Guyoil employees strike for end-of-year bonus, increase in wages – Kaieteur News

Guyoil employees strike for end-of-year bonus, salary increase


Views from Guyoil Sherriff Street Gas Station yesterday.

Kaieteur News – Supervisors and station managers at Guyana Oil Company (Guyoil) were forced to sell at the gas station pumps yesterday after several of its employees decided to strike.
Strike action was taken after Guyoil’s management failed to reach an agreement with the Union of Clerical and Commercial Workers (CCWU) to pay Christmas bonuses to its employees and an eight per cent pay rise.
Yesterday at the Sheriff Street branch at Guyoil Gas Station, several pump attendees were seen at the side of the road with placards in their hands demanding their bonuses.
The station manager and a few supervisors who would normally work at the gas station office outside were seen pointing to the pumps as vehicles made long lines to fill their tanks.
Other Guyoil Gas Stations on the East Coast and East Demerara Bank were completely closed as workers attached to those branches joined in the strike.
Kaieteur News was told that that move caused a slight panic in the early hours of the morning as motor vehicles bought petrol from other competitors.
However, instead of trying to negotiate with his employees, Kaieteur News was told that Guyoil threatened to fire them instead.
Sources told this media house that the company’s HR Manager had appeared at one of the East Coast Gas Stations and had begun to threaten. He told the employees, ‘if they do not work, they will be fired and Guyoil will replace other individuals with pending applications with the company ”.
Employees of that branch, Kaieteur News, were told they feared and immediately stopped their strike; however, this did not preclude workers, especially the pump assistants, from the branches.
A state-owned newspaper, the Guyana Chronicle reported Tuesday that 400 Guyoil employees are threatening to take industrial action in light of the company’s refusal to honor a deal for pay rises in 2020.
CCWU president Sherwood Clarke was quoted as saying that the former board company had agreed to pay pay increases based on a performance appraisal system.
However, the current administration set a new board and withdrew that agreement.
Company employees who spoke to Kaieteur News yesterday said Guyoil recently declared a $ 1B profit in its annual report. This profit, they argued, meant that even if there is a new company board, they are still entitled to pay rises and Christmas bonuses.



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