By Alva Solomon

THE recent issuance of warning letters by the management of the RUSAL bauxite company to 48 of its employees over sick leave has raised the ire of the Guyana Trades Union Congress (GTUC) head, Lincoln Lewis, who along with dismissed former employees are calling on the Government to intervene in the operations of the company.The GTUC has for years been accusing the Russian bauxite company of disregard for its employees, including subjecting them to working in unsafe conditions; and on Friday, several former employees of the company, who were among 57 persons dismissed by RUSAL in 2009, called on the Government to address their concerns and examine the operations of the entity, including its labour practices.

At a press conference held at the Critchlow Labour College on Woolford Avenue, Mr Lewis said the company had displayed much disrespect towards its workers as well as state employees. He said that at a meeting at the Ministry of Labour on Thursday, the issue of the suspension of workers and the matter in which 48 workers who received warning letters had been discussed.

He noted that a RUSAL management official stood across the table and refused to take a seat. He said that when the man’s turn came to address Chief Labour Officer Charles Ogle, his comments could be described as disrespectful.

He said that during the meeting, Mr Francis Carryl, who is attached to the Ministry of Labour, rose and looked at the RUSAL manager as if to gesture an indication for him to sit down, but that individual continued standing. To this end, Mr Lewis said, the GTUC and the workers were concerned at the treatment given to state officials by the company, noting that it was a precedent set under the previous administration.

Mr Lewis recalled an issue in 2010 in which persons at the company were allegedly fed rat-infested food. He said the five persons who protested the issue were subsequently dismissed. One of those former employees, Windsworth Blair, spoke of his experience on Friday. He said that persons protested and refused to eat the food cooked, and engaged someone attached to the personnel department of the company.

APPALLING
“We all went into the kitchen area where we go to various sections, and when we go through the store room where they have the rice, the flour and other food stuff, we find rats, some with young ones in the bags,” Mr Blair said.

He added that the Russian supervisor took pictures of the situation.

In another section of the kitchen, pork was hanging over chicken which was being prepared for consumption. He said that fluids from the hanging pork were dropping on the chicken. Surprisingly, the following week, he and four others were dismissed.

Another former employee, Lennox Smith, said he was a shop steward in 2010 at RUSAL’s Aroaima site. He was employed prior to the Russians talking over the company. He said that under the former management, there was hardly any instance of industrial action, but soon after RUSAL assumed control of the company, there were four instances of industrial action within a short period of time.

He added that RUSAL indicated that it had the blessing of the Government at the time, and that nothing would come out of any complaints made against its management.

Mr Smith said that as an independent nation, the rights of the ordinary worker must be respected. He noted that a majority of the workers at the company were Guyanese. In addition, Mr Smith said, more than 90 per cent of the persons who were dismissed were currently not employed. He noted that those persons were frequently reminded of their actions at their last place of employment, RUSAL.

He said some of the persons fired were women who have little or no means of employment; and according to him, the dismissed employees were skilled, including in the field of mechanical engineering and electrical work.

On Monday, this newspaper reported that Minister within the Ministry of Natural Resources, Simona Broomes, has sent a stern warning to mining companies which ignore the rights of workers within their employ.

Disrespectful attitudes towards workers in particular, she said, would not be tolerated, and sanctions would follow.

The minister sounded the warning during a meeting with workers who were dismissed or sent on indefinite leave by management of RUSAL. The Ministry of Natural Resources, Broomes declared, would not let the matter rest until the legal rights of the employees were addressed. The minister said she was pleased that workers were standing up for their rights.