GPL management should consider the workforce

Mar 15, 2013 Letters

Dear Editor,
I would like to share some views on the handling of the recent strike in GPL. Firstly it is unfortunate that things reached the stage where the union felt that it had no choice but to call a strike. They had served notice several weeks in advance and the onus was on management to do all within their power to come to some agreement with the union instead of creating the ugly spectacle of appearing not to care about the workers’ wellbeing.
Secondly, making statements about the limited impact the strike was going to have instead of showing concern about what the workers were thinking and feeling showed gross disregard for the workers by the Chief Executive Officer.
Dindyal viewed this strike as a personal contest between him and NAACIE head, Kenneth Joseph, and as far as he was concerned the affairs of the workers were not a factor in the equation. Why else would he boast about how many contracted workers he had who were not members of NAACIE and therefore could not be involved in the strike?
Where is the concern for workers in all this?
Dindyal needs to become aware that the GPL’s workforce comprises human beings who have needs and interests that a CEO should be concerned with. They are not robots or machines.
Dindyal needs to be aware that he does not have much support from any section of the workforce. Senior and executive management fear him (with some notable exceptions) rather than like him. Many contracted workers who are not Wartsila employees want to come on the permanent staff but instead are having their tenure extended by a few months at a time. There is resentment there.
Young engineers with eight years experience are given the same pay as those with one or two years experience and are paid less than some less qualified persons in other divisions. It would not have escaped Dindyal’s attention that these engineers (GPSU members) whom he enjoys running down switched off their cell phones and/or reported sick during the strike.
Recently the Transmission and Distribution engineers reported sick when he summoned them for a ‘busing’. There has long been much bitterness there and Dindyal ought to know by now that these young gentlemen don’t fear him. I am sure he was also surprised by the number of female clerical employees from the Main Street office who supported the strike.
Dindyal needs to extend a grand gesture to GPL’s workforce. If he should take a voluntary 37.5 per cent cut in pay it would be well received by the workforce. That would reduce his salary from $ 2.4M to $1.5M or from $3M to $1.875M. He would still be super salaried by local standards. This may move Mr. Joseph to reduce his demand from eight per cent to seven per cent or even 6.5 per cent.
In 1992 Dr. Cheddi Jagan removed the then CEO Steve Bovell, claiming that he was super salaried and had been put there to serve partisan interests even though Bovell had been making steady progress in improving the electricity situation.
How would Mr. Ramotar describe Mr. Dindyal’s salary and benefits? By the way is Dindyal still Wartsila’s agent for Latin America? If he is then he is receiving commissions in addition to a super salary while operating in a conflict of interest situation.
Andrew Latchman

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