Baishanlin dismisses employees at Providence due to “financial difficulties” and “unjustified state action”
Chinese logging company Baishanlin International Forest Development (BSL), on Friday issued letters of termination to employees attached to its Providence Head Office.
The letter which served notice of immediate termination outlined that the decision was as a result of financial difficulties brought about by economic conditions.
The company also blamed “negative publicity” for its difficulty in the letter which was signed by Managing Director of BSL, Hongbo Chu.
According to letter, which was first published by the online news entity, News Now, the company committed to paying employees one month’s salary in keeping with Section 15 of the Termination of Employment Severance Pay Act, Laws of Guyana.
The letter further stated “our company has been experiencing serious financial difficulties brought about by economic conditions including a change in market conditions, contraction of sales, etc. Our company viability was also seriously affected by negative publicity and unjustified State Action which caused our lenders to withhold financing for our operations.”
BSL was not being allowed to export logs and has come under scrutiny from the Guyana Revenue Authority which has started to seize company assets over taxes owed.
Minister of Natural Resources, Raphael Trotman indicated and gave the assurance, last month,that the BaiShanLin logging company is still no longer allowed to do as it wants in Guyana.
A state-owned Chinese company has bought up 51% of the shares in BaiShanLin and was expected to execute a full take over within months.
The BaiShanLin Company was granted billions of dollars’ worth of concessions under the PPP government but the company failed to complete several agreements that formed part of its contract with the government. (Kurt Campbell)
