–gender equality proposed in industrial survivors’ benefits

By Ariana Gordon
BAUXITE workers will once again benefit from tax-free overtime as they did in 1988, Minister of State Joseph Harmon announced at his post-Cabinet press briefing at the Ministry of the Presidency yesterday.Harmon explained that the “reinstatement of the tax-free overtime benefits to bauxite workers” is aimed at correcting what government believes was “a punitive exercise” for not supporting the former People’s Progressive Party (PPP) administration.
“In 1988, bauxite workers were granted tax-free concession on overtime work. These concessions were enjoyed by workers until 2007 when they were arbitrarily taken away by the previous administration,” he told reporters.
The move by the PPP administration, he said, “adversely affected the earnings of bauxite workers” from Linden and Kwakwani.

WELCOME MOVE
Meanwhile, Lincoln Lewis of the Guyana Trades Union Congress (GTUC) yesterday evening said he welcomed the move by government.
“This question of tax-free overtime was struggled for in the bauxite industry; workers struggled for that,” he said.
Lewis explained that tax-free concessions were granted to bauxite workers in 1988 following an inquiry by Edgar Heyliger. Subsequently, he said, sugar workers benefited from the tax-free concessions. “What that government did when it came to power was to take it away. The Jagdeo administration took it away from bauxite workers but it remained in the sugar industry,” Lewis told the Guyana Chronicle.
He said too that “the argument put forward when it (tax-free concession) was given to sugar is that it was the two main productive sectors (sugar and bauxite).” Lewis believes that it was a deliberate attempt by the PPP government to stymie bauxite workers.
“It was a deliberate act by the PPP government to take it away from people who they perceive not to be their supporters,” he said.
Notwithstanding the past actions of the PPP on the tax-free overtime concession, Lewis said he is “encouraged” by government’s move to reinstate tax-free overtime to bauxite workers. “I would be happy if the government sees it fit that it remains in the sugar industry,” he added.
Asked if he believes other sectors should benefit from the same concession, the GTUC leader said given the current reform of the tax system, “we have to seek ways and means to make sure that people are not overtaxed regardless of what sector they are in.”
Asked about government’s position on unionizing the Bauxite Company of Guyana (BCBG) – Rusal – Minister Harmon said he couldn’t say as the matter was not considered at the level of Cabinet and so he was not in position to answer the question.

GENDER EQUALITY
Meanwhile, Cabinet on Tuesday approved draft legislation to ensure gender equality in the award of industrial and survivors’ benefits under the National Insurance Scheme (NIS). “This by way of an amendment to the National Insurance Social Security Benefits Regulations will be laid in the National Assembly shortly for its consideration,” Harmon said.
He told reporters that the amendments to the legislation will guarantee equal industrial survivors’ benefits for both men and women under the NIS. Currently only men benefit from the facility.