— Minister Hamilton tells trade union leaders

AS the country celebrated the contributions and achievements of workers on Sunday, Labour Minister Joseph Hamilton called on the leaders of trade unions to “make space” for youths in trade unionism.

The Labour Minister opined that young people in Guyana are not passionate about the union movement, due to there being no space for growth in those organisations.

He explained that trade unions in Guyana must make way for the succession of new leadership to better serve the workers of Guyana.

“Nothing can continue robustly unless you create the conditions to allow for new leadership and succession planning and that is another issue with trade unionism where the persons have taken over the unions and they are union leaders and whatever for life and therefore young people have no enthusiasm to participate, because they don’t see themselves graduating upwards to become a leader in trade unionism and those things you have to correct,” he stated.

The Labour Minister opined that local trade unions have “fallen from grace” in recent times, noting the significant decline in local trade unions. According to Minister Hamilton, Guyana which once boasted more than 100 trade unions, today has only about 18 registered trade unions.

NOT A CASTIGATION
“As I speak to you, we just have about 18 registered trade unions. So, you see how far trade unions have fallen from grace and people see this as comments that Hamilton makes to castigate. I’m not castigating, I’m making a point.”

Minister Hamilton stated that there is a definite need for trade unions to improve on their performance, pointing out that since taking office several training opportunities available for workers have not been taken up by trade unions.

The Labour Minister noted, in particular, that there are several training opportunities available at the Board of Industrial Training (BIT).

The ministry, he said, has been approached by the private sector, along with religious and international organisations which took advantage of the opportunities, while none of the local trade unions saw it fit to enquire about the opportunities for their workers.

“The Board of Industrial Training offers free training and in two years, private sector companies, church groups and international companies have come to the Board of Industrial Training to develop skillsets of Guyanese. I can say to you not a trade union, as far as I know, has approached BIT to say let us collaborate to do training in some specific areas to develop skillset or reskill people, maybe retirees who we have to reskill because they have retired.”

TAKE ACTION
Charging the trade unions to take action to protect the rights of workers, Minister Hamilton reminded them that they have a responsibility to lobby for equitable and fair treatment of their workers, noting that the ministry has an open-door policy as it relates to worker’s rights.

He noted that while the Ministry of Labour is not a labour union, significant strides have been made by the ministry to ensure that workers’ rights are protected.

Minister Hamilton disclosed that in 2021 alone, the ministry managed to recoup over $38 million that was owed to workers by their employers. He noted that in many of these instances, cases should have been made by those unions to represent and protect the workers.

“When I became minister there were many companies that had people working 12 hours a day as a routine and they weren’t paying four hours overtime they were paying them 12 hours straight.

I regularised that and straightened that out, now they pay overtime. There were companies who believed that they should only pay overtime after 40 hours, when the law is after eight hours, so those things we have done,” the Labour Minister noted.

Minister Hamilton noted that better must be done by local trade unions to safeguard the invaluable contributions made by workers who have played a major role in development of the country.