-says local professionals being underpaid as much 10 to 20 times compared to expats

The Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA) has charged that there is discriminatory hiring in the oil and gas industry and that local professionals are being underpaid by as much as 10 to 20 times compared to expatriates.

In its submission to the Local Content Preparatory Commission set up recently by the Ministry of Natural Resources, GHRA highlighted instances of discriminatory hiring practices in the oil industry to the detriment of Guyanese workers.

A release on Saturday from the GHRA said that the submission contends that Guyana’s Local Content Policy should be located within the framework of appropriate human rights, labour and environmental principles to be found in the Guyana Constitution and the relevant international conventions ratified by  Guyana.   It said that care must be taken to ensure that the beneficiaries of the Local Content policy are not narrowly restricted to the local business community, but also encompass workers and society as a whole.

It said that the need for clear guiding principles is underlined by the experience to date of those Guyanese hired or qualified to be hired by the shore-based companies engaged in servicing of the off-shore Drill Ship.

“Local professionals are grossly underpaid when compared to the cost of the same services the `expats’ offer. Some scales can range from 10 times to as much as 20 times the remuneration per month.  Service skills being referred to available in Guyana such as managers, coordinators, engineers, foremen, constructors, health and safety supervisors and officers, finance, maintenance, etc. The only job areas left to be covered by an ‘expat’ are drivers and janitors”, the GHRA contended.

The human rights body contended that the number of “expat” staff with their free transportation to and from work, per diems, paid travel in and out of the country and paid house rentals, cannot be justified when qualified Guyanese are available to perform these services.

Locals are also forced to work 12-hour shifts per day (excluding a non-paid lunch hour).

“By standard labour laws, this is way more than the 40-hour per week, whether considered as a 5-day week or 7-day week. An outsider would believe this amounts to an impressive amount of overtime. However, that battle was lost. Staff are told that the company has already catered for overtime in offering one bulk salary”, GHRA said.

It noted that the most basic benefit of any employee is their annual leave.

“Even this, the company tries to control by enforcing a policy not to pay for leave days earned. In fact, operation staff are forced to take leave on their ‘stand-by’ days. A stand-by day is simply any day that the employee is not on shift but can be called out to perform work”, the GHRA asserted.

It added that the company can call an employee out at any point to work.

“Leave was suspended due to the global pandemic and staff were required to work as per normal as an `essential service’. On short notice without consultation, the company enforces a policy such as ‘take it or lose it’”, GHRA said.

GHRA said that the discriminatory practices against Guyanese workers were first drawn to its attention some two years ago when members of the Guyana Seafarers and General Workers Union provided documented evidence by the company responsible at that time for hiring crews on the ships servicing the Drill Ships.

“The main frustration of the Guyanese seafarers focused on Trinidadian seamen being given systematic preference over equally qualified Guyanese to the better job categories such as engineers, mates, and captains. This came about, it was alleged, because Exxon had sub-contracted the hiring of seamen to a Trinidadian–owned firm which in turn largely hired from three other Trinidadian firms with offices in Guyana. Guyanese seafarers qualified in all of these positions, with years of experience in the oil industry in the Caribbean and the Middle East were not getting jobs”, the GHRA said.   

It noted that the contract offered to Guyanese Seamen by El Dorado Offshore (EDO) contained a clause Section E. Termination   which listed 12 articles that could terminate the Contract immediately. Art.11 stated ”Disclosing information, not available to the general public, about EDO or EDOs business plans, the vessel or any other information about the nature of employment, such as wages and   benefits, to any third party” as a ground for immediate termination.