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TITLE: GUYANA HUMAN RIGHTS PRACTICES, 1993
DATE: JANUARY 31, 1994
AUTHOR: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
GUYANA
The Co-operative Republic of Guyana, a member of the
Commonwealth of Nations and the Caribbean Community (CARICOM),
is a small, multiracial developing nation with a unicameral
Parliament chosen by direct election in a multiparty political
system. Dr. Cheddi Jagan, leader of the party obtaining a
plurality of seats in Parliament, was sworn in as Executive
President on October 9, 1992. The President appoints a Prime
Minister and other ministers. There was general agreement
among international observers that the 1992 elections were free
and fair.
Security forces are comprised of the Guyana Defense Force (GDF)
and the Guyana Police Force (GPF). The latter has primary
responsibility for maintaining law and order throughout
Guyana. The police and security forces are subordinate to the
civilian government. Guyanese social and political life is
strongly influenced by the presence of two main ethnic groups,
the Afro-Guyanese and the Indo-Guyanese. Urban Afro-Guyanese
dominate the opposition People's National Congress (PNC), the
civil service, and the security forces; Indo-Guyanese
predominate in the agricultural and business sectors and in the
ruling People's Progressive Party (PPP).
Guyana's economy depends on agriculture and mining, with sugar,
rice, bauxite, and gold being the major export earners.
Despite an estimated growth rate of 8.2 percent in 1993,
Guyana's per capita gross domestic product was only about $465
in 1992. The economy suffers from high external debt,
shortages of skilled labor, and a deteriorating infrastructure.
Human rights problems in Guyana in 1993 continued to include
extrajudicial killings by police, and police rape and other
abuse of detainees and prisoners. Police generally were able
to commit these abuses with impunity. Societal violence
against women and children, and discrimination against the
indigenous Amerindians continued. There were still limitations
on workers' rights, but political control of union activity
diminished somewhat.
RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS
Section 1 Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including
Freedom from:
a. Political and Other Extrajudicial Killing
No political killings are known to have occurred in recent
years.
There were credible allegations that police are responsible for
deliberate, illegal executions. In most instances, there was a
failure to investigate and prosecute the responsible police
officers. On September 5, two police officers shot and killed
Ricky Samaroo and Joseph "Dingo" Persaud in Georgetown.
Persaud had earlier been a witness in a civil case against
police officers accused of murdering a suspect, Michael Teekah,
in 1988. Another witness against police in the same case
reported that six police officers threatened to kill him and
Persaud. Two days after the killings, the police department
bestowed cash awards on the two policemen responsible for the
deaths of Persaud and Samaroo. The police claimed an
investigation was being conducted but have ignored the Guyana
Human Rights Association's (GHRA) inquiries into its progress.
On June 4, Frank Wilson was shot and killed at the police
station where he had worked as a laborer for 12 years. Police
claim Wilson committed suicide, but his family believed he was
murdered. Authorities ignored the family's calls for an
investigation into the death.
Seven inmates escaped from the Mazaruni prison in July. Police
shot three of the escaped prisoners, killing two, during
operations to recapture them.
b. Disappearance
There were no reports of politically motivated disappearances,
clandestine detentions, or abductions.
c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading
Treatment or Punishment
Although the Constitution prohibits torture, the GHRA and the
press reported a rising number of incidents of police brutality.
On occasion, confessions have been thrown out of court on the
grounds that they were coerced. There were also credible
reports of police officers involved in criminal activity,
including extortion, intimidation, and assault, although the
number of such charges declined since 1991. The independent
newspaper Stabroek News, in an October 19 editorial entitled
"Business as Usual," stated, "short on skills and resources,
the cops have maintained their now traditional routine of
beating and harassment to persuade suspects to talk. In the
process, the guilty and the not guilty confess, and these
'confessions' become the focal point of the vast majority of
cases at the criminal assizes."
In July a police detective was demoted and transferred from the
Criminal Investigation Department (CID) after being accused of
brutality. Also in July, the head of CID, who was also accused
of brutality, resigned from the police force after being
transferred to the administrative section. In August legal
counsel for five men accused of smuggling cocaine into Guyana
claimed in court that police beat his clients to gain
confessions, but he offered no independent evidence to support
this claim. Citizens complained that members of the Special
Police Impact Group beat them with rifle butts for no other
reason than being out on the streets late at night.
