Latest update March 29th, 2024 12:39 AM
Jul 05, 2013 News
Frustrated workers attached to the Mayor and City Council (M&CC) are complaining of not being properly represented by the Guyana Labour Union.
Several workers claimed yesterday that even though they are being “disrespected and robbed” by their employer – City Hall, the Union has not been doing anything “solid” to assist them in getting what they deserve.
According to these workers, one of the issues affecting them is being unfairly forced to work overtime, with threats of unreasonable dismissal from their jobs.
Security guards attached to the council recently explained that if an employee decides not to work on a weekend or holiday, he or she would receive a suspension notice warning that should they be in receipt of three such notices, he or she would be dismissed.
Many are skeptical about working the overtime shifts, as they have not been paid monies (overtime) owed to them from since the latter part of 2011 to March of this year. It was alleged that these payments would amount to at least $100,000 per person.
In addition to this, Kaieteur News understands that City Hall employees are made to choose between their entitlements – their pension and the gratuity – for their years of service to the council.
“We are being disrespected and robbed. Pension is taken out of our wages as a saving for us when we retire, and the gratuity is paid to us for our years of service. Now they are only giving us one of the two, and that is wrong. By right, the pension scheme is our hard earned money that they taxing from us all the time. It isn’t fair for them to make us choose between our own money, and our entitlement,” a security guard recently told this newspaper.
Another worker added yesterday “even though they doing all this to us, the Union ain’t seem to care. We paying them a fee and dem ain’t look like they give a damn about what happening to us at the bottom of the ladder.”
Several phone calls made to the union’s General Secretary, Carvil Duncan, and the Minister of Labour Nanda Gopaul, went unanswered.
However, when contacted, Mayor Hamilton Green said that delayed payments of backlog money are due to some delinquency, and that he will look into the situation. He also noted that both the Town Clerk (ag) Carol Sooba and the Guyana Labour Union (GLU) have been made aware.
Just recently, via this publication, Local Government Minister Ganga Persaud explained that workers would have to take private action against the council, since the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development cannot issue any sanctions.
These workers have all maintained that “rich people are not employed with the M&CC and poor people should not be made to suffer and beg for money that they have worked hard for”.
THIS IDIOT TELLING GUYANA WE HAVE NO SAY IN THE 50% PROFIT SHARING AGREEMENT WE HAVE WITH EXXON.
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