GTUC rubbishes Labour Dept’s denial over handling of complaints

Even in light of repudiations, Head of the Guyana Trades Union Congress (GTUC) Lincoln Lewis is maintaining that the Labour Department within the Social Protection Ministry has failed in its responsibility to effectively and efficiently investigate labour complaints made by workers.

In debunking the Minister’s denials, Lewis disclosed that the Postal and Telecommunication Workers Union (PTWU) made several complaints to the Labour Department, asking for a meeting to address a major matter pertaining to the working hours of the staff at GTT.
Lewis said the Union has written the Ministry twice within the past three months, but was yet to receive a response.
This revelation comes on the heels of a recent statement released by the GTUC expressing grave concern over the fact that it has been receiving a number of reports that workers making labour complaints at the Ministry were being turned away.
“GTUC continues to receive complaints from workers that they are being turned away from the Ministry of Social Protection when they seek to lodge complaints against employers. The process in industrial relations on matters of such nature is not to turn away complainants but to activate a process to investigate and resolve the complaint,” the organisation had stated.
In a statement subsequently, Junior Social Protection Minister with responsibility for labour, Keith Scott denied the allegations made by the GTUC.
The Minister asserted that his labour officers were unaware of any such instance occurring within the Department.
“From investigations conducted with staff, not surprisingly, they have all categorically denied this baseless allegation,” Scott stated.
However, he admitted that in rare cases when persons come to the Department without the requisite information pertaining to their employment/ past employment, they were requested to furnish same to facilitate a speedy investigation into their complaints.