Barama sacks four workers

Oct 30, 2010 News

– asked to reverse decision by government

By Leonard Gildarie
Following a boiler shutdown that forced the closure of its plywood factory earlier this month, Barama Company Limited (BCL) has decided to sack four staffers whom it blamed on the incident.
However, the Ministry of Labour has since asked the company to reverse the decision.
Yesterday, two supervisors, a senior operator and a plumber, were given letters by the company, reportedly thanking them for their services. The company also reportedly deemed the workers “ineligible” for any redundancy package.
Kaieteur News understands that the operator is the one being blamed the most. The company has also indicated, labour officials confirmed, that it would be giving the other three workers ex-gratia payments due to them.
The four men took the matter yesterday to the Ministry of Labour.
Chief Labour Officer, Yoganand Persaud, confirmed that he met with top BCL officials and the four staffers and that he was “working” with the parties to have the company just pay off the staffers instead.
On October 4, a boiler that is an integral part of the operations of BCL’s plywood manufacturing at Land of Canaan, East Bank Demerara, experienced problems forcing the company to shut down that site.
BCL blamed a number of employees for the incident and said that according to investigations proper procedures were not followed when starting up the boiler.
This saw the component running without water. Several critical parts of the boiler that may cost up to $100M to repair, were damaged badly.
After alerting Government of the incident, which was described as a catastrophe, BCL then announced that it had no choice than to send home the 274 workers who were operating the plywood factory at Land of Canaan.
With several workers living on site for years and a housing boom, the fallout from BCL’s closure would have a ripple effect.
Already, President Bharrat Jagdeo has announced that he will be meeting with the workers and other parties on Monday to work out some assistance for employees who now face the breadline.
BCL has said that repairs to the boiler may take up to a year. Several options, including importation of plywood to meet the huge demand of the construction sector, are being considered.
A significant number of employees at the Land of Canaan site have already started moving from apartments that were home to almost 30 families for more than a decade.
BCL’s plywood operations are the largest in the country commanding a major part of the market locally.
Recently released figures indicated that plywood production for the first nine months of the year climbed by 25 per cent.