Latest update January 1st, 2025 1:00 AM
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Casuals turn out for GPOC test
Harold Shepherd, President of GP&TWU
Some 45 former employees, all of them casuals turned out to participate in the two-day test set by the Guyana Post Office Corporation on Friday.
According to Harold Shepherd, President of the Guyana Postal and Telecommunications Workers’ Union (GPTWU), the figures range from one of the seven from Essequibo; six from the interior, 23 from Berbice and 15 of the 60 from Demerara and other postal districts.
Shepherd added there will be a meeting at the Ministry of Labour on Tuesday to resolve the issue between the post office and the union.
According to Yolaskee Jervis, Public Relations Officer for the GPOC, the GPOC and GP&TWU have a Collective Labour Agreement that empowers the GPOC to employ casuals.
In this Collective Labour Agreement a casual is defined as “one who has been employed by the Corporation to work intermittently but who on no occasion may be employed for a period exceeding twenty eight (28) continuous days.”
The spirit of the Collective Labour Agreement forbids the GPOC from using casuals to interfere with or displace unionised workers.
“Maybe Mr. Shepherd needs to explain to workers on the establishment why he is championing the cause of casuals and not the cause of unionised workers,” Ms Jervis said.
She added that the Board’s decision was to release all casuals throughout the entire network as of December 31, last, since this was found to be necessary to determine the accuracy of what vacancies exist at the GPOC and when these vacancies are to be filled.
When these vacancies are to be filled first consideration should be given to the persons who were released and who would have acquired some experience, knowledge and skills as Postal operators.
This is why the test is the fairest of processes that can be conceived, she added.
It was explained that staff and office rationalisation are an important components of GPOC reform programme. Currently the GPOC is working to turn the fortunes of the GPOC around.
Currently 60 percent of revenue is spent on employment costs, which, according to Jervis, is unacceptable.
According to Bishop Juan Edghill, the Chairman, the corporation expended close to $10M in excess of its budgetary allocation on its wage bill. The GPOC had not wanted to be biased in handpicking who should be dismissed and a decision was made to terminate all the casual workers.
He further said that the GPOC is a business entity and some casuals were promoted based upon their qualifications. The entity has to retain the best people for the jobs, he said.
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