Parks Commission workers protest management’s “disrespect”

Several workers attached to the National Parks Commission along with officials of the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) on Monday morning staged a picketing exercise outside of the office of the National Parks Commission (NPC) located at the National Park.

The picketing was in response to what the workers described as the “disrespect” of the Commission’s management to the Union.
The GAWU last week, through its field officer, sought a meeting with the Commission to discuss certain matters and according to the Union, even though such meetings are provided for within the context of the Recognition and Avoidance and Settlement of Disputes Agreement between the GAWU and the NPC, the Commission bluntly refused to engage the Union’s officer.
In a statement, GAWU maintained that both parties must respect fully and abide with the relevant clauses of the agreement. Moreover, GAWU said it is the first time that the Union has encountered such attitude from the NPC and was taken aback by the swift refusal to engage the Union which has shared generally cordial relations with the Commission.
GAWU said another major bone of contention revolves around the departure from engagements between the Union’s branch and the Commission’s management.
For several years now, GAWU said, the branch, following its monthly meeting, would engage the Commission and the meeting allowed for an exchange of information between the workers/Union and the management and helped to improve the relations while encouraging collaboration. Following the July 2021 branch meeting, the Union said that as has been the norm, it wrote the management seeking a meeting to be convened to facilitate the usual discussions.
Through its letter the branch was seeking to engage the management regarding twelve matters but according to GAWU, the Union’s letter was greeted with an eerie silence from the Commission and as such by letter dated August 5, 2021, it reminded the Commission of the request to meet.
The Union has since indicated that to date the letter has not benefitted “from the dignity of an acknowledgement”.
Meanwhile, the workers also expressed concerns regarding the quality of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) being provided to them. “Through the Collective Labour Agreement, the management is required to provide certain PPEs to workers. However, in recent times, the quality of those PPEs has declined. The workers lamented that defective PPEs are inhibiting them from completing their tasks in a safe manner. “Additionally, the quality puts them at risk. This represents a serious breach of the Occupational Safety and Health Act,” the Union said on Monday.
The Union also indicated that it sought to discuss this with the management, but “the good intentions have been a victim of the Management’s seeming policy to ignore the workers and their Union.”
GAWU said that it remains willing and ready to work with the management of the NPC. No comments from the NPC were forthcoming on Monday.