Women Miners Org. engages the Labour Ministry on critical mining issues

Nov 20, 2020 News

Urica Primus, President of GWMO.

Kaieteur News – The Guyana Women Miners Organization (GWMO) and the Guyana Mining Syndicate on Wednesday met with the Minister of Labour, Joseph Hamilton, to discuss critical issues affecting workers and ways in which these can be resolved.
The meeting according to the Ministry’s release, focused on two main issues, namely: Labour Relations and Workplace Safety and Health concerns.
One of the key challenges outlined at the engagement, was the accessibility for miners with regards to making reports to the Ministry on matters like mining violations and crimes committed in the mining areas. This is according to the President of GWMO, Urica Primus, during a telephone interview with Kaieteur News yesterday. She added that the organization proposed the integration of a GWMO mobile app for the reporting of these matters, which the Ministry accepted.
Primus further mentioned that the Ministry and GWMO have agreed “to work on the development and integration for virtual training on workers’ rights as well as to observe awareness of companies on guidelines and laws that ought to be followed in an effort to maintain not only a healthy working environment but keeping safety guidelines in mind.”
Concerns were also expressed about the failure of many employers to meet their financial obligations to their employees; Primus explained that the proposed measures have to be discussed with the relevant stakeholders to ensure practicality prior to integration.
GWMO called upon the Ministry for increased technical support for the development of guidelines as it relates to mining in the rainy season.
It was therefore agreed, that a Memorandum of Understanding should be developed between the parties and the modalities of this agreement would be addressed in the coming week.