Help sought for laid-off Lindeners

Toucan call Centre in Linden

… PPP/C calls for solutions 

It has been weeks since scores of Lindeners who were employed at the Toucan Communications Inc Call Centre have been ‘laid off’ and Government has yet to find a solution to the plight that those affected have been facing.

The People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) is of the view that the A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) coalition needs to address this problem urgently and that the solution must be to the satisfaction of the workers.

According to the Opposition, any action taken by the Administration to resolve the issue(s) stemming from the workers losing their jobs should be consistent with the manifesto promise of the APNU/AFC to provide a ‘good life’ for all Guyanese.

PPP/C General Secretary Clement Rohee, during a media briefing on Monday, stated that the Government appeared to have “abandoned” the almost 90 Lindeners who were “laid off”.

“Thus far, all that the workers have heard from Government officials is platitudes to the effect that the off-shore company ‘must pay’, ‘the Government is trying its best’ and ‘we are deeply concerned’,” Rohee said.

For approximately two months, he added, these empty exhortations have meant nothing to the workers, “who Government appears to have abandoned”, stating “it is a private enterprise matter” and as a pretext for dragging its feet on the matter,” he added. The PPP/C understands, he pointed out, that the matter was already “dropped like a hot potato by several Government Ministers since it proved to be an insurmountable challenge for them and was shunted off to the Office of the President.”

Rohee added that the Party was reliably informed that the issue was to be discussed at a Cabinet meeting, but “nothing was heard of since”.

“Wits’ end”

In the meantime, he added, the Regional Chairman, Renis Morian, of the mining town appeared to be at his “wits’ end” to put a spin on the effort(s) to find a solution to the plight of these workers.

Guyana Times was further told that with the absence of a Labour Ministry in Guyana, this and other industrial matters were bound to surface and remain unresolved “by a Government, who from all appearances, have placed labour/industrial relations at the lowest rung of the social ladder”.

Rohee contended that the same manner in which the APNU/AFC Government has established Commissions of Inquiry (CoI) into the operations of the public service and education sector to correct perceived deficiencies, in the same way, the Administration must revisit its decision to “do away” with the Labour Ministry.

“The callous attitude towards workers’ compensation and industrial relations will do more harm than good to the economy, which, incidentally, is already experiencing serious problems at the commercial and manufacturing levels with hundreds of workers in both sectors being laid off. One of the several reasons being because of Government’s scarecrow policy towards foreign and local investors,” Rohee said.

Further, he noted that the PPP/C demanded that the Granger-led coalition heed the call of Guyanese workers and farmers, who are the producers of wealth in which all Guyanese share.

He added that Lincoln Lewis, David Hinds, Ministers Simona Broomes and Volda Lawrence who all “pretend to be friends of the working people” while promising them a ‘good life’ must speak out on this matter and have it settled in favour of the workers. (kristenm@guyanatimesgy.com)