Eleven Angolans who entered Guyana illegally from Brazil were
detained in police custody for several months while their
applications for political asylum were considered. The African
Cultural and Development Association (ACDA) claimed police beat
four of the Angolans after they went on a hunger strike. The
Commissioner of Police claimed that the four had damaged police
property by throwing chairs around and "got physical" with
police while being moved from one location to another.
The Amerindian Peoples Association (APA) charged that there is
a systematic pattern of abuse of Amerindians, particularly
abuse of Amerindian women by police and soldiers stationed in
interior communities. In September the Minister of Home
Affairs received a report that police in the Orealla Amerindian
reservation were arresting Amerindian women on false charges
and sexually assaulting them in the jail. The APA said that
all the policemen were transferred out of the reservation but
complained that no investigation was carried out and no
criminal charges were filed against any of the policemen.
There is no independent body charged with looking into
complaints of police brutality or abuse. The Ombudsman lacks
the authority to look into allegations of police misconduct.
Such cases are heard by the Police Complaints Authority (PCA).
The PCA has no power to interview police officers or witnesses,
must rely on material submitted by the police, and must refer
cases of alleged abuse to the Commissioner of Police.
Investigations of such charges are perfunctory and rarely
result in serious disciplinary action. Officers charged as a
result of complaints to the PCA are routinely suspended for a
few days and sometimes fined but are rarely jailed. In
essence, the police force is responsible for investigating
itself and failed to do so effectively.
Prisons continued to be severely overcrowded. According to the
Ombudsman, Guyana had 267 prison inmates per 100,000 population
in 1992. The GHRA cited poor diet, inadequate medical
attention, underpaid and poorly trained staff, and lengthy
trial delays as problems facing the prison system. The
Ombudsman reported receiving 33 complaints from prisoners in
1992. Prisoners complained of prison conditions, unreasonable
charges, mail delays, and censorship. Suraj Persaud, a teenage
boy, was beaten to death in Brickdam jail in Georgetown. The
GHRA complained to Police Commissioner Laurie Lewis that fellow
youthful prisoners beat Persaud over a period of several days
with no attempt by police to intervene. Lewis did not respond
to the GHRA complaint. All letters sent by prisoners to the
Ombudsman are opened by prison officials. The GHRA applied to
have one of its members named to the prison visiting committee
but received no response from the Government. The Government
also failed to appoint a GHRA member to the new prison advisory
committee charged with recommending ways to reform the prison
system. According to the GHRA, all women prisoners in Guyana
are held in one prison. The facility's isolated location and
lack of adequate staff make it difficult for family members to
visit. There were credible allegations that female detainees
were sexually abused by the police.
d. Arbitrary Arrest, Detention, or Exile
The Constitution provides that no person may be deprived of
personal liberty except as authorized by law and requires
judicial determination of the legality of detention, a mandate
that was generally respected in practice in 1993.
Arrest does not require a warrant issued by a court official,
only an assessment of guilt by the police officer. The law
requires that a person arrested and held for more than 24 hours
be brought before a court to be charged. Chief Magistrate K.
Juman Yassin publicly complained that suspects are often
detained for more than 24 hours but never charged. Bail is
generally available except in capital cases. In narcotics
cases, magistrates have some discretion in granting bail before
trial but must send all persons convicted on narcotics charges
to custody, even if an appeal is pending.
Exile is not practiced.
e. Denial of Fair Public Trail
The Constitution provides that anyone charged with a criminal
offense has the right to a hearing by a court of law, and this
right is respected in practice. Guyana has a functioning bail
system. Defendants are granted public trials, and appeal may
be made to higher courts.
There are no political prisoners or special courts for
political security cases. Several persons charged in an
alleged coup plot, held since 1990, were released from custody
without trial in 1993.
In the past, some members of the opposition to the previous PNC
governments expressed concern over court rulings in libel suits
brought by government officials as well as other governmental
use of the courts to harass political opponents. The judiciary
now exerts greater independence due to the freer political
atmosphere which has developed in the country since 1985. The
present Government made no attempt to use the courts to
intimidate the opposition.
