Guyana and the wider world Part 3

Guyana and the wider worldGuyana's Poverty Reduction Strategy Programme (PRSP) and the forestry sector (Part 3)
By Janette Bulkan
Sunday Stabroek
February 18th 2007

This week's column resumes the discussion of employment in the forestry
sector against the fourth cause singled out by Guyana's Poverty
Reduc-tion Strategy Programme (PRSP) as responsible for persistent
poverty: "deterioration in the quantum and quality of social services"
(PRSP 2001, p. 7). Here I look especially at employment of Guyanese in
foreign-owned forest sector enterprises. This analysis is undertaken in
the context of the question: Why is there persistent poverty in the
interior alongside the parcelling out of Guyana's best endowed forests
in large-scale forestry concessions?

The official statistics on employment in the forestry sector are out of
date and/or not disaggregated. The 1997/1998 Labour Force Survey lists
50,737 persons (Males 41,982; Females 8,755) as employed in
'Agro-Forestry,' which in that survey denotes 'agriculture' and
'forestry' as separate activities. The 2002/2003 census lists a total
of 3,746 persons employed in 'Forestry, Logging and Related Services,'
and 42,069 in 'Agriculture, Hunting and Related Services.' These
official surveys suggest that full-time employment in the sector is
low, which is not surprising given the low rates of pay, lack of
contracts, job security, training opportunities and poor working
conditions outlined in last week's column.

A common theme in the diaspora is the exploitation, poor remuneration
and disrespect shown to Guyanese who lack 'papers' (legal
documentation), recognized skills certification, work experience
abroad, or union or other representation. Forty years after
Independence, Guyanese workers in the forestry sector suffer the same
fate: as disrespected at home as are undocumented Guyanese abroad.

The Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC) estimates that the forestry sector
provides employment to about 15,000 persons, the majority in the
small-scale sector. The small-scale forestry sector, allocated only
one-fifth of the commercial forests, (and the most worked-over and
worked-out forests) provides 75 per cent of forestry sector employment
according to a Guyana Forestry Commission study in 2003.

At the time of negotiating Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) concessions,
foreign-owned companies had emphasised the employment which they would
bring in, but they have generated little sustainably in the way of
employment or sustainable development at the local level. The quotas of
expatriate workers are part of the FDI arrangements negotiated by
Cabinet, and are not covered by the Forests Act or Forest Regulations.
The Commis-sioner of Forests has said that the JaLing Company will be
allowed to exceed its foreign worker quota of 20 per cent for 3-4 years
because there were no local skills (Press conference with Minister for
Forestry Robert Persaud, December 8, 2006). This position signifies
official disregard of a contractual agreement, which itself is much
weaker than OECD guidelines for multi-national enterprises recommend
(see later).

In 2005, the biggest concession holder, with legal control of 26 per
cent of State Production Forests, stated that its workforce totalled
1,100 workers (expatriate and Guyanese) in its logging (400 workers),
milling (100 workers) and plywood factory (550 workers) operations
(Sukhraj 2005). The downsizing of that company's plywood production can
be tracked in the quartering of its workforce in a decade - from 1,900
in 1995 to 1,750 in 1996, to 1,000 in 1997 and 550 in 2005. At the same
time, Barama's expatriate workforce is deployed across its
sub-contracted concessions and in the Amerindian village lands of
Akawini and St Monica, being logged through a 'harvesting contract'
with another company named IWPI. Such arrangements were not mentioned
in the original 1991 FDI agreement and probably not in the still-secret
2001 extended FDI agreement.

The Barama Company seems to be keeping to the overall limit of 15 per
cent expatriate workforce by counting its unskilled local workers at
the processing sites at Land of Canaan and Buck Hall. Foreign-recruited
workers are sent with interpreters for technical training by the Guyana
Forestry Training Centre (FTC), in effect reverse capacity building.
And in spite of the exemptions from all taxes and duties, including
import duties on fuel, the SGS Qualifor's Public Summary quoted a
CARICAD study that, "… a comparison of Barama Company wages and
salary structure rates with their competitors… indicates that BCL can
do more to improve their competitiveness for human resources" (SGS
Qualifor Public Summary 2006:30). Like most locally-owned forest sector
businesses, foreign-owned companies rarely advertise job vacancies.
Selection of administrative staff may be influenced by factors other
than straight efficiency and competence.

