MORE employees of Dipcon Construction Company received full severance benefits but are outraged that one year’s tax deductions were withheld from the government.Some 50 Guyana Labour Union (GLU) members were laid off last July by Dipcon and have begun receiving severance benefits following Conciliation talks in August by the GLU, Dipcon and the government, Saudia Sultan, Senior Labour Officer, Ministry of Social Protection, confirmed Friday.
Sultan said that based on the size of the package for laid-off workers, the government “will give them (employers) time to pay” dismissed employees. Some G$1M (US$5,000) was paid to the eight workers on Friday.
She confirmed that “the next full payment to severed workers is scheduled for November, when 10 more workers will receive their benefits.
Dipcon General Manager, Parmeshwar Ramkaran said his company still has an outstanding sum of G$3M (US$15,000) left to pay out as compensation “and this will be paid in three tranches, [with] the final payment scheduled for December.”
Ramkaran explained that the company was forced to slash staff following the steep rise in the price of construction materials on the local market, which hiked the cost of the Providence to Diamond stretch of the East Bank road.
He calculated price increases for materials to the tune of some G$600M (US$3M). Re-negotiating the road-building contract failed, and “an amicable agreement was reached” with the Guyana Government for Dipcon to walk away from the multi-million contract, he said.
“That’s why people got laid off,” Ramkaran explained.
Meanwhile, four former employees: Rajesh Kunjah, Kushal Bispat, Ramcharran Ramnarine and Winston Henriques, turned up on Friday at the Labour Department on Brickdam to protest the delay in payment of their severance benefits.
Spokesman for the workers, Eon Sancho, claimed that the company deducted higher amounts of NIS and Pay As You Earn (PAYE) from workers’ salaries, but failed to remit them. Taxes were deducted between August 2014 and July this year, as stipulated by local laws.
Sancho said workers have written the NIS and the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) on the issue, but so far, only the NIS has acknowledged their correspondence.
Dipcon still has some G$3M (US$15,000) in outstanding payments for the remaining terminated workers. Lakeram said the sum will be paid in three tranches, with “the last payment scheduled for December.”
The terminated letters noted that the construction firm wishes to “thank you for your exceptional services rendered and wishes you all the best in the future.”