– says remains legitimate representative of workers

THE Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU) within weeks will take legal actions against the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) and its board for withholding workers’ dues for more than nine months on the basis that the act is in breach of International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention.

GPSU’s announcement that it will take legal actions against the management and board of GGMC comes on the heels of a report in the local media that a counter union – the Guyana Civil Servants and General Workers Union – has been registered by one of its very members, Gregory Gaspar, to represent the interest of GGMC workers.

Gaspar, who heads the new union, has reportedly said that the GGMC’s management was instructed by workers not to pay over the dues to GPSU. A request has been made for the monies to be refunded to workers.

But on Thursday, GPSU First Vice President, Dawn Gardener and executive member, Mortimer Livan, told reporters that within two weeks legal actions will be taken against GGMC, its board and even the Natural Resources Ministry.
Speaking at GPSU’s head-office, Livan explained that there are rules-based procedures associated with membership of and resignation from trade unions. As of Thursday, the trade unionist said GPSU has not received any resignation letter from any of the workers it represents at GGMC.

“Union dues are statutorily deducted from members’ salaries and handed by the agency concerned and afterwards handed over to the union,” Livan explained while noting that in the case of GGMC, dues have not been handed over in nine months.
“In fact, their dues were deducted from their salaries premised on the authorisation they submitted to the GPSU which instructed the management to make the deductions in keeping with the rules of the union and to pay over to the union such amounts. These are the amounts that the GGMC are arbitrarily and unlawfully withholding,” Livan told reporters.

While the Guyana Civil Servants and General Workers Union may have a Certificate of Registration, Livan contended that it is not recognised by the Trade Union Recognition and Certification Board.

“As far as we are aware, the Guyana Public Service Union is the only recognised certified union with a certificate from the Trade Union Recognition and Certification Board to represent the workers at the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission,” the GPSU first vice president said as she weighed in on the issue.
Gardener said GPSU repeatedly wrote the GGMC, its board and even the Natural Resource Ministry on the issue, and to date has not received a single response. She said the union is now left to draw the conclusion that they are colluding with workers to breach the ILO Convention.

“The convention clearly states that management should not interfere in the internal affairs of the union, but here it is that they are doing it…. Here we are, these monies continue to be deducted from the workers’ salaries, and management is arbitrarily withholding the monies,” she said.

While the Guyana Civil Servants and General Workers Union is reported to have over 200 members with more persons expressing an interest in being members, Gardener emphasised that GPSU has not received a single resignation from any of the GGMC workers, and remains the legitimate union representing the workers there.
“We have never been challenged by no other union; so we continue to be the recognised union and we will represent all workers at the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission,” she stated.

Livan stated that while there are instances when workers are dissatisfied with the representation given by a union, in the case of GPSU, the union has been persistent in its representation of the workers at GGMC.