Workers attached to the Blairmont Sugar Estate on Friday participated in a picketing exercise, protesting what they said was the unfair dismissal of one of their colleagues.
The protest was spearheaded by the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) and involved 943 cane harvesters and 45 workshop workers. They expressed disappointment at how the management of the Blairmont Estate handled a matter which led to one worker being dismissed and another sent on leave for six weeks. They want the matter to be settled via a dispute resolution mechanism provided for in the agreement with the Guyana Sugar Corporation.
The union is contending that Dharamdeo Brijwala, a cane harvester at the Blairmont Estate was wrongfully terminated from his job while Khamal Seosahai was unfairly treated and suspended.
According to information gathered, Brijwala and a work mate, Nizam Ali had an altercation on the job but subsequently agreed to settle the matter. However, management got involved after becoming aware of the issue.
Brijwala vented his frustration to Stabroek News, as according to him, he received a harsher punishment than the second party involved.
“On the 5th August, both ah we get call to the field manager. He say me first, when me go in he said them had one hearing and that how me dismissed, so me left shock, shock, cause me ah think to me self, me na do nothing wrong to get knock off,” the man related.
“When the next guy go in and them talk and then he come out, me ask he wah them tell he. He say them warn he,” Brijwala recalled. He argued that both parties should have received the same punishment. Ali was not on the picket line and did not show up for work on Friday.
Workers representative Sevuraj Bridgelall informed Stabroek News that following the dismissal, union reps met with management of the estate and pleaded the worker’s case and contended that both men should have been handed the same penalty.
Meantime, Seosahai, a workshop mechanic, told Stabroek News that he was suspended because he stood up for himself in a dispute with the Assistant Factory Manager Muhammed Rasul. The man recounted that back in May, he was part of a strike with regards to untimely payment. “He (Rasul) called me and say ‘you,’ so I tell him talk to me properly, that use me name,” Seosahai recalled.
“He make one big problem because me talk for me rights,” he said. Seosahai also alleged that he was victimized by the manager.
When contacted, GAWU Regional Representative Harvey Tambron revealed that both matters will be taken for resolution under the dispute resolution mechanism.
