ACTING General Secretary of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) and President of General Workers Union (GWU), Mr. Norris Witter yesterday pledged the support of the umbrella body to former CLICO employees in their pay dispute.

Joining them in a picketing demonstration outside the Camp Street, Georgetown headquarters, where they demonstrated with placards, he said the former workers of Premium Security Services Cooperative, a subsidiary of CLICO Guyana, had approached the TUC recently, seeking representation and they were unionised yesterday.

Former workers of CLICO Guyana that were attached to Premium Security Services protesting in front of the CLICO Headquarters on Camp Street yesterday.

He was supportive of the more than 200 who were attached to the Georgetown, Houston, New Amsterdam and Bartica branches, but have not received their remuneration.

“First of all, the terminations were in breach of the law,” Witter declared, adding that the workers, having not been paid for whatever benefits they are entitled, have a case of double jeopardy.

He said his union has not had any formal relations with the management and need not have any.

“It is about the company’s legal obligation to its employees,” Witter said.

He said the management must fulfill this obligation and, while the workers are struggling, “we still have a CEO who is responsible, to a large extent, for the debacle…the mismanagement of this company.”

Witter said the Judicial Manager of CLICO is on record saying that a lot of those at the insurance company, including the Chief Executive Officer, Ms. Geeta Singh-Knight, did not know what they were doing.

“She should have been in jail but continues to earn a monthly salary while all these workers are suffering but time will tell,” he said.

Witter indicated that yesterday’s action was the first salvo and, if the dispute is not resolved within three days, the TUC will be mobilising the fired employees who have been “cheated and robbed of their rights to wages and monies that are due and outstanding.”

He said the struggle will not be limited to CLICO Guyana but the demonstrations will be taken to other strategic places.

Witter invited the public to join the CLICO workers in their fight, declaring that “an end has to be put to this nonsense.”

The demonstrators yesterday were protesting against the non-payment of their salaries and their termination as well being deprived of other benefits.

They walked about in front of the premises with slogans proclaiming their anger and frustration at not being paid their due since the March closure when the entity where they were employed was placed under judicial management.

The placard bearers said they have been off the job since March 24 and, as most of them have no other means of income yet, they are calling on management to pay them what is theirs.

They said, when they sought audience with the management, they were told that they will be contacted but no contact has been made to date.

The complainants said they also tried to secure the intervention of the Ministry of Labour but to no avail up to now.

Efforts to reach CLICO Guyana proved futile but, in an invited comment, Minister of Labour, Mr. Manzoor Nadir acknowledged that his officers have received some of the complaints and are presently working to address them.

He, however, advised all those affected to visit the Ministry and register their concerns, so they can be investigated but cautioned that a process has to be observed before the issues can be resolved.

CLICO Guyana was put under judicial management last February 25, following a successful application by the Government of Guyana in the High Court, when the financial position of the company became known.

The Guyana subsidiary of the collapsed Trinidadian conglomerate, CL Financial, had invested some 53 per cent, equivalent to US$34M, of its assets in The Bahamas affiliate but it was not revealed until after the latter went under, leading to deeper investigations into the viability of the former by the Commissioner of Insurance, Ms. Maria van Beek.

van Beek, still recovering overseas from a gunshot wound inflicted by a lone gunman in the city last April, has, as a result, recommended that the company be wound up, as its liabilities are more than its assets.

The Government of Guyana is presently engaged in efforts to have the money invested in The Bahamas recovered locally.