Registrar corrects list of non-compliant unions

Aug 24, 2019 News

The Registrar of the Commercial Registry, Nicole Prince, has made adjustments to a list of workers’ unions which have over the decades failed to file their annual returns over varying periods

The Commercial Registry, Avenue of the Republic, Georgetown.

In an “Erratum” published August 10th in the Official Gazette, the Registrar listed and adjusted seven unions – the Guyana Labour Union; Guyana Postal and Telecommunications Workers’ Union; National Association of Agricultural, Commercial and Industrial Employees; the Guyana Public Service Union; Clerical and Commercial Workers’ Union; Guyana Agricultural and General Workers’ Union and the Union of Agriculture and Allied Workers’ Union – as having outstanding annual returns and failing at varying times to pay fees.
In accordance with regulations, unions and associations, regardless of their situations, have to file annual returns with the Registrar.
In recent years, the Registry has been pouring through its records to determine whether the unions and associations were complying.
Many of the largest unions were guilty of missing a few years, a number of them for decades.
With millions of dollars being handled by the unions, the issue of non-compliance has raised questions.
Earlier this month, the country’s largest sugar union, the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers’ Union (GAWU), denied it has not been filing its annual returns with the Registrar.
GAWU’s General Secretary, Seepaul Narine, has written the Registrar of Trade Unions, denying the union has not been submitting annual returns.
GAWU and several other unions were among 260 organisations named by the Registrar.
In fact, scores of the unions and associations had failed to do so for decades.
GAWU, in the original list, was said to owe for 1962-1965, 1967-1969, 1973, 1974, 1976-2010 and 2012-2018.
In its letter to the Registrar denying it failed to file, GAWU had noted that trade unions are exempted from the payment of tax, but required to file annual returns in accordance with Section 35 of the Trade Unions Act; Chapter 98:03, Laws of Guyana.
GAWU said that its returns up to 2017 were filed.
Among the unions and organisations also on the list were the Guyana Labour Union; the Forest Products Association of Guyana; the Guyana Nurses Association and the Guyana Minibus Association.
The others named in the list are the National Mine Workers Union of Guyana, the Federal Management Staff Association, the United Minibus Union, the Guyana Private Trawlers Association, the Guyana Customs House Brokers Association, the National Workers Union, the General Workers Union and the Guyana Teachers’ Union.

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