GEORGETOWN, Guyana, CMC – The Guyana Agricultural and General Works Union (GAWU) Monday accused “a well-known foreign-owned oil sector company” of approving salary increases for expatriate workers, while ignoring local employees.

In a statement, GAWU said at a time when policymakers were making efforts to provide breathing room amid the steep increase in prices for many important and essential commodities and services, the unnamed foreign-owned oil sector company was engaged in improving pay rates for its employees.

“Dismayingly, the GAWU Oil and Gas Branch was informed that the increases were only approved for that company’s expatriate staffers. The locals, on the other hand, who comprise a significant proportion of the workforce were excluded from that company’s consideration.

“The Guyanese employees informed our Union that they are at a loss for their exclusion. They shared with us that their foreign colleagues earn substantially more than them but inexplicably their salaries were insufficient thus necessitating the pay rise. The workers were perplexed that if it was that the foreigners were receiving inadequate pay it did not take any serious examination to understand their situation,” the union said.

It also stated that its members “heard rumblings that the locals did not require any pay rises” and that their existing salaries “were more than adequate, and a pay rise would represent essentially a favour”.

The union said that some employees, who have been there for several years, to date have not received any rise in pay despite continuing to perform credibly.

“The GAWU is deeply disturbed by the actions of the foreign enterprise. It represents yet another assault on Guyanese workers in the oil sector are confronting and further illustrates the need for the sector to be organised. Of course, many foreign owned companies have adopted stringent anti-union policies and have sought to quell any efforts by workers to become unionised.

“This is not surprising given the exploitative practices perpetuated by some enterprises in the sector. Some firms we have heard have sought to assure their workers that they have their interest at heart. This, of course, is a misnomer as only their bottom line is what really matters and workers becoming unionized seemingly represents a threat to profitability. It is indeed a disheartening situation,” GAWU said in its statement without naming any of the companies involved.