Some 55 workers from the call centre NP Communications Inc yesterday protested outside the company after they were told they were being laid off.
NP Communications Incorporated (NPCI) located at 86 Section A Block X, Diamond, East Bank Demerara, made the announcement to the workers in meeting early yesterday morning, the workers claimed.
Infuriated at the sudden loss of income workers shared the deplorable conditions under which they have to work and expressed fear that they will not be granted any severance pay.
NPCI Director Naryan Prashad later told the media that he had been instructed by NPCI’s parent company in Europe to lay off workers every two weeks as the company had to be closed in March.
“Mr Prashad, the boss, told us that they are having cutbacks,” Darius Forde a Quality Control Agent with NPCI shared with the media. According to Forde, he is among the second batch of workers to be laid off.
Forde added that they were told in the meeting that the parent company for NPCI had issued the directive for the layoffs and the company is claiming that this was issued only recently. But Forde and the other workers protesting outside said rumours of closure of the company had been circulating since last December but were vehemently denied by management.
The workers are contending that before the layoffs, the company started to cut back the hours they worked and then followed with the layoffs.
“This company isn’t paying we. They don’t pay for overtime and Christmas bonus. From Sunday to Sunday they gah you working hey like a dog,” an irritated Kesha Wilkinson who is among the 55 laid off said.
According to the workers NPCI does not pay sick leave or maternity leave, the company pays time and a half instead of double time on holidays and Sundays and pays only $215 an hour. Many workers said they get paid fortnightly and complained bitterly about their bonusebeing taxed.
Many workers present outside the company yesterday said they were promised that their hourly rate would increase after three months but no such thing happened.
For Bonny Jones, 23, the layoff comes as a bit of a surprise. The young man said he had been working with NPCI for only eight months. But it had not been the best of experiences. He related that when he began training he was told that he would be paid but to date has not received the money for the two-week training he went through.
Further, the man said that his salary has not increased even though they were told that it would after three months. In addition, Jones said, while payslips show calculations for transportation allowances, the workers do not really get any.
Buses that are supposed to take persons home do not take them all the way. Persons working at the company come from as far as Timehri and Plaisance. As the handful of workers stood outside the locked gates of the company, two police officers were allowed inside. One of the workers had called the police following the meeting which informed them that they were laid off.Shortly after, the director spoke to the media and explained why the layoffs were so abrupt. Prashad, said his company worked with a European company, but he could not disclose the name of that company because of contract stipulations.
Prashad said the company had recently introduced new technology that reduced the need for agents at all of its call centres globally. He added that he only received notice from the European company to terminate services last Wednesday.
The company, he said, has to layoff all 167 workers for closure in March. Every two weeks a batch of workers will be laid off. Prashad said the directive from the European company stated that layoffs were to begin with immediate effect.
Yesterday the first batch of workers, 55, were invited to a meeting and told about their discharge. However Prashad is claiming that notice of the layoffs was announced on the company’s internal website.
“What we are doing is collaborating with the Labour Ministry… a list of all the names will be lodged with the minister for his approval and perusal,” Prashad said. He added that all workers being released will receive severance pay.
“Whatever the labour stipulations we will comply. We are not going to cheat anyone… We will give them every penny coming to them,” he added.
When asked about the conditions that workers complained about Prashad refused to discuss the matter. He would only say, “We have really good working conditions…we are transparent.”
In the meantime, Prashad revealed that he is trying to broker deals with a Canadian company and if all is well he will be able to rehire “most if not all” of the workers.
However, workers are contending that he did not reveal this to them. “What he expect us to do sit around and wait for his call?” questioned Forde.
NPCI has been in existence for three years, Prashad said. In 2009, NPCI bought three acres of land from the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) at the cost of $4.5M per acre for construction and development of a modern call centre with planned accommodation for 300 seats.