Delays in judicial proceedings are often caused by shortages of
trained court administrative personnel and magistrates,
inadequate resources, low salary levels, and the slowness of
police in getting cases ready for trial. The inefficiency of
the judicial system is so great as to undermine due process.
Prisoners are often detained 3 or 4 years awaiting trial.
Appeals of some murder cases have been delayed for several
years. Postponements are routinely granted to both the defense
and the prosecution. In a recent session of the Court of
Appeals, eight criminal appeals were dismissed for lack of
prosecution. The defendants had served their full sentences
(3 years on the average) and had been released from prison
before the appeal could be heard. The Chief Magistrate
reported that it is not uncommon for defendants to be
incarcerated for 2 to 3 years pending trial.
Although the laws of Guyana recognize the right to legal
counsel, in practice, with the exception of capital crimes, it
has been limited to those who can afford to pay. A small
groups of lawyers is working to begin a Legal Aid clinic. The
Government has provided a small cash grant for the clinic as
well as the services of a lawyer from the Attorney General's
office. The clinic is expected to open early in 1994 after the
Government provides office space. Due to resource constraints,
the clinic initially will limit its activities to certain types
of civil cases in Georgetown. Apart from these efforts,
virtually no lawyers work pro bono in criminal cases.
Defendants in murder cases are assigned an attorney by the
court. The Guyana Association of Women Lawyers provides free
legal services for civil cases only.
f. Arbitrary Interference with Privacy, Family, Home, or
Correspondence
The Government generally respects the right to privacy,
although some politicians claimed instances of surveillance by
the previous PNC government of political meetings and rallies.
(Uniformed police officers routinely monitor such rallies.)
The laws requiring judicially issued warrants for searches were
generally respected in 1993.
Section 2 Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:
a. Freedom of Speech and Press
The Constitutional provision for freedom of speech is generally
respected, and Guyanese freely criticize their government and
its policies. The Government generally ignored often savage ad
hominem attacks on President Jagan and his Government by the
opposition PNC newspaper New Nation. However, a businessman
was pressured by a government official to withdraw advertising
from the paper, and there were credible charges that foreign
investors were pressured to cancel contracts with consultants
who were former PNC government officials. President Jagan and
members of his Government criticized the independent daily
newspaper Stabroek News for what they considered unfair and
inaccurate reporting but took no action against the paper.
The government-owned Guyana Television and the two radio
stations controlled by the government-owned Guyana Broadcasting
Corporation offer relatively evenhanded reporting of local
events. Guyana has no private radio stations but does have six
private television stations in Georgetown, and several more in
outlying towns. Two of the private television stations offer
frequent public affairs programming which is often critical of
the Government, and they began to produce Guyana's first
independent newscasts in 1993.
In past years, the Government exercised varying degrees of
control over the media through ownership of what had been the
country's only daily newspaper (the Guyana Chronicle), the
communications agency, the two radio stations, and the issuance
of import licenses for newsprint and printing presses. The
Minister of Information stated that the Government will not
privatize the state-owned media, but the Government's role in
the media nonetheless declined greatly due to the increased
availability of other newspapers and the rapid growth of
television. In 1993 the independent Stabroek News expanded
publication to seven times a week and added a weekly regional
edition. Independent and opposition newspapers frequently
criticize the Government in editorials and satirize it in
cartoons.
There were no restrictions on academic freedom.
b. Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association
The Public Order Act requires police permits for mass political
meetings. The Police Commissioner has the authority to refuse
permission for a public meeting at his discretion and without
explanation. There was no evidence that he used this authority
for political purposes in 1993. Political parties and other
groups held public meetings and rallies throughout the country
without hindrance.
c. Freedom of Religion
Guyanese practice a wide variety of religions, the major faiths
being Christianity, Hinduism, and Islam. The Constitution
provides for freedom of religion, and members of all faiths are
allowed to worship freely. There are no restrictions on
foreign religious groups proselytizing in Guyana.
d. Freedom of Movement Within the Country, Foreign
Travel, Emigration, and Repatriation
The Constitution provides for freedom of movement within
Guyana. Travel to Amerindian areas requires government
permission, the result of a law dating from colonial times
designed to protect the indigenous peoples from exploitation.
