The Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) and the Guyana Gold Board (GGB) today inked their first Collective Labour Agreement (CLA).
A release from GAWU said that the 16-page agreement contains 33 clauses on a range of matters. Among the issues considered by the CLA are the payment of overtime, annual leave, subsistence allowance, meals allowance, hazard allowance, the mechanism for promotion, sick leave and occupational safety and health (OSH), among a host of other conditions.
A new feature in the CLA regards the provision of Paternity Leave where fathers would receive one month’s leave with pay on the birth of their child. It is the first time the GAWU has been able to negotiate such a provision and an issue which is important in contemporary times, the release said.
At the signing at the Ministry of Labour, GAWU’s General Secretary Aslim Singh noted that through frank and full discourses, issues were fully ventilated and each side had the opportunity to make their points-of-view known.
GGB’s General Manager, Eondrene Thompson who offered remarks expressed the Board’s delight in reaching the point of signing the agreement. She said the Board recognised the importance of ensuring employees were comfortable and that the discussions took place in a manner which lent to mutually satisfactory outcomes.
GAWU in the latter part of 2021 secured bargaining rights on behalf of the employees of the Board, the release said.