–some owners duck, others warned

By Clifford Stanley
MINISTER in the Ministry of Social Protection, Simona Broomes, and a technical team from that Ministry on Friday found owners of several businessplaces in New Amsterdam , Region 6 (East Berbice/Corentyne) violating the rights of their workers.The business places visited were selected randomly, and the visits were done without prior warning on the first day of a two-day visit by the minister and her team.
Word of the impromptu inspections spread like wildfire, and in at least two instances, business owners chose to go into hiding — at least temporarily — to avoid being interviewed by the team, or having to produce records for inspection. Many violations against the country’s Labour Act, Cap. 98:01; against the Leave with Pay Act, No 6 of 1995, Cap 99:02; and the Occupational Safety and Health Act, No. 32 of 1997, were uncovered. Offences included employers not paying National Insurance Scheme contributions for their workers; workers recording extensive hours of work without being paid overtime; workers being paid below the minimum wages; no annual leave granted; and in some cases, workers — particularly young females — being coerced into performing additional duties, such as regularly having to give the owner’s dog a bath, or even cleaning up his/her domestic quarters before being allowed to leave. Complaints also included employers routinely using indecent language while addressing their employees.
The victims were in the main teenaged girls who badly wanted to earn incomes and who were inclined to bear up with long hours of work under inhumane conditions in order to do so.
The visiting team included Assistant Chief Labour, Occupational Safety and Health Officer, Ms Lydia Greene; Consultant to the Ministry of Social Protection, Francis Carryl; Labour, Occupational Safety and Health (LOSH) Officer (LOSH) Neville Nichols; LOSH Officer Amanda Radhay; LOSH Officer Maxine Bess; and Chief Recruitment and Manpower Officer Valerie Moore.
Minister Broomes, who also did a round-about in the town, disclosed that during her visits to the business places, she had found only one which was anywhere near to complying with the country’s labour laws.

RIDICULOUS
“We have this problem in other areas in the commercial sector countrywide, but what we found here verges on the ridiculous,” she said.
Some of the businessmen found in default were asked to surrender their records for examination. Those who are found to owe workers overtime will have to pay them “every single cent!” the minister said. Others are to be charged for violations which carry penalties that include fines and/or terms of imprisonment.
Minister Broomes took opportunity at the many businesses to remind the workers of their rights to overtime, to a one-hour lunch break, to reasonable accommodation, and to other obligations of employers in keeping with the labour laws of Guyana. She also indicated that the Labour Department of the Ministry in New Amsterdam will be beefed up, and more regular inspections targeting all of the businessplaces in New Amsterdam for compliance purposes can be expected.
She stressed that the objective was not merely to be punitive, but to encourage compliance with the laws which regulate the relationship between workers and their employers.
The ministry, she said, also intends to place equal emphasis on education of employers.
She considered the possibility of employers retaliating against workers who had spoken out, and advised the workers that should they be victimised in any way, they should contact the ministry and/or its Department in New Amsterdam, and the employer concerned would be made to face charges and related penalties.
“The ministry will protect you,” she told a 17-year-old shop girl.
She told the Guyana Chronicle: “I have heard some horror stories. Shop girls, security guards, labourers, the vulnerable and disadvantaged workers in New Amsterdam have spoken.”
The minister and her team also visited the headquarters of the bauxite shipping company Oldendorff, where she acknowledged that this company had a fairly good record of treating its workers decently. She, however, referred to a number of instances when remedial action can, and should, be taken. Captain Viktor Olin, Senior River Operations Manager, and Marlon Jaundoo, Senior Finance and Administrative Manager, who represented the company, said the issues would be addressed before the next inspection by a team from the ministry.
Minister Broomes and her team were scheduled to visit the Oldendorff trans-shipment operations known as the St Andrew’s Loading Base at the mouth of the Berbice River at 20:00hrs last night. She said the night visit was being done as an occupational health and safety inspection because the conditions under which the men there worked may be more realistically assessed during the hours of darkness.
Minister Broomes and her team are also scheduled to visit businessplaces on the Corentyne to carry out further inspections of employers’ compliance with the labour laws relative to how they should treat their workers.