Prior to the 1992 elections, the GHRA, opposition politicians,
and some clergy contended that permits were sometimes denied to
missionaries and non-PNC politicians, and that the regulations
were used to maintain PNC influence among the Amerindians. In
practice, however, most people travel throughout these areas
without regard to the formality of a permit. Guyanese are free
to travel abroad, to emigrate, and to return.
Guyana did not generate political refugees in 1993. Eleven
Angolans and one or two other Africans who entered Guyana from
Brazil applied for political asylum. On the advice of the
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, most of the
applications were ultimately approved.
Section 3 Respect for Political Rights: The Right of Citizens
to Change Their Government
Guyana has a unicameral Parliament which is chosen by direct
election in a multiparty political system based on proportional
representation. The leader of the party which obtains a
plurality of seats in Parliament during national elections is
sworn in as Executive President. The President appoints a
Cabinet, headed by a Prime Minister, which together with the
President exercises executive power.
Guyanese are free to join or support political parties of their
choice. The 1992 general election, considered free and fair if
not entirely unflawed by foreign observers, brought the major
opposition party to power while turning the then governing
party into the main opposition. Despite constitutional
provisions, elections were still not held on schedule or in a
consistent manner. The general election was delayed from 1990
to October 1992; municipal elections, scheduled for December
1992, had not been held by the end of 1993.
No progress was made on reforming or replacing the
Constitution, which grants an inordinate amount of power to the
President. Constitutional reform requires a two-thirds
majority in Parliament, which could only be achieved through
the cooperation of the ruling party and the opposition. Only
one constitutional amendment was proposed during the 1993
parliamentary session, to change the composition of the
National Elections Commission, and this was eventually agreed
to after extended negotiations among the four parties
represented in Parliament.
There are no legal impediments to women or minorities
participating in the political process, but historically
neither women nor Amerindians were encouraged to participate,
other than by voting. Any Guyanese citizen 18 years or older
can register to vote, and about 80 percent of those registered
cast votes in the 1992 election. President Jagan's Cabinet
includes two women, two persons of Portuguese descent, one of
Chinese origin, eight of East Indian extraction, four
Afro-Guyanese, and one Amerindian. The new 65-member
Parliament includes 13 women and 8 Amerindians, representing
both major parties.
Section 4 Governmental Attitude Regarding International and
Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Violations
of Human Rights
The Guyana Human Rights Association, the most active local
human rights group, functioned without government interference
in 1993. The GHRA is a nongovernmental organization formed in
1979 with the participation of trade unions, professional
organizations, various ethnic groups, and churches. It issues
periodic press releases and publishes an annual report on human
rights in Guyana. The Government made no public statements in
response to either GHRA or foreign human rights reports. The
GHRA received no threats in 1993.
Section 5 Discrimination Based on Race, Sex, Religion,
Disability, Language, or Social Status
Women
In principle, the Constitution prohibits discrimination on the
basis of sex and commits the Government to ensure equal pay for
equal work. However, a 1988 government-sponsored
constitutional amendment rendered the equal pay provision
unenforceable except in cases in which equal pay for equal work
is provided for by specific statute. No such statutes have
been enacted.
The 1990 Equal Rights Act was meant to end sex discrimination,
but the failure to include a specific definition of
discrimination rendered the Act unenforceable. There is no
legal protection against widespread sexual harassment in the
workplace, and dismissal on the grounds of pregnancy is common
and not illegal.
Other legislation passed by the Parliament in 1990 protects
women's property rights under common law marriage, entitling a
woman who separates or divorces to one-half of the couple's
property if she had been working and one-third of the property
if she had been a housewife. However, divorce by consent
remains illegal, and there are unequal provisions regarding
adultery as grounds for divorce. The legislation also gave
authority to the courts to overturn a man's will in the event
it did not provide for the wife.
Violence against women and children, including domestic
violence, is a significant problem. Wife beating, rape, and
incest are common, but lawyers say their clients very rarely
report such crimes to the authorities. Victims of such abuse
who do seek redress from the police and the courts often suffer
social retribution and additional harassment from the
authorities charged with pursuing their claims. Because of
their economic circumstances and the lack of any family
shelters or other place of solace, victims of domestic violence
are often trapped in their homes with their abusers. The
National Women's Rights Campaign (NWRC) presented a draft bill
on domestic violence to the Government in September which the
Ministry of Labour, Human Services, and Social Security
promised to table in Parliament in 1994.
