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Chapter 98:03 - Trade Unions

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L.R.O. 1/2012
LAWS OF GUYANA
TRADE UNIONS ACT
CHAPTER 98:03
Act
17 of 1921
Amended by
8 of 1943 O. 4/1974
31 of 1946 9 of 1947
12 of 1967 4 of 1972
29 of 1991


1 – 23 ... 1/2012
(inclusive) by L.R.O.
Pages Authorised
Current Authorised Pages
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Index
of
Subsidiary Legislation
This Chapter contains no subsidiary legislation.


Note
on
Revision
The Trade Unions (Fees) Regulations (Reg. 45/1940) have been omitted from
this publication.
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CHAPTER 98:03
TRADE UNIONS ACT
ARRANGEMENT OF SECTIONS
SECTION
1. Short title.
2. Interpretation.
3. Trade unions.
4. Exemptions.
5. When objects of union not unlawful.
6. When trade union contracts not enforceable.
7. Prohibition of actions of tort against unions.
8. Conspiracy in relation to trade disputes.
9. Removal of liability for interfering with another person’s business.
10. Chapters 36:04 and 89:09 not applicable to unions.
11. Trade unions prohibited from carrying on business unless
registered.
12. Compulsory registration.
13. Registrar of trade unions.
14. Register of unions.
15. Registration of unions.
16. Land for unions may be purchased or leased.
17. Property of unions vested in trustees.
18. Trustee not to hold any office in same trade union.
19. In cases of disability of trustees.
20. Actions by or against trustees.
21. Limitation of responsibility of trustees.
22. Officers’ accounts and audit.
23. Withholding or misapplying union effects.
24. Regulations for registration.
25. Rules of registered unions.
26. Registered office of unions.
27. Withdrawal or cancellation of certificate of registration.
28. Membership of minors.
29. Member’s nomination of payee.
30. Change of union’s name.


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SECTION
31. Amalgamation of unions.
32. Registration of change of names and amalgamations.
33. Dissolution.
34. Failure to give notice or send document.
35. Annual returns.
36. Registrar’s reports.
37. Circulating false copies of rules.
FIRST SCHEDULE—Rules.
SECOND SCHEDULE—Fees.
__________________________ 1929 Ed.
c. 57
1953 Ed.
c. 113 _______________________________________________________
17 of 1921 An Act to provide for the Regulation and Registration of
Trade Unions.
[18TH JUNE, 1921]
Short title.
Interpretation.
[8 of 1943]
1. This Act may be cited as the Trade Unions Act.
2. In this Act—
“the Registrar” means the Registrar appointed under this Act;
“the rules” or “rules” means rules made under this Act;
“statutory objects” means the regulation of the relations
between workmen and masters, or between workmen
and workmen, or between masters and masters, or the
imposing of restrictive conditions on the conduct of any
trade or business, and also the provision of benefit to
members;
CHAPTER 98:03
TRADE UNIONS ACT

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Trade unions.

Exemptions.

“trade dispute” means any dispute between employers and
workmen, or between workmen and workmen, which is
connected with the employment or non-employment, or
terms of the employment or with the conditions of
labour, of any person;
“trade union” means any combination, whether temporary or
permanent, the principal objects of which are under its
constitution statutory objects:
Provided that any combination which is for the time
being registered as a trade union shall be deemed to be a
trade union as defined by this Act so long as it continues to be
so registered.
3. The fact that a combination has, under its
constitution, objects or powers other than statutory objects
within the meaning of this Act shall not prevent its being a
trade union for the purposes of this Act so long as it is a trade
union as defined by this Act, and any trade union shall have
power to apply the funds of the union for any lawful objects
or purposes for the time being authorised under its
constitution.
4. This Act shall not affect—
(a) any agreement between partners as to their
own business;
(b) any agreement between an employer and
those employed by him as to the
employment;
(c) any agreement in consideration of the sale of
the goodwill of a business, or of instruction
in any profession, trade, or handicraft.

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When objects
of union not
unlawful.

