Dear Editor,
Response is being made to Minister of Natural Resources, Raphael Trotman’s letter, “Workers’ rights are not being pushed aside” (SN, 9/10/2018). The issue of workers’ rights is taken seriously by me, hence it is inconsequential to delve into the personal, for such could obscure the germane issues under focus and avoid the duty to account. Universally acceptable principles which are grounded in United Nations’ Declarations, International Conventions and Charters, the Constitution and Laws of Guyana, are irrefutable facts.
It’s the first time, I – as a member of the Task Force (TF) established to look into the situation at the Bauxite Company of Guyana Incorporated (BCGI) and Oldendorff as a result of United States sanctions on Rusal, the majority shareholder in BCGI – am aware a Term of Reference (ToR) was issued to the committee by the Minister. According to the Minister, this hereto states, “Conference agreed that a task force led by the Minister in the Ministry of Natural Resources, and comprising representatives of the Ministries of Legal Affairs and Finance, would be convened to hold discussions with the workers of Rusal on the impact of the sanctions on the work force.”
There was no representative on the TF from the Ministry of Legal Affairs. The Ministry of Finance was represented by Minister Jaipaul Sharma. With all due respect to Minister Trotman, the quoted aforesaid is not considered a ToR. It represents an overarching direction/objective the coalition administration desires to pursue. Discussions have to be guided by some specific framework, which harness the process, and make meaningful the objective, based on actions taken.
The ToR was conceptualised and developed by the TF committee, based on interaction with the affected workers and stakeholders, and came up with two areas considered critical. These are examination of: a) current workers/employer relationship at the two companies; and b) should sanctions be fully imposed, the alternative route government must examine for implementation.
Instructively, even as the coalition claims to have an interest on “the impact of the sanctions on the work force,” such cannot be addressed without being mindful of the need to examine same through some framework that would guide implementation. The best course is through the Rule of Law which would determine action(s), including policy formation and programme(s) implementation. Workers at BCGI and Oldendorff are represented by trade unions and addressing the impact of sanctions on them necessitates enforcement of the Collective Labour Agreement, which has within, a section that guides the treatment of severance.
Where the companies continue to show no regard for workers’ constitutional rights (as ensconced in Article 147) and Section 23 (1) of the Trades Union Recognition Act, Government is empowered to enforce Section 4 of the Labour Act to secure Section 23(1) and Article 147. It is a primary function of government to maintain and ensure a stable and harmonious industrial relations environment through the tools available to it, which are stated. What we continue to get is inaction on government’s part and last Wednesday (3rd October), we learnt government will hold the recommendations in the TF Interim Report, which attended to these rights, in abeyance. I maintain, we the people are not being well served by this act of government, for rights are never held in abeyance but ought to be respected and enforced every single day of our lives.
Like the Bauxite Report, it has become a tendency of government to have the wastage of human and other resources in the establishment of a number of task forces, commissions of inquiry and forensic audits, only to later not act on the recommendations therein.
To the Minister’s claim that his 20th December 2017 letter – sent to BCGI management pledging government’s hands-off attitude to employer/workers relations – is being misread, let it be made clear; while that letter came after the Guyana Revenue Authority and BCGI collaborated on a system to refund overtime and cease its taxation, which was something the Guyana Bauxite and General Workers Union (GB&GWU) for years fought for, it does not absolve accountability of a Minister of Government, lawmaker and attorney-at-law, where an acrimonious labour environment exists, to say the coalition government will take an “arm’s length approach to union matters.”
The APNU+AFC administration is duly credited for restoring a benefit the bauxite workers fought for and achieved in 1988, which the Desmond Hoyte administration extended to the sugar workers and the Bharrat Jagdeo administration arbitrarily took away from bauxite workers even as it was maintained for sugar workers. It is not BCGI’s management that restored tax-free overtime. That’s a function of government’s decision-making and a directive the company has to carry out. Overtime refund has not restored the industrial relations’ environment to normalcy.
Further, my presence with the Minister earlier this year at BCGI does not change the content of his 20th December 2017 letter. My presence, his or Minister Simona Broomes’ has not seen the management’s attitude to the workers changed in a favourable direction. In fact, such respect can only come when government, as guardian of our Laws, sees to the enforcement of the Laws.
I’m on record repeatedly saying the issue of Labour is complex, cuts across every agency in government and the importance of having a Ministry of Labour to recognise and shape policies and programmes consistent with universally acceptable principles. The absence of this understanding is being reinforced in Minister Trotman’s letter, the Guyana Teachers’ Union/Ministry of Education stand-off, the sugar workers’ issue, and so many more. Labour deals with the interest, welfare and rights of citizens, from childhood and even after retirement. The coalition has no policy position/white paper to guide them accordingly, hence the president and ministers continue to speak and act out of turn, often lurching from one misstep to another.
Minister Trotman has within, the capacity to do the correct thing and should not shirk from it.
Yours faithfully,
Lincoln Lewis