There are few organizations, other than those sponsored by
political parties, that focus primarily on women's rights. Two
exceptions are the Guyana chapter of the Caribbean Association
for Feminist Research and Action (CAFRA) and the NWRC which
opened a counseling center for victims of violent relationships
in early 1993.
Children
A 1992 U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF) report on children and
women in Guyana stated that "the rights of children and women
to survival and development, to protection, and to participation
have not been adequately met." An estimated 65 to 86 percent
of the population of Guyana lives in poverty, and children are
more severely affected than any other group. The severe
deterioration of the public education and health care systems
has stunted children's futures and often cut short their
lives. For many children, health care has become unaffordable.
Children are often denied access to education because their
families cannot afford school fees, or because their families
need the children to contribute to running the household by
working or providing child care for other children.
The worst effects on children's lives come from migration.
Over 3 percent of Guyana's population emigrates every year in
search of a brighter economic future. As parents migrate they
often leave behind their children to be raised by other family
members, friends, or by other children. Nearly 1 percent of
Guyana's households are headed by children under the age of 14.
The administration of justice for children is characterized by
a punitive legal system which does not take into account the
needs of children fleeing sexual, physical, or emotional
abuse. The 1992 UNICEF report stated that the "human rights of
children in institutions are essentially violated....Children
are being detained in inhospitable prison conditions for as
much as 6 months without trial and without being allowed to go
to school. Children have been picked up from the streets and
detained in an institution without being taken to court and
without the consent of their families. Within both public and
private institutions children report being beaten and sexually
and emotionally molested."
First Lady Janet Jagan and several ministers of government are
strongly committed to children's human rights and welfare. In
July the National Committee for the Survival, Protection, and
Development of Children held its first meeting, chaired by Mrs.
Jagan. The Committee is drafting a national program for action
on children, but the Government's ability to improve the
situation of children will be severely constrained by the lack
of resources available to the State.
Indigenous People
Guyana has a small indigenous Amerindian population, composed
of nine tribal groups, most living in reservations and villages
in remote parts of the interior. Their standard of living is
much lower than that of most Guyanese, and their ability to
participate in decisions affecting their lands, cultures,
traditions, and the allocation of natural resources is
virtually nil.
Amerindian life is regulated by the Amerindian Act, legislation
dating from colonial times designed to protect the indigenous
peoples from exploitation. The Act gives the Government the
power to determine who is an Amerindian and what is an
Amerindian community. Additionally, the Act gives the
Government the power to appoint Amerindian leaders and to
cancel or annul any decisions made by Amerindian councils.
Both individuals and Amerindian groups remain free to criticize
the Government. Although many actively and openly oppose
government policies, their influence on government policy was
negligible. The Amerindian Act also prohibits the sale of
alcohol to Amerindians and requires government permission
before any Amerindian can accept formal employment. In
December Parliament approved a motion to "appoint a Special
Select Committee to study the Amerindian Act and to make
recommendations for its revision along democratic lines to
enlarge the self-determination of Amerindians." The motion
passed with the unanimous support of all four parties
represented in Parliament.
In 1992 the Government distributed land titles to some
Amerindian communities. The APA charged that the titles were
distributed just before the elections in an attempt to win
votes and criticized the allocations because they were smaller
than recommended by the Government Lands Commission in 1968 and
did not include mineral rights.
The Government still holds title to 90 percent of the land
claimed by Amerindians and, through the Amerindian Act, retains
the ability to repossess the land titles already distributed if
it determines that it is in the Amerindians' interest. Several
large leases and concessions were granted, allowing mining and
timber companies to operate on traditional Amerindian lands,
often under contracts and terms never made public. Amerindians
displaced by timber and mining operations in such cases have no
legal recourse.