When trade
union contracts
not
enforceable.
5. (1) The purposes of any trade union shall not, by
reason merely that they are in restraint of trade, be deemed to
be unlawful so as to render any member of the union liable to
criminal prosecution for conspiracy or otherwise.
(2) The purposes of any trade union shall not, by
reason merely that they are in restraint of trade, be unlawful
so as to render void or voidable any agreement or trust.
6. Nothing in this Act shall enable any court to
entertain any legal proceedings instituted with the object of
directly enforcing or recovering damages for the breach of
any agreement—
(a) between members of a trade union as a
union concerning the conditions on which
any members for the time being of the union
shall or shall not sell their goods, transact
business, employ or be employed; or
(b) for the payment by any person of any
subscription or penalty to a trade union; or
(c) for the application of the funds of a trade
union—
(i) to provide benefits to members; or
(ii) to furnish contributions to any
employer or workman not a member
of that union, in consideration of the
employer or workman acting in
conformity with the rules or
resolutions of that union; or
(iii) to discharge any fine imposed upon
any person by sentence of a court of
justice; or
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Prohibition of
actions of tort
against unions.
[9 of 1947]

Conspiracy in
relation to
trade disputes.
[8 of 1943]
(d) made between one trade union and another;
or of any bond to secure the performance of any of the above-
mentioned agreements; but nothing in this section shall be
deemed to constitute any of the above-mentioned agreements
unlawful.
7. (1) An action against a trade union, whether of
workmen or masters, or against any members or officers
thereof on behalf of themselves and all other members of the
union, in respect of any tortious act alleged to have been
committed by or on behalf of that union, shall not be
entertained by any court.
(2) Nothing in this section shall affect the liability
of the trustees of a trade union to be sued in the events
provided for by section 20, except in respect of any tortious
act committed by or on behalf of the union in contemplation
or in furtherance of a trade dispute.
8. (1) An agreement or combination of two or more
persons to do or procure to be done any act in contemplation
or furtherance of a trade dispute shall not be indictable as a
conspiracy if such act committed by one person would not be
punishable as a crime.
(2) An act done in pursuance of an agreement or
combination by two or more persons shall, if done in
contemplation or furtherance of a trade dispute, not be
actionable unless the act, if done without any such agreement
or combination, would be actionable.
(3) Nothing in this section shall exempt from
punishment any person guilty of a conspiracy for which a
punishment is awarded by any Act.
(4) Nothing in this section shall affect the law
relating to riot, unlawful assembly, breach of the peace or
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Removal of
liability for
interfering
with another
person’s
business.
[8 of 1943]

Chapters
36:04 and
89:01 not
applicable to
unions.

c. 36:04

Trade unions
prohibited
from carrying
sedition or any offence against the State.
(5) A crime for the purposes of this section means
an offence for the commission of which the offender is liable
to be imprisoned either absolutely or at the discretion of the
Court as an alternative for some other punishment.
(6) Where a person is convicted of any such
agreement or combination as aforesaid to do or procure to be
done an act which is punishable on summary conviction, and
is sentenced to imprisonment, the imprisonment shall not
exceed three months, or such longer time, if any, as may have
been prescribed by the law for the punishment of the said act
when committed by one person.
9. An act done by a person in contemplation or
furtherance of a trade dispute shall not be actionable on the
ground only that it induces some other person to break a
contract of employment or that it is an interference with the
trade, business, or employment of some other person, or with
the right of some other person to dispose of his capital or his
labour as he wills.
10. The following Acts, that is to say,
(a) the Friendly Societies Act, and
(b) the Companies Act ,
shall not apply to a trade union:
Provided that a trade union which insures or pays money
on the death of a child under ten years of age shall be deemed
to be within the provisions of section 41 of the Friendly
Societies Act.
11. (1) No trade union or any member thereof shall
perform any act in furtherance of the purposes for which it
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on business
unless
registered.
[8 of 1943
4 of 1972]
Compulsory
registration.
[8 of 1943
4 of 1972]


Registrar of
unions.

