President of the Postal and Telecommunications Workers Union (PTWU), Harold Shepherd says they are giving the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GTT) some time to reach out to them before they take any further actions to address the company’s decision to retrench 120 workers.
Speaking to Stabroek News on Wednesday, Shepherd related that the Union is currently in a position where they are waiting on GTT to formally reach out to them to engage in a discussion about their decision.
However, Shepherd related that no time frame has been set, but they are not “prepared to wait for the next month. We have ways and means of addressing the issue and we believe that we have the law on our side,” he said, while stating that since the company breached the law by not notifying the union of their intended action to sever their workers, they have broken the labour agreement that they would’ve signed onto.
In terms of potential actions against the company, Shepherd said, “We are leaving all of our options on the table in terms of addressing the actions against the management. We have several options such as the industrial relations arena, and we are prepared to take whatever course of action is necessary to bring some level of relief to the employees of GTT,” he said, while stating that the Union does not want to set a time frame since it is a “developing situation.”Last week Wednesday, the telecommunications company had announced in a statement that they would be restructuring their operations, and as such 120 employees would be made “redundant”.
It said that the restructuring was aimed at aligning the company with the new environment in which it provides services. “GTT expects that about 120 positions would be made redundant over the next 12 months,” the statement had said, while pointing out that six workers, drawn from multiple departments had been laid off.
However, even though the company had released a statement, the PTWU had explained to Stabroek News that no consultations had been done with the Union, which Shepherd had said was unlawful, and did not follow the Labour Laws that the company would’ve agreed to.
While the company has over 700 employees, Shepherd had related that the PTWU represents approximately 220 of them and even if the workers that were released, and who are going to be released, are not represented by a union, the company has to notify the Ministry of Social Protection’s Department of Labour of their intention, one month in advance, along with whatever union is on board.
Shepherd had also added that essentially the company was dismissing their workers since their actions did not run parallel to the Labour Laws. “I see it as dismissal, not redundant workers. When you’re making a person redundant there are certain guidelines you must follow and if you breached those guidelines then you’ve essentially dismissed those employees,” he had said.
