Condemnation grows over mistreatment of Guyanese oil workers

Feb 02, 2022 News

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– Exxon recruiter promises to fix issues after meeting with Labour Department

Kaieteur News – Two unions on Monday united in condemning the alleged mistreatment of Guyanese working onboard ExxonMobil’s Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel, operating offshore Guyana.
The two unions, The Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) and the National Mines Workers Union of Guyana (NMWUG) made their comments via statements they sent out, following the publication of a Kaieteur News article on Sunday last.
Both GAWU and NMWUG have also agreed that an investigation must be conducted into the allegations made by local employees. Kaieteur News reported that locals are complaining of being fed leftovers and mistreated on the oil ship. These workers were reportedly recruited to work for the American oil giant, ExxonMobil by a company called Newrest Guyana and included laundry staff, cleaners, dish washers and even porters who offload containers with supplies for the vessel.

According to GAWU, they were “disturbed to learn of how Guyanese nationals were being treated”. The Union also revealed that it has received similar complaints from other employees working in other enterprises, in the oil sector. “The workers’ experiences which were captured by the media mirror much of what our union has heard firsthand from employees working offshore in other enterprises”, GAWU stated.
“We learnt from local workers that they were being denied internet access to communicate to their families though such facilities remained available to foreigners. Additionally, we pointed out that some workers had reported to us that they could only eat after their foreign colleagues had completed their meals and received whatever was available. Guyanese workers have been telling us too, that foreigners were being allowed to eat their meals prior to emergency drills whereas locals were not afforded similar opportunities”, the union continued.
GAWU want to encourage the mistreated oil workers to ‘make contact with the union because it believes that past collaborative efforts have so far yielded improvements for workers in the oil sector.
Meanwhile, NMWUG is calling for a thorough investigation by the Ministry of Labour and Chief Labour Officer’s Office into the allegations made by the local oil workers. The union noted that this mistreatment of local workers does not only exist in the oil sector but in all other sectors where a foreign investor is involved. “We condemn without reservations the mistreatment and disrespect shown to Guyanese workers by their foreign employer, in this case the oil industry”, NMWUG stated.
The union added that mistreatment of the oil workers reminded it of a recent incident whereby the Chinese Company, Zijin Mining Inc. was reportedly feeding local AGM workers with ‘scrap meat’.
This allegation that the union was referring to was made last year. A Kaieteur News report had detailed that Chinese employees were enjoying all the quality food in a separate mess hall from the locals. The Chinese reportedly had adequate tissues, peanut butter and sauces on each table, while the locals only had one of each item in their mess hall. The workers had complained that the menu they were served was completely different. Zijin Mining Inc. had responded that the reason for the different menu and a separate mess hall was because of the difference in culture. The company claimed that Chinese would eat different meals from the Guyanese. As it relates to the quality food being served, the company denied that it had ever fed the locals scrap meat and assured that it does its utmost to treat both locals and expats fairly and vowed to continue doing so.
Meanwhile, following the publication of this newspaper’s report, the Ministry of Labour summoned Newrest Guyana to a meeting. The company has since agreed to rectify the overtime rates paid to Guyanese working on the Floating, Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) platform. A statement from the Labour Department said that Chief Labour Officer (CLO), Dhaneshwar Deonarine met with senior management of Newrest Guyana, the recruiting company/sub-contractor for ExxonMobil which provides employees to undertake housekeeping, catering, food supply, and laundry functions. The meeting which was held in the Ministry’s boardroom was attended by Newrest’s General Manager, Antoine Morillon and its Quality, Health, Safety and Environment Director, Nicholas Ali. In response to the allegations of their workers being fed leftovers and not being able to eat among expatriates on the FPSO, the manager told the CLO that due to company protocol, the clients would usually eat first, then the service staff. In addition, Morillon said that service staff who are not on duty are allowed to eat among the clients.
According to the Labour Department the CLO also questioned the company about its overtime payment to workers, where it was found that in some cases the rates applied were not in keeping with the Factories (Hours and Holidays) Act. “The senior management has since promised to have it rectified. This will include fixing the overtime rates and providing retroactive payments to properly compensate employees for previously paid overtime, all of which will be clearly outlined in employees’ contracts with the prescribed rates following the law,” according to the release.
Regarding the issue of bonuses, the department reported the company as saying that bonuses are paid to certain categories of workers, whether they are expatriates or Guyanese. The company noted, according to the department, that the staff in the laundry category, however, are not paid bonuses. The statement said that the CLO has also asked the company to submit a copy of its wages and leave records for the Ministry to verify that the labour laws are being adhered to in that regard. Deonarine said that he was pleased with the company’s acceptance of its infractions as it relates to the payment of overtime and also commended its willingness to remedy them, according to the statement.

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