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Oil and Gas employees forced to buy own PPE

Mar 01, 2022 News

…GAWU gets Govt. to intervene

Kaieteur News – Even though Guyana’s labour laws require employers to purchase Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for their employees, some workers in the oil field have been asked to take on this responsibility or have the related cost deducted from their salaries.
This state of affairs was underscored by the Guyana Agriculture and General Workers Union (GAWU) in a statement it released on Tuesday.
According to GAWU, which only last year launched its Oil and Gas branch, workers who are assigned to the workshop of a foreign-owned oil and gas enterprise, operating in Guyana, revealed that their lawful workplace rights were not being upheld.
GAWU stated, “The workers shared that the recruitment agency in its contract of employment with the employees required them to provide their own steel-toe safety boots. Such a requirement, however, is contrary to the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Act. The law obligates employers to provide their employees with appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE).”
The union went on to note that the recruitment agency gave the workers an option to purchase the safety boots for them but the cost would be recovered through deductions from their salaries.
GAWU was adamant that this reasoning by the agency blatantly disregards the OSH Act.
In this regard, the union said it was forced to bring the matter to the attention of the Ministry of Labour, which then investigated the claims which were found to be factual. To this end, GAWU said that, “the (recruitment) agency sought to offer feeble and unconvincing rationales for its contractual provisions. Of course, the Ministry underlined that the law must be upheld.”
As a result of the Ministry’s intervention, the workers will now have their safety gears be provided at no cost to them.
It was revealed in the statement too that, “They (the workers) also shared with the union that the principals of the agency informed them that they ought to have handled the matter differently as the foreign client was upset. We, at this time, wonder how differently the matter could have been handled when the agency had an explicit contractual provision. At the same time, we contend, the client had a responsibility to ensure that agent/s acting on their behalf were compliant with the Laws of Guyana.”
Flawed employment practices
In addition to the breach of the OHS Act by the recruitment firm, the Workers’ Union complained that this type of employment method was contributing to the disrespect of Guyanese workers.
In fact, GAWU said it was disappointing that the specific matter regarding the employees’ PPE was only addressed after the Ministry of Labour got involved.
It added that in its own review of contracts of employment issued by recruitment agencies, it has concluded that many practices, which Guyanese workers have become accustomed to, are simply absent.
For instance, perusal of the contracts revealed that workers, though entitled to uncertified sick days, cannot benefit from such entitlement unless their employer is satisfied that they are indeed ill.
“In our view, the employer is basically having the power to tell an employee when they can be ill and when they are not. With the practice of agency employment, the question as to who really the employer is, is up in the air, at this point, as those who give the employees direction are not the ones who employed them,” GAWU contended.
The union added that the entire episode brings into focus the advice being provided by locals to foreign oil companies and noted that it brings into question whether the advice sought was from professionals or if the companies were knowingly cheating and deceiving workers out of their rights.
“While we welcome the Ministry’s forthright intervention, at the same time, we recognise not all workers may have access to the Ministry and there may be some who are unaware that their rights are violated and are victims of exploitation at the workplace,” the union said.

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