Bauxite workers can now claim overtime

Bauxite workers attached to the Russian Bauxite Company RUSAL Guyana can now claim overtime payments following the handing over of some $173 million in refunds to the company by the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA).
Minister within the Social Protection Minsitry, with responsibility for Labour, Keith Scott, explained that the refunds for the bauxite workers would require a specific procedure before they can be uplifted.
“The correct procedure is for the workers to make a claim to GRA for overtime payment. That process was communicated to the union (Guyana Bauxite and General Workers’ Union) and all parties concerned by the GRA,” Minister Scott said.
He is quoted by the Department of Public Information as saying that with the help of the union, and adhering to the required procedure, the bauxite workers were paid in a timely manner.
“It’s for the union to do what the union deductions entitle them to do; that is, to make proper representation on behalf of the workers. What prevents the union from going to the union hall, or building a tent and inviting the concerned workers and say, ‘We are going to help you fill your forms of reclamation to the GRA?’ That is what a union should be doing,” Minister Scott said.
In 2016, RUSAL workers were asked to pay taxes on their premium and overtime payments. In January 2017, a group of employees representing the workers of RUSAL Guyana met with the central executive of the Guyana Bauxite and General Workers Union (GB&GWU) in Linden, and outlined why it was urgent for the matter concerning their tax-free overtime payment to be addressed.
Following several deliberations with the company in 2017, Minister Scott had issued a letter to RUSAL in November, demanding the effective release of payments to the employees in the company’s employ since October 1, 2016.