The Guyana Trades Union Congress is deeply alarmed by reports emerging from the EKAA HRIM Earth Resources quarry operation in Batavia, Region Seven, where an Indian national died last week while on the job.
While the company has publicly stated that the worker reportedly died from a heart attack, such a claim does not absolve either the employer or the State from their legal, moral, and international obligations to conduct a full, transparent, and independent investigation into the circumstances surrounding this death. A worker died at a workplace. That fact alone demands scrutiny under occupational safety and health laws and internationally accepted labour standards.
General Secretary Lincoln Lewis said the matter raises troubling concerns about labour practices, occupational safety, the treatment of migrant labour, and the unchecked movement of workers into Guyana under conditions that may violate both domestic law and the International Labour Organization’s core labour standards.
“The time has come for the authorities to stop treating these matters casually. Guyana cannot boast about economic growth and investment while workers—particularly foreign workers brought into this country—are potentially being placed in unsafe and exploitative conditions,” Lewis stated.
The GTUC reminds the Government of Guyana that this nation is a signatory to the International Labour Organization’s core labour standards, including conventions relating to safe and healthy working conditions, non-discrimination, freedom from exploitation, and the protection of migrant workers.
The Congress is particularly concerned that there appears to be a serious deficiency in the State’s oversight regarding the movement of labour and skills into Guyana. The importation and deployment of labour must never occur in a manner that undermines the rights, dignity, safety, or protections afforded to workers under national law, CARICOM obligations, international labour conventions, and universally accepted human rights principles.
“We are part of CARICOM and the wider international community. Guyana must not become a territory where labour is abused, exploited, or subjected to unsafe conditions by private operators while State agencies look the other way,” Lewis warned.
The GTUC contends that the issue extends beyond one death at one quarry. It touches fundamentally on the future of labour relations in Guyana, the management of foreign labour, workplace inspections, occupational health and safety enforcement, and whether economic expansion is being pursued at the expense of workers’ rights and human dignity.
The Congress is therefore calling for:
- An immediate and independent investigation into the death at the EKAA HRIM Earth Resources quarry;
- A comprehensive review of labour practices involving foreign workers operating in Guyana;
- Full disclosure of the employment, immigration, and occupational safety arrangements under which these workers are engaged;
- Stronger enforcement of occupational health and safety standards across the mining and extractive sectors;
- Parliamentary and public scrutiny of the State’s management of labour mobility and migrant worker protections.
The GTUC further calls on the Ministries responsible for Labour, Home Affairs, and Natural Resources to publicly account for what systems are currently in place to monitor the welfare, safety, movement, and legal protections of foreign workers operating in hinterland locations under often dangerous and isolated conditions.
“Economic development cannot and must not be built on weak labour oversight, silence, or indifference. The Government has an obligation to ensure that every worker in this country—Guyanese or foreign—is protected under the law and treated with dignity,” Lewis declared.
The GTUC has dispatched a letter on the matter to Mr. Keoma Griffith, Minister of Labour and Manpower Planning
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