REFUTING claims made in a section of the media that it laid off 300 workers in 18 months, the Guyana Water Inc (GWI), in a statement on Friday, clarified that while some redundant workers were laid off the majority of the reduction in the company’s workforce was due to resignations and retirements.
Following a press conference held by the company on Friday, an article was published by a media house with a headline declaring “GWI saving $240M annually after laying off 300 workers in 18 months”. However, the company clarified that the headline was misleading at best.
“We wish to bring clarity on our restructuring process which occurred within approximately two years. First and foremost, it should be noted our retrenchment process did not affect 300 employees. Rather, the reduction of our workforce from a total of 1320 to 998, is owing mainly to attrition,” the statement said.
The company went on to further explain that: “Our termination exercise only targeted 77 personnel, many of which were redundant positions. The remaining 223 departed the company’s employ as a result of resignations and retirement. We also wish to state that where key personnel such as engineers may have resigned, management has moved to hire skilled persons to ensure our mandate is efficiently executed.”