Ministry of Social Protection agrees with GAWU representation on Berbice Bridge workers

Shift employees engaged by the Berbice Bridge Company Inc (BBCI) are being denied overtime payments whenever they work on weekends and public holidays they are scheduled to work. As a result, the Union represented the issue to the BBCI which sought to delay discussions until the next wage/salary negotiations. The Union then took the matter to the Department of Labour and represented that the workers were being discriminated against at their colleagues in other sections of BBCI – maintenance and administration – were receiving such payments whenever they worked on weekends and public holidays. The conciliator at a meeting held on September 27, 2017 agreed with the Union’s submission and recommended that the Bridge pay the workers such payments from the time the Union made its application to the Ministry. Since, the Ministry cannot mandate that its recommendation be adopted, the Company has sought sometime to consider the recommendation. GAWU is hopeful that the BBCI would approve the recommendation, failing which further representation would be pursued.