– Broomes orders DTL to remedy appalling conditions or close down
By Svetlana Marshall
THE Demerara Timbers Limited (DTL) has, for a number of years, allegedly been violating Guyana’s labour laws, forcing workers to work under inhumane conditions.
On Thursday it was reportedly caught red-handed when Minister within the Ministry of Social Protection, Simona Broomes, and a technical team made a surprise visit to its Mabura Hill, Region 10 location. Ahead of a planned meeting set for Monday, the company has been warned to get its act together or be shut down.
In addition to allegedly being involved in exploitation and labour-trafficking, senior DTL officers have been accused of verbally and physically abusing workers, with even a case of someone allegedly being spat on.
At a glance, the Occupation, Health and Safety (OHS) Officers could not help but notice that the majority of workers were not wearing simple safety gear in an environment considered to be hazardous. Denise Williams, 22, who has been working with the company for the past two years, told Minister Broomes that she wears to work a pair of rubber slippers daily, because footwear her size is out of stock. In fact, it has been out of stock for the past two years.
“They give me a big, big boots, and when I carried it back, they seh let me use that same boots. So I don’t wear it, because it does make I walk and fall down, and I left it home,” Williams explained.
Even as Williams was speaking, another worker began pointing to the safety boots he said he had been wearing for the “longest while.” The pair of boots was so worn out that his toes were exposed. “This boots is mass production. It doesn’t last long at all,” Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) representative Angela Henry added.
NO GOGGLES
But Henry told Minister Broomes and her technical team that the shortage of safety boots at DTL was just the tip of the iceberg. She pointed out that many workers are now becoming visually impaired because of the “saw dust” circulating in the atmosphere. It was explained that workers are not supplied with safety goggles, and the disposable respirators that are distributed are expected to last for months, as against one day.
“I am now experiencing serious problems with my eyes, and it is because of the dust. I does got to be going to Balwant Singh (Hospital), spending thousands of dollars to look after my eyes; and they don’t care,” Henry said. She has been working with the company for 12 years.
Cloreen Craig, another employee, has been working with the logging company for 24 years. She said the dust has damaged her eyes to the extent that she is now required to do surgery. She noted that doctors both locally and internationally would have considered her medically unfit.
“I am asking the company for them to take me off, but they wouldn’t. They just telling me hold on hold on, but nobody is looking into my matter,” Craig said, as she complained bitterly to Minister Broomes.
Though her workload has been reduced significantly due to her ill health, Craig said, the company is bent on keeping her on the job.
“The way I seeing it, they trying to frustrate me so I can go away and leave my money, my benefits. A time I went to the personnel officer and he said the company is asking why I don’t resign, and I said ‘No’; ‘why you don’t resign instead?’”
ANOTHER CRUELTY
Over at the band sawmill, Minister Broomes and members of her OHS team allegedly came face to face with another case of ‘cruelty.’ Hobert Cummings, another long-serving employee, controls the mill by sitting on a chair that is in the centre of the machine. It was explained that any wrong move made could result in the loss of his life or severe injury to his person.
Additionally, beneath the chair, heat emanates from the machine, making the condition even more unsafe.
“It is working manually right now. They said we will work it for two weeks, now three to four months gone and it still ain’t fix up to now; and it is not safe at all,” Cummings explained.
Upon hearing that a minister of government was at the sawmill, another group of young men, all of whom were no older than 20 years old, ran to her to lodge their complaint.
“They get a dutty water pond down deh, and whenever the water cut off, dem does call us to go and fetch water from de pan,” one of the three workers explained.
“All a we does fetch water from deh, but I is de only one that dem send home when I tell de boss man I ain’t going deh,” another one added.
Pointing to sections of their bodies, the trio told the Social Protection Minister that they had to seek medical attention after developing itches on their skins.
The sawmill manager, a Chinese national “named Sue”, was called as the large group of workers led the minister to the “filthy” pond. Divided into three concrete boxes, the ponds were filled with stagnant green water in which frogs, snakes and other animals may have died.
Asked by the minister, if he would ever fetch water from that filthy pond, Sue unhesitatingly said “No”.
“Are you more important that the workers here? Everybody got to be treated equally, and workers are not supposed to be forced to work in unsafe conditions,” Minister Broomes cautioned. She instructed the workers never to fetch water from the pond again.
BREACH OF LAW
Six other workers – the moulders – told the Social Protection Minister that they have been working at DTL for approximately 20 years, during which a decision was taken to put them on contract, much to their dissatisfaction.
“So right now we are not paying NIS, we ain’t paying our taxes, we ain’t paying nothing; so anything happen to we, we deh pun we own,” Christopher Kingston said. Due to the contractual agreement, the six workers allegedly do not benefit from any overtime on holidays and Sundays.
