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Union accuses GTT of preferring contract workers – Court orders company to engage in discussions relating to 120 workers’ positions

May 16, 2017 News

The Guyana Postal and Telecommunications Workers’ Union (GPTWU) has told this publication that the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GTT) hired seventeen contract workers over the period of the last two months.
This comes at a time when the said company has decided to restructure its operations. In February last GTT’s Chief Executive Officer Justin Nedd made the announcement. He noted that 120 positions would be made redundant over the following year. GTT has laid off several workers since, including long-serving employees.
General Secretary of the union Eslyn Harris stated that it is “reasonable to assume that the positions GTT wants to make redundant are all permanent positions”.
Harris related that the seventeen contract workers are employed within the same departments the company is “posing redundancy issues.”
When contacted for a comment on the hiring of seventeen contract workers, the company said “We will continue to provide employment for several hundred staff to best serve our customers.”
The union filed an injunction back in March 2017 against GTT, seeking to restrain the company from moving ahead with a restructuring of its operations, which would result in 120 positions becoming redundant.
During a press conference at the Union’s office on East Street it was revealed that the consent order was granted on April 12, 2017 by Justice Rishi Persaud for the management of GTT to abide by the law in its redundancy and restructuring actions. The company has to have meaningful engagements with the union in keeping with the labour agreement between the two.
The court order reads as follows: “…that the respondent company do engage in a process of notification and consultation with the Applicant Union under the terms of the Collective Labour Agreement between the Union and the Respondent Company, and in compliance with the provision of section 12(3) of the Termination and Severance Pay Act Cap. 96:01, before implementing its termination of employment of unionized employees by reason of a Redundancy programme and it is further ordered that the Respondent Company continue to engage in a process of notification and consultation with the Chief Labour Officer under terms of Section 12(3) of the Termination and Severance Pay Act Cap. 96:01 before implementing its Redundancy program.”
President of the Union Harold Shepherd said that the union does not resist the Company’s right to restructure to be more efficient, however the union will “hold the feet of management to the fire to ensure that the law of the land is faithfully observed.”
GPTWU sent a letter to the entity recently, requesting the organizational structure of the company; the structure in each department in terms of employees, the number of contract employees within the various departments, the number of temporary employees in the various department, a list of all the employees within the sector and their designation, and years of service of the employees.
“We would also like to have information as to the company’s objectives,” Shepherd stated.
Last week the company and union had a meeting.
Shepherd said, “It would appear to us that GTT is not willing to give us all the facts on this issue.”
The union says it is ready to resolve the redundancy issue “peacefully”. Shepherd explained that once the company complies and provides the necessary documents, the union will make a fitting decision. He emphasised that “anything less than that we will not accept.”

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