Republic Bank Guyana found itself as the subject of a protest today by representatives of the Guyana Civil Servants and General Workers Union over the bank’s delay in recognizing the union as the official representative of the bank’s more than 500 local workers.

The union was given the accreditation to represent workers of Republic Bank Guyana by the Trade Union Recognition and Certification Board back in December, but Republic Bank has since moved to the Courts to challenge the decision.

The bank wants the Court to address a number of matters that it believes were not addressed by the Trade Union Recognition Board when it issued a certification to the union to represent the bank’s workers.

Leading today’s protest was the President of the General Workers Union, Gregory Gasper who accused the bank of putting up roadblocks to deny its workers proper representation.

“We would have written asking for a meeting according to what is stipulated in the recognition…And when we had applied to the Recognition Board for recognition, the bank was written to by the Certification Board to come to a meeting. So, it was the union, the board, and the bank that met, all the issues were discussed and a date was set for another meeting. When that date arrived they indicated that they would send a representative and on that same date they sent a letter to the Board saying that they are taking the matter to court”, he explained.      

The Union is now of the view that Republic Bank does not want its workers to be unionized and is therefore creating blocks using the Court system.

“So from the very inception, the bank’s position or they have taken the position where they want to delay this whole process because instead of meeting they throw everything into the Court”, he said.

According to the union president, the union has done its part and the Trade Union Recognition Board has also done its part.  He said the Bank should not be allowed to frustrate the process any longer.

“They are choosing the longest route in the Court, which I think is the statement of claim. The Statement of Claim instead of as fix date application. So, that alone tells you that they want to drag out this thing and they don’t want their staff to be represented by a union but we are not going to give up on this because the staff has chosen us”

Union officials plan to continue their protest action against the bank until the demand of the workers to be unionized is met.

With the matter before the Court, Republic Bank has offered not to comment on the issue at this time.

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