– Management says will work with govt. to resolve workers’ issues amicably

THE Department of Labour (DoL) is expected to meet with management of the Aurora Gold Mines, owned by Canadian company Guyana Goldfields Inc. by this coming weekend to begin discussions on several issues raised by the workers when Department officials visited the mines on Monday

“The guys they made some complaints, so we are to talk with management this weekend for them to resolve it as early as possible,” reported Chief Labour Officer, Charles Ogle moments after returning from the Region Seven mines.
Ogle was accompanied to the mines by Minister of Labour, Keith Scott, and other labour officials.

At the meeting, chief among the workers’ complaints was a timeline for how soon a poll could be done so that the workers could become unionized. Many of the workers are calling to join the National Mine Workers Union of Guyana (NMWUG), headed by Sherwayne Downer.

The Trade Union Recognition and Certification Board (TUR&CB) requires that a union garner at least 40 per cent of the workers’ votes to be eligible to represent the workers at a particular company or in a particular category.
The workers were not pleased that provision was not made for Downer to attend Monday’s meeting.

As the meeting began, the workers asked that the company officials leave the meeting, so that workers could feel safer to air their grievances. However, the company’s Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Suresh Kalathil, was allowed to remain.
“Suresh said he’s going to work with the government to have the situation resolved and having some of our needs met,” one of the workers who attended the meeting reported.
The workers were happy for the chance to air their concerns.
“Everybody voiced their concerns, but the main focus was to have the workers unionized so that we can have proper representation. That was the key focus, and we’re asking for a timeline for when we can get such done, and having the company agreeing to the union and whatnot,” the worker said.

The employees also spoke of their concerns over the food provided for workers at the mines; conditions under which they travel to and from the mines, which is done by flight; their overall working conditions, and being abused by their superiors; they also had concerns over their salaries.

Monday’s meeting was prompted after unrest began last Tuesday between the employees and the company over a dispute on severance pay, which employees say, aggravated an already strained situation. Last Friday the workers agreed to return to work, even as the issues were being addressed.

It was in March that the Guyana Goldfields signed a mining agreement with Peruvian company, STRACON, a move that would see mining employees being transferred from being employees of Guyana Goldfields Inc. to being employees of STRACON.
The employees are contending that since they are leaving Guyana Goldfields Inc. and starting as new employees of STRACON, they are entitled to severance pay from Guyana Goldfields. The changeover was expected to take effect from July 1, so when that date passed and the employees still were not told about their severance payments, despite queries, they became frustrated.

However, there now exists some uncertainty over whether or not the changeover was completed, and employees were reminded they could not receive severance until the changeover is complete.

“The workers from time to time have been threatened and intimidated by the supervisors, and the company has made a lot of promises to us that haven’t really come through. They would have you doing a lot of unsafe activity and unsafe work and if you don’t want to do it, they would threaten you to give you a dismissal letter or a warning letter, and they would like call you names and stuff like that, so it’s getting really overbearing. It’s time that we get the company unionised,” an employee had shared with Guyana Chronicle in an earlier interview.