…Ogle says department has won many cases for employees in court
…urges citizens to be more careful when seeking employment

By Tamica Garnett
CHIEF Labour Officer Charles Ogle said that despite challenges, the Labour Department has been able to settle several matters in court on behalf of employees even as he also lamented that there are a lot of misconceptions as regard the role of the department.
Ogle was, in part, responding to comments made by General Secretary of the Guyana Trades Union Congress, Lincoln Lewis, who has claimed that the department is weak and ineffective. Lewis also spoke about the department being understaffed and not up to the task of some of the current industrial relations issues.

However, Ogle related that the issue of whether or not the labour department is sufficiently equipped to deal with the current environment of labour issues is not a simple one. He said on the issue of staffing at the department, like every other public service, the department would welcome additional staff. “We will never get enough. Nobody is at full strength, anywhere you could think of it everybody short– police, nurses, teachers,” Ogle said. More staffing however, Ogle said, would not be a quick fix to the situation.
Unnecessary cases

During an exclusive interview with the Guyana Chronicle, Ogle noted that a high volume of unnecessary cases have reached the department. He said the lengthy time it takes to ensure that some matters are dealt with appropriately, and complainants waiting lengthy periods before reporting an issue, all compound the situation of the perception of efficiency at the department. “Nobody is overloaded but the work is such that the matters are technical. A complaint isn’t going to be done one time, two time. Some complaints are so technical it could take 20 years, it takes a long time. It’s like court cases; it doesn’t finish abruptly,” Ogle explained.

Many of the matters dealt with by the department involve issues with employers not paying their staff. Often the cases end up in court. “You get complaints, but some people don’t understand, they feel that when they come they must get the solution right away, but it doesn’t work like that. When you make a complaint, we either write or call. Sometimes the people don’t come, or they don’t get the letter. Sometimes they get the letter long after the fact and we have to write them back,” Ogle pointed out.

He further explained: “From the time we put the matter in court, majority settle. So that’s it. But it’s a process that takes time. We have some people who pay right away and we have some people who go to court to challenge. That’s it. But we do our matters immediately.”

Many times, Ogle said, the department is forced to take employers to court, but it is here that the department gets the biggest of its successes having won many cases over the past few months. Ogle notes that complainants themselves play a role in adding to the situation, expecting nothing short of miraculous work from the department at times when they come to make complaints but have less than the bare minimum information required.
“There’s a lot of employment where there’s a lot of ad hoc arrangement, then when the employees don’t get paid on time or whatever they come here, and it’s a sad story. There are challenges. We are getting problems in the mining. People go by Demico House and pick them up, who want to work, with no proper contract. They don’t know the employer name, they don’t know the real name, they know a call name, no phone number; when they come to complain they don’t have information, they don’t have address, nothing. We can’t track them. So it poses a challenge. Nothing is difficult but it takes time,” Ogle said. There is also the case of persons not having a correct understanding of the responsibility and mandate of the Department. The Department is not responsible for getting injured employees compensation, and can only go after employers if they are not paying minimum wage, or are not providing the mandated health and safety conditions at the place of work.
Meanwhile, for his part, Lewis does not believe that the Labour Department is sufficiently equipped to deal with the situation. “At the Labour Department, you need a cadre of people, trained and competent people, who are properly paid To address issues that are brought before them. It’s a lot of work there and the turnover in the department is heavy and it’s heavy because of the conditions of employment,” Lewis said, adding that: “For both labour and OSHA [Occupational Health and Safety Administration] to monitor this country, with what is taking place in every region, they need to have continuous presence In fact, what you have in Georgetown can’t even monitor Region Four, so when you extend activities to Regions three and seven and two, you will get substandard work. In fact, inspection and enforcement is not about sitting down in the office, you have to be on the ground.”