THE People’s United and General Workers Union (PUGWU) is calling on the Ministry of Social Protection to ensure that the Oldendorff Carriers Guyana Inc (OCGI) lives up to its promise to sign a long-awaited union recognition agreement with its members without further delay.General Secretary of the PUGWU, Micah Williams, said that after four years of delays, the agreement should have been signed on November 19 last. At the request of Oldendorff the signing was pushed back to December 19th.
Oldendorff Carriers commenced operating in Guyana in 2006 under an 11-year contract with one of the company’s long-term customers, RUSAL, via its affiliate, Bauxite Company of Guyana Inc (BCGI).
The operation forms a complete logistics solution facilitating barging, offshore loading, and ocean transportation of about 2.0-2.5 million tonnes per annum of bauxite from mines located some 131 nautical miles up the Berbice River in Guyana.
Meanwhile, in a letter dated December 16th, Paul Scott Jones, Project Manager OCGI, said that Saturday, December 19, was not a good day for the signing as there was a very important company function which he could not miss.
He wrote: “We propose the 29th of December (Tuesday) at 14:00 hrs to sign, at which time we can have both OCGI signatories present.”

REINSTATEMENT CLAUSE
Williams, who expressed disappointment at the delay, said also that in addition to this, the company had indicated that it was no longer in agreement with a reinstatement clause which had been agreed to earlier.
“This clause states that if an employee is dismissed following an allegation and then subsequently found not guilty, he should be re-instated. The company is now asking that this clause be removed from the Collective Labour Agreement, saying that it is not necessary,” Williams said.
He said that this was contrary to all that was agreed on at the last conciliation meeting between OCGI and PUWU, held on Tuesday, December 15, at the Ministry of Social Protection.
“We feel that the reinstatement clause is a very important clause,” he said. He questioned whether this was not a deliberate attempt by the company to further delay the signing of the agreement, and expressed the hope that the Ministry of Social Protection would take action to defeat any possible delaying tactics by Oldendorff in the days approaching December 29.
Oldendorff workers have been without trade union representation for the past four years. The PUGWU has, in the past, accused the company of employing a large number of Guyanese workers on short-term contracts of one month, three months, six months, and even after many years of service, many are still not permanently employed.
The OCGI short-term contract does not guarantee any long-term employment. The contracts contain clauses that provide for OCGI to terminate workers’ employment at any time without any reason being given; and as such, the contract does not guarantee job security. The union, in its generally accepted draft Collective Labour Agreement (CLA), provides for all workers to be permanently employed after serving a three- month probationary period with satisfactory performance.