Those working at the power plant said they have been training for approximately two to three years. “They say we have to train to operate the engine, but if anything happen it still come down to we responsibility; we don’t have no supervisor, nothing. We don’t have no training session, but we on training,” Orwick Prince, one of the aggrieved workers, said.
The majority of the sheds at the worksite are on the verge of collapsing, posing serious danger to the workers.
In general, all of the workers complained bitterly about the poor working and living conditions.
“Me house get a big hole in front, I complaint about it three times to the personnel officer. Till now it ain’t look after. When the rain falling, the whole house leaking. Some workers living in lean houses, breeze blow lil too hard they might collapse, and is long we complaining,” one of the workers said, as she painted a vivid picture of the living conditions they are made to endure.
In addition to living in dilapidated houses, workers are at times supplied with brown water that it not fit for consumption. Since 2012, they allegedly have not been receiving 24 hours of electricity, and this without plausible explanation.
“That is a scrap iron pull together rolling on a trail,” one of the workers said as she described the bus that has been servicing the company since the 1980s. From Mabura to Linden (a 90-minute drive), the bus takes five or six hours, and in some cases workers, after labouring all week, had no other choice than to sleep on the trail, because the bus would have broken down.
“When de bus left Mabura 3 o clock to go out to Linden, you reaching till 10 o clock in de night, sometimes you have to sleep on the trail because it breaking down every two minutes. That is not a bus, that is an express train,” she said.
“They have a small vehicle, one small vehicle operating between the township and the worksite. when the bus go to Linden, and if you late, dem deducting money from yuh salary.”
The workers operating in the “forest” are allegedly being transported to their area of work in a dump truck that has no covering.
DYSFUNCTIONAL AMBULANCE
Like the bus, the ambulance is most times dysfunctional; and as such, the sick is often placed in the tray of a vehicle or in the bus to be transferred to the Linden Hospital Complex. “Before you reach out you might dead. They don’t care about us!” another worker lamented.
Coupled with these problems is the issue of low wages and salaries, about which the workers have been complaining bitterly for years. It was pointed out that the logging company pays non-skilled workers approximately $45,000 a month, while skilled workers are paid less than $60,000 monthly without any benefits.
Upon hearing the cries of the workers, Minister Broomes summoned the officer-in-charge, Kwangsiong Chuo, and the Personnel Administrative Manager, Ralph Trotman, to a meeting with her technical team, which included Labour Department Consultant Francis Carryl and Deputy Chief Labour Officer Lydia Green. During the meeting, the Labour Consultant informed Chuo of the major irregularities discovered on the logging concession.
“We have discovered, among other things, a set of workers who are being categorised as trainees, trainees for 2-3 years…. Trainee should be somebody who is in an apprenticeship programme, and I don’t think that you have an apprenticeship programme here. And therefore, that in our opinion… may very well fall within the framework of exploitation, and therefore we would wish to have that corrected immediately,” Carryl told him pointedly.
“In terms of sanitation, housekeeping, I think that is way out of order. Way out of order!” he added, pointing out that in one of their offices, five fire extinguishers were huddled together. That, too, he stressed, must be addressed immediately.
“This is not what we expected to find from a company that has been here for over three decades. What I see here today is far below what I left here 30 years ago,” said a disappointed Carryl.
NOT BE TOLERATED
In summoning the management of DTL to a meeting at the Social Protection Ministry Department of Labour on Monday, Carryl warned that disrespecting the ministry will not be tolerated.
“May you advise your principals that the level of disrespect that they have shown so far to the Ministry of Social Protection will be tolerated no longer? In fact, it was not tolerated, but we did not have the time…but now that we have stepped into gear, we wish for you to let them know that we will not tolerate any disrespect…. Twice they have refused to come; that will not be tolerated,” the Labour Consultant warned. He stressed that it cannot be business as usual for the Chinese logging company.
The Deputy Labour Officer, in the presence of Chuo, told Minister Broomes that the company would have violated all of the country’s labour laws.
“I am saying that the company has violated the Act in its totality…. This place, I am saying to the minister, should cease to work. I know it will be hard on workers, but this place should cease to work until it puts things in place. Put a strict timeline on this company. If they can’t correct it within that time, shut them down!” Green recommended at the meeting.
Minister Broomes said, “It just can’t be about production and then the workers. It has to be workers first, then production. You have to put the workers first.”
Minister Broomes warned Chou and the Personnel Officer that actions must be taken to improve the poor working and living conditions. Asked by Guyana Chronicle if he had anything to say in response to the concerns raised, Chou, who was previously smiled, said “No”.