In 1993 the foreign-owned Barama company began timber
operations on 4.2 million acres of primary tropical forest
where five Amerindian communities are located. Of the 1,200
Amerindians living within the Barama concession, only 550 live
in government-recognized Amerindian villages. The rest are
scattered along the rivers and have no legal protection for
their homesteads. The APA claimed that the traditional
hunting, fishing, and farming lands of the Amerindian
communities are being destroyed and that nine families living
inside the Barama concession have been removed from their
land. The APA also claimed that Barama was denying Amerindians
access to their traditional forest paths and waterways within
the Barama concession. Barama officials denied these claims,
saying that a total of four families relocated voluntarily to
new housing built at Barama's expense. Barama further claimed
that it respected the boundaries of Amerindian communities and
that environmental damage in these areas was often caused by
gold miners operating without supervision in the region.
In late 1992, the new Government appointed an Amerindian to the
new position of Minister of Amerindian Affairs. The Minister
considers himself a liaison between Amerindians and the
Government. However, as a junior minister in the Ministry of
Public Works, Communications, and Regional Development, he has
no staff and no separate budget. The APA and the Guyanese
Organization of Indigenous Peoples complained that he is
consequently ineffective in the position.
National/Racial/Ethnic Minorities
The Constitution provides fundamental rights for all persons in
Guyana regardless of race, sex, religion, or national origin.
Guyanese society and political life continue to be influenced
by longstanding ethnic tensions, primarily between Guyanese of
African and East Indian descent. The civil service and defense
and police forces are overwhelmingly staffed by Afro-Guyanese.
This is largely the result of historical circumstances and does
not reflect a deliberate policy of the present Government.
Recruitment efforts targeted at Indo-Guyanese candidates for
the uniformed services generally have met with an
unenthusiastic response, with most qualified Indo-Guyanese
candidates opting for a business or professional career over
military, police, or public service.
People with Disabilities
Guyana has several special schools and training centers for the
disabled, but like the rest of the educational system these are
understaffed and in severe disrepair. The disabled generally
are considered unemployable because of the lack of appropriate
infrastructure to provide accessibility in both public and
private facilities. There is no law mandating provision of
access for people with disabilities.
Section 6 Worker Rights
a. The Right of Association
The right of association is provided for in the Constitution,
which specifically enumerates a worker's right to "form or
belong to trade unions." Employers are not required by law to
recognize a union in the workplace, even if a large majority of
workers have indicated their desire to be represented by a
union. The Minister of Labour sent a new trade union
recognition bill to the Attorney General for comment, but it
had not been laid before Parliament by the end of the year.
Most union members work in the public sector and in state-owned
enterprises, although in 1993 unions gained recognition in
several of Guyana's newly privatized industries. Organized
labor in Guyana freely associates in one major national
federation, the Guyana Trades Union Congress (TUC), composed of
22 unions. From 1988 to 1993, six unions suspended their
involvement in the TUC and formed the Federation of Independent
Trades Unions of Guyana (FITUG) to protest longstanding
political control of the TUC by the PNC. After long
negotiations with the FITUG unions, the TUC adopted democratic
reforms to its constitution in February 1993. The FITUG unions
returned to the TUC at a special conference in September during
which a FITUG member was elected president in the TUC's first
free elections since the mid-1970s.
There is a tradition of close ties between Guyana's trade union
movement and political parties, particularly the PNC which
controlled the Government (and thus public sector employment)
for 28 years until 1992. Historically, the two major political
parties wielded significant influence over the leadership of a
number of unions, and trade union officials often served in
dual roles as party officials. President Cheddi Jagan is on
leave as honorary president of Guyana's largest union, the
Guyana Agricultural and General Workers' Union, and former
President Hoyte is president general of the Guyana Labour
Union. Several other unions in the TUC are formally affiliated
with the PNC, and several FITUG unions have close ties with
other political parties.
Workers have a generally recognized right to strike, but public
employees providing essential services are normally forbidden
to strike (a procedure exists for the review of their
grievances by a tribunal appointed by the Minister of Labour).
When four public sector unions called a "work to rule" by
government employees to protest delays in wage negotiations,
President Jagan said, "they have a right to strike, but they
must strike responsibly." Unions representing the water works,
the state-owned radio stations, and the telephone company
called short strikes or "work to rule" actions. In October the
union representing workers at the state-owned electricity
company called a strike which lasted 7 days after the Prime
Minister forbade management from signing a wage agreement that
had been negotiated with the union.
