GPOC protests…
REPRESENTATIVES of Guyana Post Office Corporation (GPOC) and Guyana Postal and Telecommunications Workers Union (GPTWU) met at the Ministry of Labour on Tuesday for conciliatory talks on the continuing dispute between them, over the layoff of casual employees.

Minutes before the negotiations began, GPTWU President Harold Shepherd said his organisation expects the status quo to be maintained and the casual postal apprentices (CPAs) to be given back their jobs, in keeping with the collective labour agreement (CLA).

GPOC and GPTWU had previously agreed to inform each other as far as possible, in advance, about developments, he said.

Acting Postmaster General Henry Dundas declined to comment on the outcome of the Tuesday proceedings.

In a recent release, the union charged that the dismissal of the workers is in violation of the time honoured principles laid out in the Memorandum of Agreement between the two parties and the Termination of Employment and Severance Pay Act (Act No. 19 of 1997) Part 3 Section 7 (a) (b) and (c), singularly or collectively.

The union said the category of employees was continuously employed with the GPOC for 225 working days or one year and the issue of them being appointed was addressed at the bilateral level between themselves and the GPOC management with a timeline given, by the latter, for the completion of the appointments on January 1, 2010.

The union said the GPOC explanation for firing the CPAs, because its budgetary allocation was exceeded by $10M, is “unfounded, absurd and meaningless.”

GPTWU argued that the GPOC is a service oriented entity and, to ensure timely and proper services are provided, budgetary allocations will be exceeded.

The union emphasised that it is its intention to amicably settle issues that arise with the GPOC management but alleged that its efforts are being thwarted by the interference of Chairman Juan Edghill.

This has resulted in the creation of “mayhem and undue hardship” for the workers, GPTWU argued.

However, despite protests that continued this week by the affected CPAs and concerns voiced by GPTWU, Edghill maintained there is no disagreement between the two sides.

He had responded to the protestors, earlier, at a media briefing on Monday, stating that GPOC cannot continue to carry the excess burden of unregularised employment.

GPOC statistics, as of December 29, 2009, show that the wage bill was in excess of $10M above the $25M allocated for casual workers last year.

CONSENSUS
Edghill said, after a statuary meeting the previous week, a general consensus was reached, by the Board, that the services of all casual employees should be terminated by December 31, 2009 and they were notified of it then.

He also denied knowledge of pending protest actions. “We had no notice and we did not know there was a dispute.”

A casual is an employee who is employed for a period of up to 28 days, in place of another who has gone on leave or some other circumstance.

But Edghill said a situation arose where an employee would return to work and the apprentice still remained on the job and all casuals were sent off because GPOC did not wish to appear prejudiced, by handpicking and the intent was not to displace anyone but to regularise the system.

He said a casual does not have to be a very qualified person because of the short term nature of the job but, due to the casuals remaining, a situation developed where there was long term employment of some poorly qualified persons.

Reiterating that the GPOC cannot continue to carry excess burden, Edghill declared it is not a charity but a business and is expected to deliver.

He said, if GPOC cannot produce, it will be unable to pay workers and the current position has become one of sympathy.

Edghill said the excuse often used is that GPOC does not want to take bread out of people’s mouths but that bread is being taken out of the regular employees’ mouths because they were not paid their six per cent increase as other Government employees.

He said, too, that all casual workers are eligible to reapply for jobs and promised that all postal services will remain unhindered.