…persons flying in to work in centralised location
Employees at Guyana Goldfields’ Aurora Gold Mine (AGM) location are of the view that not enough is being done to protect them from the dreaded coronavirus disease (COVID-19) , even as the suspension of flights has been lifted, clearing the way for employees to be shuttled in and potentially exposing those at the camp.
Aurora Gold Mine
In an interview with one such employee who spoke on the condition of anonymity, he expressed fears that enough was not being done for their safety. While he admitted that the company has provided Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), he noted that they were still at risk.
Aurora Director Peter Benny
“Everyone intermingling within the same confines, when it comes to the lunch room, the cafeteria, the dormitories. People are intermingling a lot with each other. Sometimes you have six persons using one washroom facility. Then you got six will come in after and another six,” the employee said.
“So, we are saying if one person contracts this thing and flies in and for whatever reason they miss it at the airport, it will be devastating for all of us here. We’re thinking the Government or some authority needs to look at this, ‘cause people coming from all over and meeting in this one central location.”
Another employee explained that at any given time 200 to 300 persons are on site at the Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni) location. The mills would contain approximately 100. According to him, expats have been evacuated. They want a similar arrangement.
“Why is it Guyana Goldfields extract the foreign workers, but choose to carry locals to site? If they were not cognisant of the situation at hand, why did they remove the expats? Let me give you another example.
“Let’s say I work bulldozer. The confines of the working space 10 square feet or so. Now someone could have worked that machine before me and touch every part of that machine. You spent hours in there. You would want be relaxed, take off your PPE. I could come into contact with what you left,” he said.
Memo
In a memorandum seen by Guyana Times that was dated April 4 and captioned ‘temporary flights suspension’, AGM Human Resources Director Emma Geist had announced that as a result of the Government’s announcement on COVID-19, Trans Guyana flights between Ogle and the Aurora mine site would be suspended.
“This suspension will remain in effect until Tuesday, April 7, 2020 while we discuss options with the Government. Therefore, all employees due to fly to site during those dates must remain home (unpaid leave).”
“All employees due to fly from site to Georgetown will be required to stay at site and will be paid for the extra days spent working at site,” the company had also announced.
This memo was then superseded by one dated April 6, in which Geist said that flights have been reinstated as of April 7, 2020.
In this new memo, it was noted that the planned turnarounds would be completed for all employees who are due or overdue to be rotated to or from the site. AGM operates on a rotational shift system, with some employees working on site and some being transported home on a schedule.
Measures
Meanwhile, this publication made contact with Aurora’s Director of Corporate Office and Compliance, Peter Benny, who emphasised that the company has made several efforts to protect its workers against the coronavirus.
According to Benny, not only are temperature checks done on workers before they get on the plane and after they disembark, but workers are also subjected to questionnaires that seek to ascertain whether they were exposed to the virus prior to coming to the location.
“We’ve implemented temperature checks, wearing masks, keeping social distances on the flight… if they have a cough or runny nose, they’re not allowed to travel. When they go into camp, they are one person per room as against before when we had three and four persons per room. That’s no longer the case. Employees live in self-contained rooms, with air conditioning” he explained.
“We’ve suspended playing games in the playfield, because that is close contact. The commissaries – only one person can be at the counter at one time. For us, our employees are important. They are our most valued asset.”
Asked whether steps have been taken to reduce the number of persons on site, Benny noted that they were working with the normal complement of workers.
“We have the right number of persons per shift. We cannot afford to have more than the normal amount of people there or less. Because we have to keep the mill going. Production requires a certain number of people. Everything we’re doing is considering what impact it will have on the fight against COVID.
“So, it’s not that we’re thinking about production alone. If it comes to that: that things don’t work out, we may relook at the way we do business. But so far, we have put a number of things in place to deal with these issues.”
Up to press time on April 8, Guyana recorded 37 cases of coronavirus and six deaths. A total of 145 persons were tested, with 30 in institutional isolation and 27 in institutional quarantine. There were also eight recovered cases.
