Some Guyanese oil workers earn less than school cleaners — GAWU

Sep 07, 2021 News

Kaieteur News – Despite recent pronouncements by Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited (EEPGL), that locals represent some 53 percent of its workforce, at least one domestic union has since raised concerns about the treatment meted out to some of these very workers.

GAWU claims local oil labour force is being exploited to enrich foreign owners.

In a public missive issued yesterday by the Oil and Gas branch of the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU), it was highlighted that in some cases employees who are highly skilled and recipients of specialised training are paid at the national minimum wage of $255 per hour.
Contrastingly and “to illustrate the preposterousness, a school cleaner presently receives around $403 per hour,” the union highlighted. To this end, the union body emphasised that while “a great deal of attention is paid to Guyanese participation in the sector, and the statistics may appear impressive on the surface, the reality is that oil sector workers are confronted by exploitative practices and, at times, demeaning relations.”
Clearly, the union said, “the situation is far from ideal and reminds us of what prevailed when the plantocracy ruled the sugar industry. Like then, the workers of the oil sector are seen as commodities while their owners extract profits and super-profits from their sweat.”
As such, GAWU went on to note that while the (local) workers’ labour is exploited, the owners are accumulating wealth which generations of their families may not be able to expend, while locals are underpaid and undervalued.
The union noted too that to augment their salaries, workers are paid allowances, which can be capriciously altered at the whim and fancy of the employer. The employees, it added, must be subservient if they wish to receive some level of earnings. According to GAWU, “paying employees at the lowest possible level is, in our view, a deliberate ploy” since it reduces the employer’s National Insurance Scheme’s contribution.

The union also alleges that “the pay arrangement is apparently devised and is managed by a firm that has interests of a now-silent critic of the sector.”
As such, GAWU said that it stands ready and willing to work with the oil sector workers to speak on their behalf and to bring about a better day for workers.