Strike action forces Labour Minister, team to visit Aurora Gold Mines on Monday

Jul 04, 2019 News

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Minister within the Ministry of Social Protection, with responsibility for Labour, Keith Scott, will lead a delegation to the Aurora Gold Mines of Guyana Goldfields on Monday.

The visit is to investigate the complaints made by workers.
For two days, some 250 rank and file workers attached to the Mines and Mechanical Division of Aurora Gold Mines Inc. had been on strike, due to several concerns over treatment they deemed to be abusive of their rights. They have agreed to resume work on the condition that Government works toward having their issues swiftly rectified.
The administration at AGM had turned off the internet connection at the mines shortly after the strike started, so that the workers could not contact the general public. But with the help of the National Mine Workers Union (NMWU), Kaieteur News was able to contact several workers and report the matter to the public.
According to a worker, what prompted the strike was the fact that the company hadn’t paid severance after their contracts ended with AGM Inc.
Back in March, Guyana Goldfields signed an open pit contract mining agreement with STRACON, a Peruvian contractor, focused on open pit and underground mining. STRACON’s work, according to the contract, commenced on July 1, last. It was expected that the mine workers would be rehired by STRACON.

A worker at the Aurora Gold Mine told Kaieteur News that it was agreed that they would be paid severance, but no one was paid.
When this publication contacted several workers, the lack of severance shed light on a much bigger issue: the fact that none of the workers are unionised.
There are several units, including Aurora, Tapir on the West Bank of the Cuyuni, and Buck Hall on the Essequibo. There’s also a Georgetown office at Turkeyen.
Kaieteur News understands that since 2016, NMWU President, Sherwin Downer, has been making efforts to have the workers unionised, but there has been resistance by the company.
Several persons claiming to be workers there have been contacting this publication throughout the past year with claims of workers’ rights abuses. They refused to go on record for fear of persecution by the administration.

A worker, yesterday, said that the company’s Human Resources Manager, Peter Benny, is not considerate of their concerns. He and other workers have described the Human Resources specialist as disrespectful.
Usually, with issues like these, workers would be pointed to the Department of Labour.
Recently, Downer had made another attempt to have the workers at the Buck Hall unit unionised. But when the Trade Union Recognition and Certification Board (TUR&CB) requested that the company provide several documents pertinent to the recognition process, Human Resources Manager at Guyana Goldfields, Peter Benny, met with a Senior Labour Officer and brought the process to a halt.
He told Kaieteur News that recognising Buck Hall as a bargaining unit would provide a complication, since workers are regularly transferred from unit to unit, based on the company’s needs. Downer doubted that that is sufficient reason to halt the process, since the application process provides for multiple locations to be registered.
Guyana Goldfields failed to keep the workers from complaining to the Labour Department. So the company was forced to make a statement yesterday.
The company’s statement blamed the strike on a ‘misunderstanding’ by the workers.
To give effect to the strike, the workers had blocked the delivery of ore to the mill. The company announced its decision to suspend service until a resolution is reached with the striking workers, and that it was in the process of evacuating all non-essential personnel from the site.
The workers said that they had camped out in the rain, and that on Tuesday, the company refused to feed them, save for one meal.
The workers started traveling to Georgetown early yesterday. Several buses were lined up at the Eugene F. Correia International Airport at Ogle, East Coast Demerara, to transport the workers from the port.
One team of workers arrived in the afternoon for a meeting with several government officials.
They arrived at the Department of Labour, where they were met with Minister Scott; Minister of Natural Resources, Raphael Trotman; and Chief Labour Officer, Charles Ogle.
After the meeting, Minister Scott told Kaieteur News that the workers outlined most of the issues affecting them.
“We have promised them that we will speak with the principal [of Aurora Gold Mines Inc.] and we’ve ensured that we will deal with the issues that are brought to the table, and to fast track the recognition for a union of their choice.”
The workers who took part in the meeting indicated that they have an interest in being recognised under NMWU. They said that getting a union to represent them is their main concern. The Department of Labour will now have to conduct a survey of all the workers to determine their union of choice. Minister Scott said that the discussions will consider all issues faced by all of the units.
Minister Trotman said that it is in the government’s interest to have normalcy restored. He said that he’d like to see production resumed as quickly as possible, but not at the expense of workers and their rights.

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