A foreign-owned, oil and gas enterprise in Guyana had to be reminded of its legal obligations after refusing to outfit its employees with safety boots.
The Guyana Agricultural and General Workers’ Union (GAWU)’s Oil and Gas Branch was recently contacted by the employees of this “well-known and very popular recruitment agency in the sector”, who complained about the matter. GAWU has not named the agency.
According to GAWU, 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 recruitment agency, Guyana Standard was informed, told some workers who did not have boots that same could be purchased by the agency. However, the cost would be recovered through deductions from their salaries.
Again, this flies in the face of the OSH Act, GAWU said. After engaging the workers, the Union wrote the Ministry of Labour drawing to their attention what was prevailing. The Ministry engaged the recruitment agency, and informed that it must be compliant with the Laws of Guyana.
It is understood that the agency sought to offer feeble and unconvincing rationales for its contractual provisions. Of course, the Ministry underlined that the law must be upheld.
The workers have since contacted the GAWU to inform that the agency told them they would now be provided with safety boots at no cost to them. Expectedly they would receive same soon. They 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.
But GAWU said, “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 complaint with the Laws of Guyana.”
