The GAWU’s Oil and Gas Branch has noted Exxon-Mobil’s local subsidiary recent announcement that some 2,800 Guyanese workers were employed in the oil and gas sector. It was said that Guyanese represented 53 percent of the workforce. Indeed, our Union, like many, believes that the participation of Guyanese should be improved as we are told efforts are underway to heighten local content. From media reports we recognize this is a matter which has attracted the attention and focus of the Government.
Though a great deal of attention is paid to Guyanese participation in the sector and the statistics may appear impressive on the surface, the reality is that oil sector workers are confronted by exploitative practices and, at times, demeaning relations. From our recent interactions, we wish to highlight just some disturbing occurrences employees from a well-known contractor must endure:
- Appallingly employees who are highly skilled and recipients of specialized training are paid at the national minimum wage ($255 per hour). To illustrate the preposterousness a school cleaner presently receives around $403 per hour;
- To augment their salaries, workers are paid allowances which can be capriciously altered at the whim and fancy of the employer. The employees must be subservient if they wish to receive some level of earnings and;
- Paying employees at the lowest possible level is, in our view deliberate ploy. It reduces the employer’s NIS contribution, thus if the worker is injured or ill, he/she would receive the lowest possible benefits. Additionally should the worker be terminated his/her terminal benefits would be pitiful as severance, according to the law, is calculated on basic pay (for GAWU members severance is calculated on gross pay);
- Disturbingly the pay arrangement is apparently devised and is managed by a firm that has interests of a now-silent critic of the sector. It causes us to wonder whether the seemingly former critic was silenced by oil’s sucre;
- Workers shared whenever they seek to address workplace issues their evaluations suddenly become worse. One worker related that when he raised this with his superior (a foreigner), he was told that he was asking too many questions and he needed to know how to dance;
- Another shared that when out at sea they are not allowed to communicate with their families but their foreign contemporaries are free to communicate with their loved ones;
- We heard drills are conducted many times as locals would prepare to have their meals thus preventing them from eating, and
- The employees shared with us a memo indicating that they should address issues with management directly and avoid seeking assistance or guidance from unions. The notice implies, in our view, that the workers freedom of association is undermined
Clearly, the situation is far from ideal and reminds us of what prevailed when the plantocracy ruled the sugar industry. Like then, the workers of the oil sector as seen as irreplaceable commodities while their owners extract profits and super-profits from their sweat. Today while the workers labour is exploited, the owners are accumulating wealth which generations of their families may not be able to expend while our Guyanese brothers and sisters are underpaid and undervalued.
The fragmentation of the workforce works against their interests Indeed, it is without a doubt that the sector’s employees need to become organized from them to secure fair conditions and pay. GAWU stands ready and willing to work with the oil sector workers to speak on their behalf and to bring about a better day for workers. We encourage workers to continue to reach out to us by WhatsApp – 623-GAWU(4298), Facebook – www.facebook.com/gawugy, Email: info@gawugy.com; Website – www.gawugy.com, by telephone – 227-2091/2, 223-5321, 223-6523 or by visiting our offices in Georgetown – 59 High Street and Wights Lane, Kingston, Georgetown or in Berbice – 8 St Anns Street, New Amsterdam. Berbice.
GAWU is convinced as past generations defeated the plantocracy, our workers of today can defeat the Oilocracy.
