NCN’s Sport Editor remains on suspension although President calls it “inhumane”

Last Updated on Friday, 9 September 2016, 14:06 by Denis Chabrol

Chief Executive Officer of the National Communications Network (NCN), Lennox Cornette.

Although  President David Granger has strongly condemned the one month no-pay suspension of National Communications Network (NCN) Sport Editor, Jocelle Archibald-Hawke, the company’s Chief Executive Officer, Lennox Cornette said she would remain off the job until the Board of Directors decides on the matter.

The President making his position known would mean something to me. The matter is with the Board and if something is with the board I will wait until the Board pronounces on it,” Cornette told Demerara Waves Online News.

He said Archibald, who was suspended for making derogatory comments about a colleague who had asked the President about the Pokemon Go game,  was still off the job. Cornette hoped that the matter would be dealt with in less than one week.

President of the Clerical and Commercial Workers Union, Sherwood Clarke confirmed that the NCN CEO told him during one hour of talks that the Board supports Archibald-Hawke’s suspension. “He said that the board is backing the management team in the position that they took and the union is asking to give the young lady a chance,” Clarke told Demerara Waves Online News.

Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo (left) and President of the Clerical and Commercial Workers Union, Sherwood Clarke next to him at the opening of the union’s 4th Triennial Delegates Conference.

The union wants the suspension scrapped and a  warning letter issued instead.

The CCWU official is optimistic that the matter would be resolved early next week, after which it would seek the solidarity of organisations such as the Guyana Press Association (GPA).

In this week’s edition of the Public Interest, President Granger harshly criticized NCN’s suspension of the Sport Editor.  “It is inhumane to deprive an employee of her salary without due process. She hasn’t committed a crime. It is not as though as she is a murderer and i think it was inhumane to take away her salary or to suspend her from her job,” said Granger.