SOME twenty-eight employees, including four captains and their entire crew, say that they have been arbitrarily dismissed by their employer, Prettipaul Investments(PI). According to the workers, their discharge was a heartless move by their employer. Guyana Chronicle made several attempts to solicit a comment from the company but was unsuccessful.
CAPTAINS and fishermen employed with the fisheries department of Prettipaul Investments took industrial action on Monday against the company. They were alleging that they had been robbed by the company on the weight of shrimp delivered, resulting in hundreds of thousands of dollars being deducted from their paychecks.
About 196 of the workers had assembled outside the gates of the McDoom, East Bank Demerara facility, declaring they had no alternative but to take strike action as their employers showed no regard for them.
One of the discharged captains, Harold Lewis told Guyana Chronicle yesterday that management met them Tuesday and singled out four of them for dismissal.
“Yesterday (Tuesday) we went down there and just like that they told four of us, ‘We don’t need you anymore’,” Lewis told Chronicle, and the men left while others were asked to stay.
He said further that after the men were not paid their salaries Tuesday they returned yesterday morning expecting to receive the monies owed them but many were told that they owed the company instead and received “not one dollar”. However, a few others had monies deducted for what they owed the company from a loan which they had received.
“We didn’t get pay and when we went there this morning, they told us we can’t enter the compound. When I told them I am here for my salary, they told me wait at the gate, the guard gon bring it… I just got the pay sheet but not any money,” he lamented.
The captain explained that at the beginning of the season the company would give each of the crew, including captains, a loan with an agreement to pay back $10,000 every month.
“The loan that the crewmen collect, it pass through me. They wouldn’t give the crew the money direct (but) the money go into my hand, that means I am responsible for it,” the man explained.
He said: “They take out everything! From all what they (the crewmen) balance, all come out of my salary. The whole balance for the money that they took from the crew, they took it out from my money.”
This captain explained that in the past workers had to endure various harsh conditions rather than take action for fear of victimization.
“The man (Prettipaul Singh) would tell you ‘go to who you want’ but we had nobody to go to,” he stated.
He said he has been working with the company over fourteen years and tagged the actions taken by his employers as “wrongful dismissal”.

Mistreatment
When Guyana Chronicle visited the dismissed workers at McDoom yesterday, one captain, Hilton Joseph Callendar spoke passionately about his mistreatment by the company.
The man said, “I work at Prettipaul for 18 years. We all know about the situation with the weight (so) I voiced my concern to him and he knock me off.”
He was at the time sitting under a shed by the public road with a few of his former crew members trying to find ways to deal with the situation.
The man said after he spoke to his boss Tuesday, “He (Prettipaul) said Mr. Joseph, I gon tie up you boat” and when he returned to draw his salary yesterday morning he was prevented from entering the compound.
“The people have no regards for you, (they) cuss you like a lil child. If you talk to he, he tell you get yuh (expletive) out the compound,” the man said.
The fired workers said they will not allow their services to go down in vain and will do all they can lawfully to receive justice.
“We ain’t turning back. It’s either he pay me for the eighteen years that I work there because is not eighteen days, is eighteen years!” Callendar said, and added, “He treat we like we is nobody. We call for so much seabob a week and they rob us. They keep back 7,000 pounds, 10,000 pounds and when you come back you still have to pay for it, what is it?”
Chronicle also spoke to three of the crew members who were told they were banned from the compound when they turned up yesterday.
Berchell Lewis, who is the brother of Harold Lewis, said he was escorted by security to pick up his personal belongings when he visited the workplace.
“I felt so bad that almost all of my personal belonging I threw them away,” he said.
He worked in the fishing industry for more than 40 years. “My father died on sea, my brother died at sea. I’m in this work about 42 years.” He said he was employed with Georgetown Seafood and after the owner died, the company was sold to Singh and he continued working there.
Malcolm Underwood said he has been employed there five years now, and while he is the main bread winner of his family, he too did not receive his salary. He worked with Captain Callendar.
“After the boat come in they tek off the captain because of whatever he must be tell them and when I come this morning they say I get ban and I can’t enter the compound. They never notify we with nothing. Just as we come to enter the compound I enter and whilst I going in the guard call me and said this thing (order) just come in front, you get ban. You can’t go in the compound, turn back.”
The man said: “I get a family. I get parent. I have a wife. I come with expectation fuh draw money.”
He said he owes the company around $44,000 on his loan but was told that his salary this time cannot cover his debt and he now owes them $4,000.
Mark Edghill was employed seven months ago with the company. He said, “They take out all the money. So the money that I draw now is 17,000. I have a family plus I gatto pay child support.” He too was banned from the compound.

By Shauna Jemmott