Coalition had doubled GWI employees, Govt. claims as it moves to lay off staff

May 30, 2021 News

GWI’s CEO, Shaik Baksh

Kaieteur News – Chief Executive Officer of the Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI), Shaik Baksh, has confirmed that the utility company is gearing to lay off a number of staff members as a result of the entity’s high wages bill and related production. This, Baksh claimed, was due to the fact that the staffing complement was doubled by the Coalition Administration under the leadership of then Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Dr. Richard Van West-Charles.

CEO Baksh gave the disclosure this past week during a press engagement and told reporters that as it relates to staffing at the entity, “when we compare 2015 to August 2020, we found that the employment numbers moved from about just over 600 in 2015 to over 1,300 in 2020.”

This, he said, led to the employment costs being increased from about $96 million in 2015 to $240 million in 2020. He drew reference to a recent exercise undertaken at the utility company that addressed the rationalisation of the staff in the establishment of GWI.

According to Baksh, “this much-needed rationalisation process started about eight months ago, in which an in-depth study of the organisation was undertaken in the light of the huge employment numbers and especially the employment cost.”

To this end, it was noted that at August 2020, there was staggering 140 percent increase and “we recognised that this was not sustainable at GWI,” and this led to the decision to undertake the rationalising of staff at the entity.

The official said that the exercise was linked primarily to the productivity ratio, “that is, the staff count to 1,000 employees.”

He said the company had to address its financial operations saying, “We have to look at the expenses – not only employment costs, energy cost; we’re looking at other areas of operations, chemical uses and all of these things, and therefore, we had to proceed in this and we reached a stage where a number of employees will have to be terminated in accordance with the law.”

Alliance for Change (AFC) General Secretary, David Patterson, had earlier this week forewarned of the impending retrenchment by GWI and called the move an unchecked assault on public sector workers. He had reported in a public social media posting that a decision was taken this past Monday when the executive management team of GWI “came up with their latest hit list.” According to Patterson at the time, “several dozen staffers are to be made unemployed from June 1, 2021. The usual lame excuse will be given, which is mainly GWI is financially challenged. However, instead of making operational changes, they are using this excuse to get rid of hard-working employees.” This, he said, is in light of the track record of GWI since August 2020, which includes two major frauds of $30M and $100M.

Speaking to the dismissal of the workers, Patterson had cautioned, “In the next week, over 100 staffers of GWI will be dismissed. The right to employment free from discrimination because of gender, ethnicity, or sexual orientation is a constitutionally guaranteed human right along with freedom of choice.”

GWI, he asserted “cannot be allowed to discriminate against these workers – after all Water is Life and this unchecked assault on Guyanese will affect all of our lives, now or in the near future.”