Officials of ANSA McAL Guyana, the Trinidad-based conglomerate that won the contract to provide taxi services to the Marriott Hotel, think it’s unfair for it to be branded foreign, given that its local workforce is 100% Guyanese and it has been that way for the thirty years it has operated here.
“ANSA bid for a contract and were notified that we had won. We submitted a plan and that was accepted so we began preparations…vehicles were bought; uniform selected; training with etiquette and service provision professionals began. It is unfair to then hear that a foreign company won because we are here for 30 years, all of our staff are Guyanese. And like when we started, we are fully committed to Guyana and its development,” an official of the company who asked not to be named, told Stabroek News.
The official explained that the company, like many others that bid, saw an opportunity to invest and did, given that it also ties in with the long term plans it has for this country.
Last week, some of the taxi drivers who worked under the individual who notified the Marriott that he was no longer interested in the contract, expressed dissatisfaction that they were being replaced by a Trinidadian company.
Neither the drivers nor Marriott Hotel management named the company.
“How can we allow a foreign company to come and take bread from locals for a job that we can do? What is the sense in having local content laws when taxi work and all going to a foreign company? This is a slap in everyone’s face,” one of the affected taxi drivers had told this newspaper.
“Imagine a Trinidad company get the contract and they now turn back and hiring we who been there. And they ain’t want you to have your own car, they want the car and will pay you a salary. You ever hear such nonsense?” he questioned.
However, Marriott Hotel executives say that the contract for the service was opened to public bidding after the former Guyanese contractor notified them that he was no longer interested and the Trinidadian company that bid met the criteria they were looking for.
The Marriott Hotel said that the Trinidadian company has also assured that it will employ some of the former drivers but under a different arrangement.
“We have been working with the taxi drivers. They associate themselves with a taxi [operator] and have been providing a service for a few years. This company has informed us they are giving the hotel notice they will no longer be providing that service. This triggered us to start looking for alternatives,” General Manager of the Marriott Hotel, Eduardo Reple, had told Stabroek News when contacted.
Reple explained that it was not the Marriott Hotel which had asked the service provider to leave, but that it was the man that represented the workers who informed that he was no longer interested in continuing to do the job.
“It is not Marriott informing them to leave Marriott. It was them who informed that they are leaving,” he stressed.
He wanted it to be made clear that the process to select the Trinidadian company was transparent as management put out a public tender and did due diligence on companies that bid.
“We did due diligence, did tendering, did everything and that is a company we signed the agreement with; the company is from Trinidad.”
Reple said that he did not want the drivers, which the company has had a relationship with for years, to be without work so he intervened and asked the new company to look into employing them.
However, he pointed out that not all of the drivers would meet the requirements of the new company as changes had been also made to operations.
“I met with the drivers. First I met with the company and I asked them to interview the drivers because they have been servicing for a few years. There was a relationship we developed. They made interviews but I am not sure who decided to work with the company because the model is different.”
This newspaper understands that some 20 local drivers have been employed and are undergoing training by etiquette professionals from the Caribbean that were brought in by ANSA.
A number of “structured changes” will be implemented and this includes drivers being properly uniformed and the vehicles being of a certain safety standard at all times.
ANSA opened up an automotive store here in 2017.
