OP-ED: Oil sector workers

Jan 15, 2023 Features / Columnists, News, The GHK Lall Column

By GHK Lall

Kaieteur News – I see them as being among the forgotten in Guyana’s workforce. The general consensus is that oil workers have it good just by being employed in the sector. But when GAWU of all groups find it necessary to speak out and highlight the plight of Guyana’s oil sector workers, then it can be reasonably concluded that things are bad, things are going wrong, and that matters have reached such a state that public ventilation is an unavoidable step.

GHK Lall

It is not the first, nor second, instance that GAWU has seen it fit to go public and draw attention to what is going on in the oil sector and the treatments meted out to Guyanese workers. In the range of downstream support services that our fellow citizensare engaged, they have experienced the shabby, the degrading, and the second class. The record, as shared from time to time by GAWU, has been about medical coverage and when its starts and stops, overtime pay and its calculation, the attitude of foreigners to locals, and comparative treatment (pay, benefits, etc.) among other grievances. According to the Union, when Guyanese oil workers’ pay is the issue, and comparison is made to neighbouring Trinidad and Tobago, this is dismissed with a wave of the hand to lack of experience. Now I have some points of my own to make on this matter of fellow Guyanese being given the dirty end of the stick where their work and their worth are concerned.

As one who has lived overseas for almost half of my life, there is great familiarity with starting at the bottom, and working upwards. There is appreciation for minimum wage workers, for I have been one myself, and I can relate to how they are considered and compensated, and that is only for a start. I understand fully the position of GAWU about comparative pay, especially when the required qualifications are in hand. It is shocking to learn that our qualified oil sector workers are being paid at approximately a tenth of the level of their counterparts in the Twin Island Republic for an equivalent job. One tenth of the pay for lack of required experience? Not minus one tenth of the pay scale or package, but being the recipients of what I interpret to be one tenth of whatever is the amount paid for the job. That can never be fair, cannot be right.

From my perspective, such is beyond shocking and insulting, it is unacceptable. There should be a loud and constant banging on the doors of the Ministry of Labor to right this wrong, give some semblance of justice to Guyanese workers so impacted. For any foreign company to come here, participate in our lucrative oil sector opportunities, and then exploit our workers like this is beyond belief, should be a matter of an early warning, if not an actual penalty. It is appalling that any foreign company, any foreign manager, can be here and engage in this kind of conduct, and believe that they have a right to do so, and they are allowed to get away with it.

The foreigners come here with many preconceived ideas about the Guyanese workforce. If they did not do their own homework, they have their local conspirators only too glad to give them intelligence about how the environment is, and how to go about their business. We own this wealth, we should be calling the shots, and our own people, from leaders to the hustlers in the middle to the bottom, are only too eager to join forces with outsiders to sellout and sellout and sellout. Guyanese need jobs which is the first truth. Guyanese can be paid next to nothing, and they would not know the difference, and if they did, then they are not going to push back too aggressively, for they prefer to remain on the job, and not be out of bread. After all, they are not too many openings in Guyana, and this new oil sector is a space that must not be let go.

The foreigners know this and appreciate that they have the upper hand, which is what GAWU is up against. To some extent, the Union is handicapped, fighting with one hand, so to speak. However, as it keeps exposing these atrocities, I think that it is only a matter of time before the lid blows off, when impatience and anger takeover at higher levels. The problem with this is that so many side deals have been worked out in this country between politicians and outsiders, that everywhere locals turn for relief, they run into a wall.

How much of a difference an active and assertive Ministry of Labour can make! I believe that it can. And when I recall a recent matter involving a Trinidadian company, Ramps Logistics Inc., and the aggressive official approach (for whatever reason) that was visible, it conveys to me that if and when matters have to be taken in hand, then they will be. The will and energy and fight are all found. I say that the Ministry of Labour should find the same with our oil sector workers. Our oil sector workers need fair play, fair pay, fair considerations and conditions. They own this oil; they deserve respect.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of this newspaper and its affiliates.)