Guyanese employers in the forestry sector have not performed well
against labour standards. The proven charges, including of non-payment
of salaries and of failure to pass on NIS deductions, levelled against
Guyanese forestry companies by victimized workers are legion. The
recent declared intent by the Minister of Amerindian Affairs to take
firm action against companies and individuals found guilty of these
practices (SN, February 7, 2007) begs the question of why the terms and
conditions of employment set out in 10.2.3 of the GFC Code of Practice
for Timber Harvesting (2nd edition) are not widely implemented.

Recommendations

1. Excellent relevant models, including FAO and ILO guides, exist for
safe forest working practices. These should be used to enhance the
GFC's Code of Practice for Timber Harvesting (second edition, November
2003). All holders of forest harvesting concessions should be obliged
to work according to a revised version of this code, brought up to date
against the conventions of the Inter-national Labour Organization
(ILO); at present the GFC code is voluntary for older Timber Sales
Agreements (TSAs) and Wood Cutting Licences (WCLs).

2. The GFC should facilitate and support logistically both random spot
checks and scheduled inspections and monitoring visits by the Ministry
of Labour's Oc-cupational Safety and Health staff to manufacturing
plants which process forest products as well as to logging areas.

3. Forest Regulations (1953 as amended) include provisions for camp
conditions and regulations: first aid equipment and sicknurse/community
health worker (Article 37), food rations (Article 38). These
regulations could be used to improve conditions for forest workers.

4. The FDI arrangements negotiated by Cabinet for Barama and JaLing
allow 15 and 20 per cent foreign workers, respectively, with no
provision for a reduction in the percentage of foreigners over time.
Consequently, although Barama has been in operation in Guyana for 15
years, it is still claiming that 15 per cent. This, indeed all FDI
arrangements, should be revised to meet OECD guidelines on
multinational enterprises, and published to conform to the provision
for open government under Article 13 of the National Constitution 1980.
The revision of FDIs should require -

(a) written descriptions for all jobs;

(b) restriction of foreign employees to jobs proven to have no
qualified Guyanese applicants (tested by a competitive application
process);

(c) open advertisement in national press and local news posts (such as
Village Council offices, schools and church buildings) for all jobs at
all levels with reasonable periods for applications to be received;

(d) written contracts for all employees;

(e) formal and in-service training for Guyanese to take over from
foreign workers at all levels according to a fixed (but revisable)
schedule;

(f) scholarships or internships for Guyanese, leading usually to
officially recognized qualifications;

(g) creation and operation of branches of existing labour and
professional unions;

(h) workers' representative councils to negotiate with company
management on employment matters including conflict management;

(h) gender issues.

Several other good and sensible points on employment are in the social
issues section of the GFC Code of Practice for Timber Harvesting and in
Part VI A 6 in the National Forest Policy (October 1997).

5. FDI and Go-INVEST concessions could also be used to require holders
of forest harvesting concessions to

(a) provide social infrastructure such as labour living
accommodation/barracks and canteens for company employees;

(b) facilitate access to health posts and schools for company employees
and their families;

(c) provide banking and postal arrangements for company employees and
neighbouring communities;

(d) provide or finance transport work-to-home-to-work for the vacations
of company employees and their accompanying families;

The financial burden of some of these requirements could be mitigated
by reduced forest taxes, according to an agreed barter arrangement.
Indicators of progress, provision for bilateral or independent review,
provision for revision of arrangements, and penalties for inadequate
performance against agreed indicators, are essential for meaningful FDI
contracts. None of these points are at all new.

The year 2006 marked the centennial of the birth of international
labour law and of the trade-labour linkage. Policy-makers in Guyana and
in other countries should as a matter of world public order try to
think through how to achieve free trade and 'a living wage' together.
The beginnings of a synthesis might start with the motto carved on the
foundation stone of the main building of the World Trade Organization,
the Centre William Rappard. The building that now houses the WTO was
originally built for the ILO. What the stone says is "Si vis pacem,
cole justitiam," or "If you desire peace, cultivate justice."