THE Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Guyana (FITUG), has come out in solidarity with its affiliate, the National Association of Agricultural, Commercial and Industrial Employees (NAACIE) in its current industrial relations action on behalf of its members employed by the Guyana Power and Light (GPL).

FITUG says that after considering a brief from NAACIE on the matter, it is convinced that this issue concerns a fundamental trade union principle, “simply, but significantly, it has to do with the honouring of a Collective Labour Agreement (CLA).”
FITUG says that in the current industrial impasse between NAACIE and the GPL, the company is blatantly ignoring an existing November, 2001 CLA which is still legally in force, having never been superseded by any new industrial relations contract between the two parties.
This position however differs substantially from that of the officials of the Guyana Power and Light.
The power company’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Bharrat Dindyal, maintains that the CLA the unions have been harping on, has expired in its totality.
Chairman of the Board of Directors, Winston Brassington, is of the opinion that a new CLA has to be negotiated.
Dindyal and Brassington were at the time briefing media operatives on Thursday last, at the company’s Executive Secretariat in Kingston.
Dindyal in reference to NAACIE, told media operatives that the union continuously refers to the 2001 CLA but this had expired in 2003.
He said that its expiration was with the proviso that wages negotiation would continue from 2004.
Dindyal told media operatives that while the power company would have respected many elements of the CLA, in the years subsequent to its expiration, the union has signed onto several all-inclusive offers made by GPL that are no different from the offer now.
“As we understand it that agreement has expired in its totality,” Dindyal reminded and said that the position of the union now is that it wants the elements provided for in the CLA to be respected.
Brassington in his engagement with the media on Thursday said, “we have to sit and reach a new CLA,” adding that there are certain “clauses that really we need to flesh out.”
Brassington suggested that there could be a possible “consolidation” of aspects of the agreement but maintains that a new one has to be negotiated.
FITUG however maintains that the current position by GPL “is a flagrant breach of industrial relations principles, whatever the employer’s case might be.”
FITUG said it believes that the 2001 Agreement “is binding to this day as the union has respected conditions and clauses contained therein.”
Regarding the current offer of an all-inclusive five percent increase across board, FITUG says “what this technique does, besides ignoring the conditions applicable in the existing CLA, is to lessen the justifiable, even minimum demand, on behalf of the workers, by the union.”