Dear Editor,
The generations of Public Servants in the colonial days had to undergo mandatory medical examinations and be declared fit for service before the Chief Secretary would approve the appointment. I distinctly remember how athletic I still was just months after leaving Queen’s and having to undergo an examination by a foreign accented doctor at the Georgetown Hospital. Having recorded my personal particulars, and been assured that I did not smoke, he declared that I had passed the fitness test after agreeing that he liked Russian Bear Rum as I occasionally did. It would be instructive to learn whether a similar type of conversation has taken place between medical practitioners (public or private) prior to persons being recruited into the Public Service over the last two decades or more, particularly at a time when there is such a high percentage of female employees; not to mention the growing number of ‘Contracted Employees’. (Hopefully uniformed ranks are diligently examined and certified for recruitment).
However, concerns about the physical fitness of their employees was always displayed by the sugar industry – certainly with hospitals and/or dispensaries located in every estate community from Skeldon through to Uitvlugt – manned by Estate Medical Officers, Dispensers, Nurse/Midwives, Midwives, all well qualified – an environment that still obtains today. Because of the arduous nature of work in field and factory, as well as exposure to inclement weather, annual medical examinations were introduced by Bookers Sugar Estates in the 1960s. It was regarded as a most empathetic programme to the extent that it was the Chairman and Board of Directors who were the first subjects, followed measuredly by the respective levels in the managerial job hierarchy, by which time 28,000 non-managerial employees across eight estates willingly accepted the process. Obviously it was an extended process, but it earned trust. The programme was supported by a very proactive communication exercise that stressed management’s concern for its employees and indeed families. To date spouses and unemployed children up to age sixteen all enjoy free health care, along with pensioners of course. Needless to say every employment letter confirmed appointment, subject to medical certification.
In the seventies even before the industry transitioned as GuySuCo there was introduced the humane policy of conducting medical examination of field workers in particular who were 45 years and over, to discuss with them their capacity to continue stressful physical tasks, the objective of which was to avail the worker as far as possible ‘suitable alternative work’. One wonders where else such creativity can be found now. And years before the National Insurance Scheme was established in 1969, Bookers Sugar Estates became the first employer in Guyana to introduce a Contributory Hospitalisation and Maternity Scheme initially insured by American Life Insurance Company (ALICO) for all monthly and, subsequently, weekly employees. The Scheme was managed by the undersigned and from the initial financial returns BSE was able to fund the construction of the Ogle Diagnostic Centre. The Scheme has long since been self-sustainable. It is against this background that one reflects on the current unconstructed argumentation about the status of employees of public and private organisations who are not vaccinated against the existing pandemic infection. Inherent in some of the debate is the fundamental issue of trust between managers and managed in the particular organisation. It is not necessarily an isolated communication issue, but one about which the management team needs to reflect, that is on whether they are exemplars of humane leadership. So that it is respectfully submitted that this confrontation is not insulated in just an industrial relations context, but one that incites familial emotions, cultural sensitivities, even religious reservations – cumulating into a much more human situation than some decision-makers have so far considered.
In this regard it is never too repetitious to quote from Frederic Laloux’s highly acclaimed book “Reinventing Organisa-tions’ which, hopefully, in the following quote may just be found some relevance: “The more you know about another person’s journey, the less possible it is to distrust or dislike that person. Want to know how to build relational trust? Learn more about each other. Learn it through simple questions that can be tucked into the doing of work, creating workplaces that not only employ people but honor the soul in the process. This is how to weave a fabric of communal relationships that has resilience in times of crisis, resourcefulness in times of need. It’s a fabric that must be woven before the need or the crisis arrives, when it’s too late for community to emerge in the stress of the moment. So let’s make sure, in our language and in our practice, that we’re building collegial communities around persons as well as tasks, around souls as well as roles.” Is there now not a ‘time of crises? How many of us would not feel devalued for living without our convictions? It was Jock Campbell, Chairman of Bookers World-Wide and Socialist, who enunciated the Group’s philosophy that ‘People are more important than ships, shops and sugar estates’.
Sincerely,
E.B. John
Former Human Resources Director
BSE/GuySuCo
