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Airport Expansion project…Local truckers accuse contractor of exploitation
As the Cheddi Jagan International airport expansion project continues to move at a fast pace, little is known about the plight of the local truck operators who work with the contractor, China Harbour Engineering Company Ltd.
Trucks carrying sand to the expansion site
This publication visited the expansion site recently and it was evident that the project has gone a far way. But, despite the progress, local truckers are concerned about the working conditions they have to endure, the fact that they’re being underpaid, late payments, exploitation, their vehicles are being damaged almost on a daily basis in addition to their employees risking their lives on dangerous roads leading to and from sandpits.
Most of the contractors speaking to this publication said that in the contract signed with the Chinese company, it was stipulated that they would be paid 14 days after the 21st of every month, a stipulation that was never honoured by China Harbour.
Another monetary issue is the fact that they (contractors) are being underpaid, one contractor said that after buying fuel and paying employees, there is no money left to pay auto dealers who they would have purchased trucks from to work on the Airport expansion project.
As a result some have missed as many as two months of instalments and are on the brink of court cases in addition to sometimes not being able to pay employees.
Another sore issue raised by the trucking contractors is that they are being paid the same price for trucking sand longer distances than in the initial stage of the project. An example related was that in the beginning of the project, they used to truck sand from the pits to the area of expansion for a distance of 1 kilometre, now in the latter stages they are being paid the same money for carrying sand as far as 5 kilometres.
It was revealed that if a truck is capable of carrying a 30-ton load and they carry a ton short, they’re not paid for the short load but instead the Chinese company takes the short load for free.
A truck driver speaking under condition of anonymity told this publication that the Chinese contractor had agreed to maintain the roads leading to and from the sandpits, however they never lived up to the agreement, and as a result the roads are badly deteriorated.
Damaged trucks and excavators.
This poses tremendous problems for truck drivers, as they damage their vehicles almost on a daily basis. At the camp site this fact was evident as there were at least 10 vehicles being worked on and numerous others that were parked due to damage.
Another issue lamented by the truckers was that the Chinese supervisors would normally force them to dump the loads of sand in dangerous spots; this has resulted in four trucks overturning and drivers sustaining injuries.
In another damning allegation, a local contractor told Kaieteur News that he had made a road for the Chinese company to use as part of an agreement. The company was supposed to pay him for the use of the road; after one week and the destruction of the contractor’s “private road”, the Chinese said they no longer wanted to use it and did not compensate the man for the one week or the damage.
This has led to the contractor calling on the relevant authorities to investigate China Harbour.
Other truckers are pleading for the Ministry of Social Protection to step in and intervene in what they call “modern day slavery”.
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