RUSAL wants to pursue an anti-worker strategy - PNCR

RUSAL wants to pursue an anti-worker strategy – PNCR

Jan 08, 2010 News

By Brushell Blackman

“It is a disgrace for the Minister of Labour to sit idly by and allow this foreign company (RUSAL) to trample on the rights of workers in this country.”
This is the view of People’s National Congress Reform leader, Robert Corbin, who expressed the sentiment at his Party’s weekly briefing at Congress Place, while addressing concerns raised by citizens, at the treatment meted out to bauxite workers by the Russian company.
A little over a month ago, a number of workers were dismissed after they engaged in industrial action against the company, seeking increased wages and improved working conditions.
Corbin believes that the Russian company wants to embrace “an anti-worker strategy”, similar according to the PNCR Leader, to what occurred in Guinea.
Corbin informed that only recently one of the company’s officials at its Guinea operation was expelled from that country. He added that it had emerged that the company was adopting horrid labour practices in that country. Guyana’s Minister of Labour, meanwhile, came in for serious flak for his non-intervention in the local issue. Corbin emphasized that the government should end its selective approach in matters of this nature. He drew reference to swift intervention of the administration in the recent sugar workers’ and post office employees’ strikes.
He opined that what is even more disturbing is that, instead of government serving as the mediator in the issue, it has jumped on the bandwagon of RUSAL and is “selling out the bauxite workers” in the process.
The main opposition party expressed outrage at non-recognition of the Guyana Bauxite and General Workers Union (GB& GWU) by RUSAL. Up to the time of the strike, the union represented the interest of the workers. The PNCR also called on the company to honour Collective Labour Agreements and the laws of the country.
The party said it intends to pursue the matter vigorously with the government, which is a signatory to a number of International Labour Conventions.
Heaping scorn on the non-recognition of the workers’ union, Corbin said that such an act is unlawful, since there is an existing Trade Union Recognition Bill.
The party said that it hopes that trade unions will not allow the matter to drift by. It believes this can take root and set a dangerous precedent for other companies who may feel that it is proper to trample on the rights of workers.
The PNCR is urging RUSAL and the government to observe Industrial Relations norms and practices and reinstate the dismissed workers. The reluctance to embrace such a move can only be seen as unlawful and vindictive, the party said.

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RUSAL wants to pursue an anti-worker strategy – PNCR

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