SENIOR Personnel Officer Treudel Marks at BOSAI Minerals Group (Guyana) Inc. yesterday said that the Linden bauxite company cannot go ahead with the proposal by the National Association of Agricultural Commercial and Industrial Employees(NAACIE) that employees be placed on an eight-hour per day schedule instead of 10 and 12 hours across the board.

According to a press release from the bauxite company, it is apparent that the union did not consult all their members in relation to the proposal. The expected confirmation from NAACIE did not materialise and that proposal is on hold after the meeting was halted abruptly by some disgruntled workers.

The NAACIE union representatives last Friday at a meeting with the company and the chief labour officer at the Ministry of Social Protection in Georgetown had among other proposals proposed that all employees be placed on an eight-hour instead of 10 and 12 hours work schedules in light of the intended retrenchment of some 47 employees, due to an unstable sales market situation facing the company.

The BOSAI management had requested that this be conveyed to the workers for their approval and yesterday the union was supposed to confirm that the decision put forward last Friday by the workers bargaining unit was what the employees wanted.

In the release yesterday, management through its Personnel and Industrial Relations Department stated that “while at the meeting, some employees disrupted the process by banging on the door of the conference room, demanding to speak with union representatives and bringing the meeting to a halt.”

The union representatives indicated to the employees that it was an illegal act to speak to them on company premises and they were not sure if they could even speak with them at that moment. After an intervention by the senior personnel officer, two union representatives met the workers while another stormed out of the meeting angrily calling it a waste of time.

“During an angry discourse with the union representative and the employees, mainly staff employees, it was pointed out that the union never consulted them on the issue of reduced working hours and that the union cannot just make a decision on their livelihood to reduce their pay. They said this will not happen, while further demanding to speak with the general manager on the issue, since the union representatives now see them as ‘these people’ and not ‘members anymore.’”

The press release stated further that the general manager and senior managers listened to the angry employees speaking out about non-consultation on the issue by the union and they were not in agreement with the decision of reduced working hours.

PETITION
A petition was sent to the union and one was also given to Senior Personnel Officer Treudel Marks by the employees against the decision of the union to reduce their hours of work.

However, Marks explained to them that they had to speak to their union representatives off the company’s premises. After the employees had proceed to the northern gate (exit), the senior personnel officer reconvened the meeting and repeatedly asked the union whether the employees had agreed with the proposal.

The union subsequently stated that they had held meetings with the majority of their members regarding the eight hours per day proposal instead of 12 hours per day work schedule and they were going with this decision. They, however, refused to give management a written confirmation on the decision.

Last Friday, management said that it would accept the reduced working hours proposal with the understanding that the union had consulted with their membership about the reduction of working hours and would inform management of their decision by 10:00 hrs yesterday. Additionally, management said that if the employees through their union had agreed to the reduction of hours to prevent retrenchment, then the company was willing to acquiesce.

Concerning the issue of overtime payments, management said it was very confident that overtime payments were computed and paid in accordance with the labour laws of Guyana.

REGRET

Further, management said it regretted that it had to make the decision to retrench workers, but this was necessary for the survival of the company, the employees and the community as a whole.

The release said also that the current situation of the company is that both calcining kilns are out of operation and several pieces of mining equipment parked and there is then highest calcining inventory at this time.

Last month, management had notified its workforce and NAACIE that a decision had been taken to shut down calcining kilns Nos.13 and 14 for approximately four weeks which began on July 8.

Marks then stated that “during the first half of 2014, the company had operated both calcine kilns. However, during the latter half of the year only one kiln operated due to the decline in markets for bauxite.

In 2015, the company continued to operate one kiln, while sale of the company’s bauxite products further decreased. At the beginning of the year 2015, a decision was taken to park eight pieces of equipment in the mines. To date, storage places are filled and bauxite products are being dumped on the ground around the plant.

In light of this, she reported that to sustain the operations management has decided to shut down kilns Nos. 14 and 13 for approximately four weeks which can be extended or retracted, depending on the marketing situation.  There will also be a reduced working period of hours worked per week to 40 or eight hours per day within the Bauxite Plant Division. The mines will be allowed to continue working the 12-hour shift schedule to extend and safeguard the stripping lead and general repairs and maintenance works will be done throughout the company.

According to the release, after the shut-down of the kilns, the company will operate one kiln for the rest of 2015, which will result in the reduction of staff during the first week of August 2015.

However, to date NAACIE and the company have been unable to negotiate how this reduction of employees will be implemented and there is now the suggestion about all employees in the mines and the bauxite plant working eight hours a day, the release concluded.