The Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) was disturbed to read the article in the June 30, 2017 Guyana Chronicle titled “Keep your jobs” that reported the events of a community meeting, hosted by GuySuCo, at the Wales Community Centre on June 29, 2017.
The article, among other things, quoted GuySuCo’s Chief Industrial Relations Manager (CIRM) as saying “…if the employees continue to refuse work they are liable to terminate their own employment and lose severance pay as well as all those benefits”. The GAWU wishes to remind GuySuCo that as a result of its steadfast position in refusing to provide the 350-odd Wales cane cutters and cane transport operators their redundancy payments that it is acting contrary to the Termination of Employment and Severance Pay Act (TESPA). On this score, we wish to again point out that the Union was forced to take the matter to the Courts in order for the workers’ rights to be respected and upheld. In view of the matter in Court, should the Corporation decide to terminate the workers concerned, as articulated by the CIRM, it would be engaging in, obviously, contemptuous behaviour.
The CIRM, according to the Chronicle, reportedly goes on to say “…the workers agreed to remain on the Wales Estate payroll and be transported to Uitvlugt for work”. This is plainly wrong and deceptive; maybe it is that the erstwhile gentleman is imagining things. To set the records straight, the Corporation invited the Union to a meeting on February 01, 2017 at the LBI Staff Club where it communicated that it wished to have the Wales workers going to Uitvlugt. The workers representatives and Union in response suggested that the workers be consulted individually since previously the Corporation had committed to providing them with their redundancy pay should they so desire. The request was agreed to by GuySuCo. Those consultative exercises were to be held on February 08 and 09, 2017 at the Wales Community Centre. At the first consultative exercise, in the morning of February 08, 2017, the workers demanded their severance. The scheduled consultations in the afternoon of February 08 and 09, 2017 were not held. Attempts to further address the matter was resisted by the Corporation thus the Union’s decision to seek legal intervention.
The Corporation’s ill-defined threat by its CIRM shows the depth to which it will pursue to compel the workers to go to Uitvlugt. The fact is that the law is on the side of the workers and all that the Union is seeking from the Corporation is for it to honour its statutory obligations and abandon its cunningly crafted schemes that promote the wretched system of forced labour in our society.
