…probing electric shock of employees last year

CHIEF Labour Officer, Charles Ogle, said that the Department of Labour (DoL) had written to the Bauxite Company of Guyana Incorporated (BCGI), a subsidiary of Russian company RUSAL, requesting additional information as the Department continues to analyse payments made to the 326 workers who were terminated by the company on February 2.
Minister of Labour, Keith Scott, meanwhile, says “dialogue between the company and the Department continues”, while the Department is also still investigating the incident whereby two employees of the company suffered electric shock, last December, while on duty.

The DoL had requested a spreadsheet with a breakdown of payments made to the 326 workers who were terminated by the company to independently verify that the amounts paid were what they were supposed to be. Ogle confirmed that the DoL received the requested spreadsheet but now needs some things clarified. “We are doing the calculations still, but we had to send back. We had some queries and they wrote us telling that they will send a response,” Ogle related, in an interview with the Guyana Chronicle.
In addition to their severance and other benefits, the employees were also due an additional one month’s pay, given that they were terminated without notice, as required by Guyana’s labour laws.

The National Industrial and Commercial Investment Limited (NICIL) the agency which is in charge of the government’s 10 shares in BCGI, earlier this month, paid the dismissed workers their February salaries in light of ongoing discussions with RUSAL, which owns the other 90 percent shares in BCGI.

The DoL has been continuously engaging with BCGI, and its employees’ union, the Guyana Bauxite and General Workers Union (GBGWU), for approximately one year to iron out issues between the two. On February 2, RUSAL announced that it had fired the 326 workers, transferred expatriates, and suspended operations at the Region 10 mines. The DoL in subsequent meetings had been pushing for the company to rehire the workers. The company has not made any commitment to the request and was expected to consult their principals in Russian.

The terminated employees, however, have long been convinced that the company was shutting down its operations entirely, and was attempting to ship as much as possible out of Guyana before doing so.

In defiance, they have been maintaining, for over one month now, a blockade across a section of the Berbice River to prevent the company from shipping out any equipment or materials from its Kurubuka mines. In addition to rehiring workers the Union is calling for the company to address issues concerning salary increases and compensation for two workers who suffered electric shock. Minister Scott said the investigation into that incident has not yet concluded. “We’re ensuring we cover all the bases. We had to interview every single person, we didn’t want to miss out anyone so that is ongoing,” Scott said.