GUY GOVINDEN THE FACE OF A.R.S.S.

Guy Govinden, founding Chairman of Association of Retired Seychellois Seaman.

Mr. Guy Govinden is the founding chairman of the Association of Retired Seychellois Seaman. This organisation was founded originally by a group of only four ex-seamen, namely, Eugene Honore, Ausguste Julie, Leon Woodcock and Guy Govinden in September, 2000. The membership currently boast 58 members. The Association was formed with clear objectives in mind to fight for compensation they believed they are due and have been denied during the course of employment with the Royal Fleet Auxiliaries (RFA) and for pension benefits due to them under the circumstances in which they were made to work.

Over the last six years the Association of Retired Seychellois Seaman (ARSS) through their local legal representative has exchanged communication through various letters with the British Ministry of Defence. They have even solicited assistance from British Members of Parliament in their fight for compensation. They want their claim for compensation to be comparable to that of their British counterparts because at the time of employment Seychelles was under the direct rule of Westminster with Queen Elizabeth II as head of State. Every household in Seychelles at that time displayed photographs of her Majesty Queen Elizabeth and the Royal Family in a position of pride in the living room. One could not have been more British!

It is believed that on recruitment in the early seventies, The Port Officer, Port and Marine Department, in Mahe, hose responsibility it was to arrange employment of Seychellois seamen, did not seek out their (local seamen) best interests. Their employers, the British Ministry of Defence through the Director General of Supplies and Transport (Naval), were allowed to get away with terms and conditions they would not normally envisage for recruitments in London.

This situation left the Seychellois seamen open to abuse denying them hundreds of thousands of pounds in compensation. The arguments being put forward by the M.O.D to deny the claim of the Seychellois seamen can be regarded as a mere excuses. “The Seamen were not British sailors or did not sail on British Vessels and that their main functions were to supply the Royal Navy with fuel and supplies, its personnel were civilians.”

The Seamen are arguing that, “As the network of British bases worldwide shrank towards the end of the Empire, the Navy relied heavily on the RFA to supply its ship during routing deployments. And that the Royal Navy personnel performed specialized military functions on the RFA Vessels with the Civilians Crews in attendance, such as operating and maintaining helicopters or manning hospital facilities.” The civilians were considered to be members of the merchant Navy and their vessels considered ordinary merchant ships leased to the Ministry of Defence.

Mr. Guy Govinden who sailed onboard the R.F.A. Dewdale among others has made it his life long commitment to get justice for the Seychellois R.F.A. seamen. He has expressed the desire to get his organisation registered as an NGO and to conduct an awareness campaign in 2007 on the plight of the ARSS members. Mr. Guy Govinden and his members deserve our total support in their fight for just reward. Mr. Govinden and the ARSS can be contacted on tel; 321534 or by email arss@globalsez.com.       

March 2, 2007
Copyright 2007: Seychelles Weekly, Victoria, Mahe, Seychelles