Unions representing workers in the sugar, bauxite, timber, and
seafood industries also staged short strikes. Most of these
strikes were called to support negotiations for higher wages or
better working conditions, although a significant number of
strikes were the result of interunion recognition battles.
Labor disputes are frequently settled through consultation and
dialog without resorting to strikes or other industrial
action. Unions and their federations freely maintain relations
with recognized Caribbean and international trade union and
professional groups. All three of the major international
labor federations have affiliates in Guyana.
b. The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively
Public and private sector employees possess and utilize the
generally accepted right to organize and to bargain
collectively. The Ministry of Labour certifies all collective
bargaining agreements and has never refused to do so. This
right is not codified, however, and employers are not legally
required to recognize unions or bargain with them. For two
decades the TUC's traditional ties (through PNC-affiliated
unions) to the former PNC-controlled government limited the
unions' ability to negotiate effectively on behalf of workers
in both the private and public sectors.
In 1993 the new Government repealed a regulation requiring the
Government and all public corporations to engage in collective
bargaining only with the TUC and not with individual unions.
The result of that regulation had been that salaries and
working conditions in the Government and public sector
enterprises were dictated by the Government. However, unions
complained about a new regulation that all wage settlements
with the Government or public corporations had to be approved
by the Ministry of Finance.
The Chief Labour Officer and the staff of the Ministry of
Labour provide consultation, enforcement, and conciliation
services. In 1993, 47 collective bargaining agreements were
concluded and certified by the Ministry of Labour, up from 26
the year before. The Ministry has a backlog of cases, and
insufficient manpower and transportation severely limit the
Ministry's ability to carry out its functions.
The Ministry of Labour documented no cases of antiunion
discrimination during 1993. However, union leaders make
credible charges that workers attempting to unionize workplaces
are harassed and intimidated and that the Ministry does not
expeditiously investigate complaints that employers are
dismissing workers when confronted with union organizing
efforts. A foreign-owned timber company fired workers who went
on strike to protest supposed delays by the Ministry of Labour
in holding a recognition poll between rival PNC and PPP unions,
but the company later rehired all employees who returned to
work. There is no legal mechanism to require employers found
guilty of antiunion discrimination to rehire employees fired
for union activities.
Guyana has no export processing zones.
c. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor
The Constitution prohibits forced or compulsory labor, and
there is no indication that it exists.
d. Minimum Age of Employment of Children
Minimum age laws are set out in the Factories Act and the
Employment of Young Persons and Children Act. Legally, no
person under 14 years of age may be employed in any industrial
undertaking, and no person under 16 may be employed at night,
except under regulated circumstances. The terms "industry" and
"factory" as used in the law have been interpreted by the
Ministry of Labour to encompass nearly all workplaces except
offices and retail shops. According to the law, children under
age 14 may be employed only in enterprises in which members of
the same family are employed. The local economic situation has
forced more and more young children into the work force,
however, and it is common throughout the country to see very
young children engaged in street trading. While cognizant of
the situation, the Ministry of Labour does not employ
sufficient inspectors to enforce existing laws effectively.
e. Acceptable Conditions of Work
The Government establishes a public sector minimum wage which
was $1.35 per day as of July 1, 1993. The Labour Act and the
Wages Councils Act allow the Labour Ministry to set minimum
wages for various categories of private employers. In November
official minimum wages were raised by over 400 percent; the
minimum wage for unskilled workers was set at $0.17 per hour.
Both the legal minimum wage for the private sector and the
public sector minimum wage are currently insufficient to
provide a decent standard of living for a family.
Hours of employment are set under the Shops Act and the
Factories Act and vary by industry and sector. In general,
work in excess of an 8-hour day and a 44-hour week requires
payment of an overtime rate. The law does not provide for at
least one 24-hour rest period.
The Factories Act sets forth workplace safety and health
standards. The Occupational Health and Safety Division of the
Ministry of Labour is charged with conducting factory
inspections and investigating complaints of substandard
workplace and conditions. As with its other responsibilities,
inadequate resources prevented the Ministry from effectively
carrying out this function. Workers cannot remove themselves
from dangerous work situations without jeopardy to continued
employment.
[end of document]
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