Dear Editor:
The Government has been fairly criticised for appealing the NIS case won by a poor worker, Mr. Zainul. This is a moment of shame for the NIS, the Minister, the NIS Board, and the PPP Government under whose watch this is happening. It is also a moment of shame as the TUC, FITUG, and individual trade unions are silent on this worker, trade union issue. Mr. Lewis, a leading trade unionist, who loves to write political commentary more than about workers issues, has not written about this anti-worker travesty. The GAWU boss sits on the NIS Board so he must explain to his union and FITUG group whether and why he supported the appeal. This man Mr. Zainul has been waiting 12 years for justice, just like the other 88-year-old Bermine worker waiting 28 years for his benefits. Justice Damone Younge delivered justice for Mr. Zainul that the NIS tribunal and probably NIS Board did not do. This was a clear case of the worker being wronged by the NIS and Government. The man had all his evidence, witness statements and more that he worked during the years missing from the NIS contribution statements. Yet the NIS appeals process denied his benefits. From the declarations of the AG that if they did not appeal the case it would open the floodgates to claims from others, it seems apparent that NIS had been operating in a manner to not pay rather than pay workers what is due to them. The argument that paying claims would bankrupt the NIS system is untenable. The NIS was established to pay people their benefits when they are due. You cannot have a hidden agenda and policy to frustrate people so they would go away and never come back or die, so you don’t have to pay out too many benefits, so the system would not be bankrupt. This likely explains why the NIS has been operating in a manner to frustrate and deny, not facilitate workers claims.
I call on the President to direct the AG to withdraw the appeal of the Zainul decision. How can your Government appeal a case that Guyana won against Exxon? How can you appeal a case that Exxon must show documentary evidence of Insurance? But you have appealed a case that a poor Guyanese man won. And you are appealing the case where Justice Harnanan gave a decision quashing illegal pay deductions from the Linden nurses pay cheques! The Government is appearing to be for big, rapacious foreign multinational corporations, but knocking down the poor, working class people. Old people say “it’s bad when yuh own dog bite yuh.” This will not look well as we edge towards the November 2025 elections, that we have a Government that takes care of the bourgeoisie, but trods upon the poor proletariat. Appealing the Linden Nurses decision is bad when you consider that Guyana faces a severe shortage of nurses and we are talking about importing Cuban nurses. Should the government not compromise and resolve the Linden Nurses problem rather than continuing to antagonize them and driving them to look for greener pastures abroad, as nurses have been doing and are gobbled up abroad? Who is giving the Government bad advice?
As Mr. Faiyaz Alli wrote, “The Government needs to accept that there are flaws within NIS; and commit to do all that is necessary to overcome them. The focus should forever be to get NIS to deliver what is promised in the National Insurance and Social Security Act. Also, the AG should champion the amendment of 45 (1) to make NIS responsible for taking errant employers to court to recover all unpaid payments. The affected employees and retirees should not be the ones to take the employers to court. Who is better able to get employers to meet their legal obligations? The NIS failures result in thousands of workers and retirees unfairly penalized for decades. Powerless Guyanese deserve their Government to show that it cares deeply for them too.
Sincerely,
M. Singh
