Non-unionised workers are being terminated without cause

Dear Editor, I received a telephone call from a woman of Land of Plenty, Essequibo, to say that she was wrongfully dismissed by a security firm after 8 years of service. When the security firm was first established here, she was one of the first female employees to work at the various locations and was always on time without absenting herself from the job. She told me that after she and her daughters began to support the coalition government she noticed her new supervisor began to pressure her on the job.

At first the supervisor became arrogant and rude towards her; this was reported to the management in Georgetown without any redress, and when the supervisor learnt that she had written letters to the company about her behaviour she then began to transfer her to some dangerous locations to work at night.

Being a single parent with 3 teenage girls to look after, she appealed to the supervisor not to post her to distant locations. However, she continued to receive pressure, and the supervisor then began to write false complaints against her.

The company decided to invite her to Georgetown where she was shown the supervisor’s letters. She tried explaining to the management that everything in the letters was a total fabrication. She was told by the security firm that her services were terminated and she would not be going to receive her termination pay, neither her deferred vacation leave which was due to her. She has not received a letter of termination to date. In fact what I have been noticing as a former trade unionist is that conditions are now developing under which non-union employees are being terminated without cause.

They have no one to defend their rights, and the Ministry of Labour must return to the earlier days and see that this single parent woman is paid all her benefits as well as her termination of employment and severance pay. The wrongful dismissal will affect her rights to earn money to take care of her 3 teenage daughters who are attending school. In the new environment the Ministry of Labour under Ms Simona Broomes has been moving to resolve disputes as they relate to termination of service without pay.

What was disappointing, however, is the way the worker was terminated, ie without a letter; this can be considered a breach of the labour legislation which was passed in the National Assembly in 1992, when the late Dr Cheddi Jagan was President of Guyana. The APNU+AFC government must continue to embrace the unionized and non-unionized workers’ cause and protect their interests. I am advising the government and the Ministry of Labour that one of the greatest dangers facing private employees today is the way they are being wrongfully dismissed without being paid for their years of service.

If this notion once comes to be generally believed, workers’ rights in Guyana are finished. Yours faithfully, Mohamed Khan