Dear Editor,
Oldendorff Carriers Guyana Inc is the company which does the transshipment of bauxite for BCGI/Rusal at Aroaima, Berbice River.
To date no Christmas bonus has been paid to the workers of Oldendorff Carriers Guyana Inc. I understand that Oldendorff sent a letter to their workers on April 29, 2008, which stated that the company would replace the Christmas bonus by a performance bonus payable in December of each year in the amount of 36 per cent of the basic salary, and in 2007 the company paid 35 per cent.
My question is why do the Oldendorff workers have to wait so long for their bonus when BCGI paid their workers the Christmas bonus in December 2009, which they normally do every year.
The issue of bonuses was reported by the workers several times to their union, the Guyana Bauxite and General Workers Union (GB&GWU). At a meeting GB&GWU held with the workers of Oldendorff at the New Amsterdam stelling on April 29, 2010, the workers asked the union when the company would pay them their bonus for 2009, because it is now several months into 2010 and no bonus has been paid to date. The union said to the workers that in meetings with the company and via phone they had asked that the workers be paid their bonus, but the company had told them they could not pay any bonus for 2009, because Oldendorff did not make any profit that year. The union asked the company for a document explaining how the operation has been run over the years, and proving that the company did not make a profit in 2009.
Which company would operate in a country without making a profit and still continue their operations?
The union also told the workers that all the companies they had bargained with over the years, especially foreign companies, had never had a problem about paying their employees the Christmas bonus.
There are a number of other grievances affecting the workers at Oldendorff. Some of the matters had already been negotiated and were included in the Collective Labour Agreement (CLA) which means that the company is in breach of the CLA. The grievances were reported to the GB&GWU by the workers a long time ago, and the union told the workers they had attended a meeting at the company’s office in New Amsterdam where they were discussed. In addition the union said the company would schedule a date in May 2010 to give the union answers.
Yours faithfully,
A Harris
Editor’s note
We sent a copy of this letter to Captain Zakaria El Dib, CEO of Oldendorff Carriers Guyana Inc for any comment he might have wished to make and received no response.
