– to strike if part payment not made by November 26

THE Mayor and City Council (M&CC) has been given an ultimatum by its two major garbage contractors to pay up some outstanding balances by November 26, or they will both pull their services from Georgetown.

Both contractors – Puran Brothers Disposal Services and Cevons Waste Management Inc. – wrote to the M&CC last week stating that it is not that they want to stop working, but their current financial positions cannot permit them to continue working without pay.
The contractors have not been paid since last June and even though the M&CC announced that it was going to make a part payment some time back, none has since been forthcoming.
Speaking with the Guyana Chronicle on Sunday Director at Cevons, Morse Archer, said even though the M&CC might not be able to cover all of the outstanding balances, his company is looking for a substantial payment before it considers if to continue working from November 26.

He added that his company belongs to a highly specialised industry and hence his trucks can only be used for one purpose — garbage collection.

“We also sent a letter to them some time last week. It’s not that we want to stop, but we do not have the money to continue working. We are struggling as it is. We told them we would pull off the same day as Puran’s have said they would,” Archer informed.
Kalesh Puran, manager at Puran’s, told the Chronicle on Sunday that the company had a meeting with the M&CC two weeks ago and that another was promised on November 23.
“Our current financial position doesn’t warrant us to continue. It is very, very tough to work without payment. Can you imagine working without pay for six months? Our letter said we would be forced to come off if no payment is made by the 26th. It’s not that we want to, but the company is seriously constrained,” Puran said.

The M&CC told this publication last week that while it was not ruling out a strike by the contractors for the Christmas season, the time of year when their services are most needed, emergency plans are in place in the event this materialises.

IN DISCUSSION
“We have not made any payments, but I’ve been in discussions with both of them and we have a temporary agreement, whereby they are awaiting payments. This period at council is a little tenuous with the CoI and everything else. Finances are very hard to come by right now, so it is agreed that they will facilitate us some time until we can actually make payments,” acting Town Clerk Sharon Harry had stated.

She said any manager would be concerned at this critical time of the year. “At Christmas time is when they are most needed and the impact [of a strike] of course would be very consequential to residents; but it would be remiss of me not to have contingency plans in place just in the event something like this should happen.”

Representatives of both companies said last month that they are frustrated by the M&CC’s inability to make timely payments to them.

“We are at a close breaking point… we had a meeting with the City Council and they promised to meet again to discuss payments; but it is annoying and frustrating, it is a consistent cycle,” Morse Archer had said.

The contractors had opted to pull their services in August 2017 when the City Council had racked up more than $400M in debts to the two companies. Although the companies had agreed to wait for payments for the years 2015 and 2016, the municipality was not even keeping up with its current balances for 2017.

Government stepped in and paid the contractors all of the outstanding balances and even went further to create a special arrangement to cover services up to the end of that year.
During that time, the contractors had anticipated that the City Council would make some effort to contact them on a new system beginning 2018.