Labour Ministry takes Woodlands Hospital to court

Jul 18, 2008 News

By Fareeza Haniff
The ongoing feud between the Guyana Labour Union and the Woodlands Hospital has taken a turn for the worse, as a meeting held between the two parties on Wednesday proved fruitless.
The Ministry of Labour has since decided to take legal action against Woodlands Hospital for failing to honour the decision taken at the recognition board. The Woodlands Hospital had signed an agreement with the Guyana Labour Union (GLU) where they recognized the fact that the GLU represents employees at the hospital.
However, on July 11, General Secretary of the GLU, Carvil Duncan reported that the hospital was in breach of the agreement signed and as such sought to arrange a meeting with the officials at the hospital to discuss the matter.
It was earlier reported that some of the members were told by officials at the hospital that if they joined the labour union, then they will be fired.
Duncan had told this newspaper that forms were sent to the hospital requesting that the union dues be deducted for those members who are part of the GLU.
However, although 93 forms were submitted to the hospital for deduction, only 32 were granted.
Duncan said that the hospital refused to grant permission for the others as they claimed that the forms were not authentic.
A further meeting was held on Wednesday to discuss the same issue, but according to Mr. Duncan, the personnel manager of the hospital turned up at the meeting and related that the directives of the hospital were not available to attend the meeting and as such she does not have the authority to make any decisions as it relates to the matter.
Mr. Charles Ogle from the Ministry of Labour was the conciliator at the meeting, and due to the stance taken by the hospital, the Ministry has since decided to take the matter to the court.
When Kaieteur News contacted the Personnel Officer (PO) of the Woodlands Hospital about the move taken by the ministry, the Personnel Officer noted that she is not aware that the ministry has taken legal action against the hospital.
It was earlier reported that some GLU members who are employees at the hospital have complained that they were called into the office of the Personnel Officer at the hospital and questioned as to why they joined the GLU and who encouraged them to be part of the union.
According to Duncan, some members were also told that they would be fired if they were to ever become a member of the Guyana Labour Union.
This, Duncan said, is a breach of the Recognition Agreement signed between Woodlands Hospital Limited and the Guyana Labour Union. The hospital selectively decided who shall be a member of the union and who should not, he added.
It was also reported that the hospital has been antagonizing the workers who are members of the union.
Duncan said the situation has reached the stage where the union’s shop steward was issued with a termination letter.
It is this that has led the union to conclude that the hospital’s attitude towards the members is tantamount to union busting, which, according to Duncan, is causing the workers to operate under serious mental strain.
Woodlands Hospital had explained that some of the workers disclosed that they had never seen the deduction forms which bear the signature of 95 workers at the hospital.
A source from the hospital had noted that after some of the workers realized that monies were being deducted from their salaries, they enquired and found out that $600 was being taken out of their salaries at the end of every month for union dues.
It was then that some staff members said that they are not part of the union.
Woodlands Hospital now has a total of 26 staff members whose signatures are on the forms for deduction of union dues, who are now claiming that they are not members of the GLU and that they never signed the said form.
In this regard, Duncan noted that the employees refused to admit that they signed the forms because they were afraid of being fired by the officials at the hospital.
While the hospital claims that the employees did not sign the forms, Duncan noted that to date, none of the said employees has complained to the labour union.

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Labour Ministry takes Woodlands Hospital to court

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