The National Communications Network (NCN) has agreed to meet the Clerical & Commercial Workers Union (CCWU) to discuss the sacking of Andrea Bryan, which occurred early last month after she had attended a UNICEF sponsored seminar in Trinidad.
This followed persistence and insistence of CCWU General Secretary Grantley Culbard.
A press release from the union, which was issued yesterday, said NCN by way of a letter addressed to Culbard, which was sent on Friday, said it was “now prepared to meet with the union to discuss Bryan’s termination.”
Bryan, the release said, was terminated on December 6 following the trip, which she believed her employer had approved when she had received her ticket since it was the sponsor who had written to NCN seeking her release.
“In spite of her explanation given to NCN as requested by them, they demanded that she resigned or be fired. The General Secretary advised her not to resign over such an issue, which advice she followed and she was promptly terminated,” the CCWU release said.
Repeated requests by the union, for a meeting to discuss the issue, were not taken seriously by NCN and in fact, NCN repeatedly said the termination was without prejudice and “in keeping with paragraph (2) of the termination clause in her employment contract and in accordance with the Termination and Severance Pay Act, Chapter 99.08 of the laws of Guyana.”
The CCWU in its New Year message, in reference with this very matter had warned: “If such employer behaviour was to go unchallenged then we would be entering into a dangerous trend in industrial relations in this country. It is contempt for the union when an employer refuses to meet with it to discuss something that was irregular.”
The meeting between the two parties will be held on a mutually convenient date and time, the release added.
