secure gains from their coming together.”
While the union is in a position to fully bargain on behalf of workers, Singh said they have been working with their fraternal Oilfield Workers Trade Union (OWTU) of Trinidad and Tobago to find resolution for some issues.
Back in March, the union complained to the Ministry of Labour after employees were forced to purchase personal protective gear.
“The workers shared that the recruitment agency in its contract of employment with the employees required them to provide their own steel-toed safety boots. Such a requirement, however, is contrary to the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Act. The law obligates employers to provide their employees with appropriate personal protective equipment,” GAWU had said in a statement while highlighting the issue.
“They also shared with the union that the principals of the agency inform-ed them that they ought to have handled the matter differently as the foreign client was upset. We, at this time, wonder how differently the matter could have been handled when the agency had an explicit contractual provision. At the same time, we contend, the client had a responsibility to ensure that agent/s acting on their behalf were compliant with the Laws of Guyana,” GAWU stated.
GAWU had said it was disappointing that a matter as straight forward as this had to require the involvement of the Ministry of Labour before it could have been resolved.
“We have to wonder whether these ‘professionals’ are really knowledgeable or is it a case of them knowingly cheating and deceiving workers out of their rights. Certainly, whatever is the case, it is disturbing and disheartening,” the union had said after having the issue resolved.
GAWU continues to urge workers to reach out to the union whether online or by visiting its offices.
