Supposed Crack Down

Ministry to crack down on companies not paying Amerindian employees

Georgetown GINA, February 1, 2007

Minister of Amerindian Affairs, Carolyn Rodrigues has voiced her
concerns over non-payments to Amerindians who work in logging and
mining areas and indicated that her Ministry will be taking a firm
stand on the issue.
“We haven’t had many reports from the
women but of our
Amerindian men going out to work in mining, logging and in other areas
and not being paid,” she noted, Minister Rodrigues emphasised
that
this year her Ministry will be cracking down on individuals and
companies who try to swindle Amerindians. The Ministry will be working
closely with the Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC) and the Guyana
Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) to try to curb this practice.
“We would definitely be a bit more
aggressive and would be
publicizing those names because we’ve noticed a few names coming up
over and over, and in some cases some very prominent people that you
would not expect this from, and when the staff of the ministry would
try to get them by telephone or to see them, it’s always a
problem,”
Minister Rodrigues said.
These commissions are in charge of granting
concessions to
companies involved in logging and mining.
The Minister made a call for the reform of the
Code of
Practices as it relates to forestry. She said that there should be a
section on workers’ treatment and since State Forest Permits (SFP)
are
renewed annually, the commission should look at that as well before
renewals can be done.
The Minister stated that in some cases her
ministry was
assisted by the commissions to ensure that the persons involved were
paid. And that an arrangement with the respective commissions should be
formalized shortly to deal with this problem.
“It is not a nice situation when our men
would come out
from far areas, they go to work and then they are told after six weeks
they can return home and that their monies will be sent by the post and
then they never would get it,” Minister Rodrigues
said.
The Minister noted that the cost for the
Amerindians
coming to Georgetown to fight their cases to receive their payments is
about half the cost of what they earn.