The Labour Ministry has launched its own investigation into the allegations made by Aroaima workers against the General Manager of Operations of the local RUSAL subsidiary and will be meeting with all the parties involved on Friday.
The Ministry’s decision was conveyed in a letter sent on Monday by the Deputy Chief Labour Officer Clive Nurse to the Guyana Bauxite & General Workers’ Union (GB&GWU). In the letter, which Stabroek News saw, Nurse said that a team from the Ministry will be visiting the Aroaima Mines on Friday at 11, “to meet with Management, staff and all parties involved in this matter”. The union was invited to attend this meeting.
Meanwhile, the GB&GWU through its Acting General Secretary Carlton Sinclair, in a letter to Nurse, said that the workers involved in the matter are scheduled to go home on their regular break during the period Thursday 19th May and early Friday 20th May, 2011. The union suggested that it will be appropriate for the ministry to consider alternatives so as to engage the workers.
In another correspondence sent to Nurse, which this newspaper also saw, Sinclair said that the union will be attending the meeting. Sinclair further said that the union wanted the ministry to also address “upholding the sovereignty of this nation, enforcing the Labour Laws 98:01 and 97:08, respecting of workers’ rights, and resolving outstanding issues”.
On Friday, the Guyana Trades Union Congress (GTUC) called on the RUSAL-subsidiary Bauxite Company of Guyana Inc (BCGI) and the government to sanction Ruslan Volokhov after he allegedly threatened employees with a spade in his hand.
Over the weekend, the company announced that a committee consisting of senior managers of the International Alumina Division has been appointed to investigate the matter. Volokhov has proceeded on leave to enable the probe, the company said.
The RUSAL-commissioned team has arrived in the country and is currently at the Aroaima worksite, this newspaper was told. The team was to meet workers on Monday afternoon but this meeting was cancelled, a source told this newspaper.
The workers complained to the GTUC that two Sundays ago Volokhov threatened them with physical violence. The threat, the GTUC said, “was made to the workers when they were in the company’s bus at the camp site.”
The threat was reportedly sparked by the inability of the workers to attend work on time on Sunday, since there was no water to shower because the pump at the site was cut off, owing to some problem. The water returned at 9 am on Sunday.
One source told this newspaper that following the incident, letters were issued by the company’s management to about 20 employees. The source told this newspaper that on Sunday, the management wrote to the workers apologising and saying that the warning letters would be withdrawn.
Efforts were made to retrieve the warning letters issued to the workers too, the source said. The General Manager, the source said, has not been seen at the worksite since last week Monday or Tuesday.
