Labour Department to conciliate concerns of East Demerara Workers

Jul 06, 2017 News

– Agri. Minister unaware of workers’ plight but Union claims otherwise

A plethora of concerns affecting workers of the East Demerara Conservancy is slated to shortly

GWU President,
Mr. Norris Witter

gain the attention of the Labour Department of the Ministry of Social Protection. This is according to President of the General Workers Union [GWU], Mr. Norris Witter, who revealed that this development was communicated to the Union by Chief Labour Officer, Mr. Charles Ogle.
“We are agreeable to that so we are awaiting a date for conciliation from the Chief Labour Officer,” said Witter.
This development comes on the heels of a picketing exercise arranged by the Union.
On Tuesday, the GWU organised the picketing exercise in retaliation to its belief that the workers of the East Demerara Conservancy have been neglected not only by their managers but by Government as well.
Based on reports from union representatives the workers, numbering about 50, have for years been deprived of millions of dollars owed to them collectively. Some of the workers have reportedly ‘racked-up’ in excess of 30 years of service.
However, on the picket line outside the Region Street lawn of the Agriculture Ministry were less than a score of workers together with representatives of the Union. They were armed with placards some embalzened with the messages ‘It is time’, ‘Enough is enough’ and ‘Pay Up’.
However, according to Witter, who led the picketing exercise, the action was deliberately small “to register our disgust over the slothfulness of the East Demerara Water Conservancy [management] in addressing serious and critical concerns of the employees.”
He, however, noted that “if by this action we do not get the kind of response expected then we are going to intensify the action.” Escalating the action, he said, could take many forms including increasing the numbers on the picket line, moving the picketing exercise to various locations or even an extension of the process.
“We are hoping this action not only draws attention to the management that we are fed-up and disgusted with their procrastination but we will be happy if the subject Minister, whom we have written to and who has not had the courtesy of even responding to acknowledge our letter, if he also can take note of this action and more so, those who manage the affairs of the State…”
But Minister of Agriculture, Noel Holder, said that prior to hearing from this publication he was not privy to the concerns of the workers or the union. He claimed he wasn’t even made aware of a picketing exercise outside of his office Tuesday since he was engaged in a Cabinet meeting. “I can’t remember him writing to me at all,” said Holder of Witter’s claims.

The picketing exercise on Tuesday.

“I know nothing about it at all. This is the first time I am hearing about this problem,” said Minister Holder. He added, “I would look into it if I have the information. We are a caring government you see; we respond to these things.”
The concerns of the workers include failure to pay workers several allowances since 2012 and even failure of the management to address issues pertaining to workers’ contract of employment.
“We had employees who have worked with the Conservancy in excess of 12 years and to date are not in receipt of a contract of employment. Some may argue that they do have an oral contract but we have argued that it is always safe and more convenient and more professional for contracts of employment to be issued to employees where all parties will be fully aware of their rights and responsibilities under the contract,” Witter explained.
Others matters that have been of concern to the workers and by extension their Union is one of outstanding statutory payments to the National Insurance Scheme [NIS], Pay-As-You-Earn [PAYE] and the employees’ pension scheme.
However, Witter said the Union has observed that there have been some attempts to regularise outstanding payments to NIS and the PAYE. “Where the payments to the pension scheme is concerned there is some question marks surrounding how the management will proceed with that matter,” said Witter as he stressed that the general situation is characterised by “a plethora of deficiencies on the part of the management in addressing matters pertaining to workers’ welfare and wellbeing.”
Witter has made it clear that the workers have not only been neglected under the coalition Government but also under the former People’s Progressive Party/Civic regime. He said, “Under the PPP administration after engaging the management of the Conservancy and also the Ministry of Labour on practically all these issues we decided to write to the subject Minister.”
Ministers of Agriculture under the PPP regime, Mr. Robert Persaud and Dr. Leslie Ramsammy, were written to on the matter, Witter said. He, however, noted that “our letters to these two gentlemen did not evoke the kind of responses that we expected.”
A picketing exercise was mounted too and, according to Witter, “some efforts were made; a lot of promises were given.”
The promises, according to Witter, have continued under this administration too. “All of the promises have been broken. They say a promise is a comfort to a fool, well the fools have grown impatient and intolerant of the promises and we have decided that from henceforth we will take whatever we may consider to be appropriate action until the issues that affect the workers are resolved to our satisfaction,” the GWU President asserted.
Witter is of the view that some of the issues that have been highlighted have implications for policy positions taken by the State. He pointed to the issue of employment and noted that recently the management of the Conservancy was attempting to impose temporary contracts on the backs of the employees.
But according to Witter, “The Government has a policy position in its manifesto that wherever contract workers exist, they are going to phase them out and eventually eliminate that scourge. This management is [still] trying to do that.
“It is either they have no respect for the position as embraced by the State or they have scant regards for the employees or both.”
Managing the East Demerara Conservancy is viewed as a critical area of operation since it is regarded as one of Guyana’s main water storage and flood control facilities. According to Witter, if such a facility is not properly manned and there is neglect, there can be a repetition of the flooding situation of 2005.