AFTER resuming operations in December, Australian gold mining company, Troy Resources Guyana Inc, on Monday reported that it has resumed processing at its Karouni Gold Mine.
However, several of the company’s laid-off mining employees who were hopeful of being rehired when the company’s fortunes changed for the better, remain unemployed.

Some of the fired employees had been recalled by the company; however, several others were not.

The company issued a statement informing of this positive development. “Processing restarted a few days ago and work is moving apace to have the processing plant operate on a full time (24 hour) basis. All operations, including people and processes involved in the restart, are expected to be regularized and normalized by mid-February,” the statement read, adding that: “The company complied with all the requirements and received the requisite approvals for the resumption of activities from the various government agencies enabling it to restart operations. The restart, which is being done in phases, began progressively, initially with the employment of personnel involved in mining activities and later and ongoing with personnel involved in processing activities.”

The news is the latest development since the company is reported to have secured approximately US$10.3 million in funding to return the company to viability, and comes after it faced a number of compounding adverse situations since the October 8th death of an employee, Ryan Taylor, while on duty.

This culminated with the company terminating the services of some 227 workers in November after it shuttered processing operations since October 12. “Troy wishes to sincerely thank all of its employees, shareholders, suppliers and other stakeholders for their patience and support during one of the most challenging periods in the company’s history,” the company also said.

Some former employees believe that the company is purposefully selective in how it rehires staff, particularly sidestepping former employees who were members of the company’s union — the People’s United and General Workers Union (PUGWU).
“I heard they hire a lot of new people. They just call back one and two of the old staff. I have some friends that got called back, but they only call back who they want. They call seven persons from my shift that I know about. All the rest are fresh people that they hired. I guess they did that because they wouldn’t be able to do certain things,” suggested one former employee.

Another employee gave a similar understanding of the situation. “I know a portion of men got call, and a portion didn’t get call. I hear they’re hiring fresh people but the deal was that they would hire back the old employees. The claim is that some of the union people they not hiring back, but it’s not confirmed. They don’t have any reason why some of the people left out and they hiring fresh people to do the same work, when they have to retrain them and all that,” the former employee noted.

Calls made to the president of PUGWU, for his comment on the situation proved futile. An email sent to the company for a comment on the issue received no response up to press time.