Register of
unions.


has been formed unless such trade union has first been
registered.
(2) Any trade union or any officer or member
thereof who contravenes this section shall be liable on
summary conviction to a fine of three hundred dollars.
12. (1) Every trade union shall be registered in
accordance with this Act or be dissolved within three months
of the date—
(a) of its formation; or
(b) of any notification by the Registrar
that he has refused under section 24
to register the trade union (unless the
decision of the Registrar is reversed
on appeal),
whichever is the later date.
(2) Every trade union which is not registered or
dissolved within the period prescribed in the preceding
subsection and every officer thereof shall be liable on
summary conviction to a fine of seventy-five dollars for every
day it remains unregistered after the expiration of such
period.
13. There shall be a Registrar of trade unions for the
purposes of this Act.
14. The Registrar shall keep a register of all trade
unions registered under this Act in the form required by the
rules, and shall discharge all the duties required by this Act
and by the rules.
15. Any seven or more members of a trade union may,
by subscribing their names to the rules of the union, and
otherwise complying with this Act with respect to
unions.
Registration of
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Land for
unions may be
purchased or
leased.


Property of
unions vested
in trustees.
[9 of 1947]

registration, register the union under this Act, but if any one
of the purposes of that union is unlawful the registration shall
be void.
16. Any trade union registered under this Act may
purchase or take upon lease, in the names of the trustees for
the time being of the union, any land not exceeding one acre,
and may sell, exchange, mortgage, or let the land, and no
purchaser, assignee, mortgagee, or tenant, shall be bound to
inquire whether the trustees have authority for any sale,
exchange, mortgage, or letting, and the receipt of the trustees
shall be a discharge for the money arising therefrom; and for
the purposes of this section every branch of a trade union
shall be considered a distinct union.
17. (1) All movable and immovable property
whatsoever belonging to any trade union registered under
this Act shall be vested in the trustees for the time being of the
union, appointed as provided by this Act, for the use and
benefit of the union and the members thereof, and the
movable or immovable property of any branch of a trade
union shall be vested in the trustees of that branch, or in the
trustees of the union, if the rules of the union so provide, and
be under the control of the trustees, their respective executors
or administrators, according to their respective claims and
interests.
(2) Upon the death or removal of any of the
trustees, the property shall vest in the succeeding trustees for
the same estate and interest as the former trustees had
therein, and subject to the same trusts, without any
conveyance or assignment whatsoever, except in the case of
stocks and securities in the public funds of Guyana, which
shall be transferred into the names of the new trustees.
(3) In all actions, or suits, or indictments, or
summary proceedings before any court of summary
jurisdiction, touching or concerning any of the property, it
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Trustee not to
hold any office
in same trade
union.
[9 of 1947]

In cases of
disability of
trustees.
[9 of 1947]
shall be stated to be that of the person or persons for the time
being holding the appointment of trustee, in his or their
proper names, as trustees of the trade union, without any
further description.
18. (1) Where any person, being an officer, or a
member of the committee of management, of a trade union or
of any branch thereof, is appointed a trustee of that trade
union or of any branch thereof, he shall thereupon cease to be
an officer, or a member of the committee of management, of
the trade union, or of the branch thereof, as the case may be.
(2) Where any person, being a trustee of a trade
union or of any branch thereof, is appointed an officer, or a
member of the committee of management, of that trade union
or of any branch thereof, he shall thereupon cease to be a
trustee of such trade union, or of the branch thereof, as the
case may be.
19. When anyone who is or has been a trustee of a
trade union registered under this Act, or of any branch of a
trade union, and whether appointed before or after the legal
establishment thereof, and in whose name any stock
belonging to that union or branch transferable at any bank in
Guyana is standing, either jointly with another or others, or
solely is absent from Guyana or becomes insolvent, or files
any petition, or executes any deed for liquidation of his
affairs by assignment or arrangement or for composition with
his creditors, or becomes a person of unsound mind, or is
or has ceased under section 18 to be a trustee, or if it is
unknown whether that person is living or dead, the Registrar,
on application in writing from the secretary and three
members of the union or branch, and on proof satisfactory to
him, may direct the transfer of the stock into the names of any
other persons as the trustees for the union or branch; and the
transfer shall be made by the surviving or continuing trustees
or trustee, and if there is none of those trustees or if that
dead, or has been removed from his appointment as trustee,
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Actions by or
against
trustees.
[9 of 1947]


Limitation of
responsibility
of trustees.

Officers’
accounts, and
trustee refuses or is unable to make the transfer and the
Registrar so directs, then by the manager of the bank; and the
bank is hereby indemnified for anything done in pursuance of
this provision against any claim or demand of any person
injuriously affected thereby.
20. The trustees of any trade union registered under
this Act, or by any officer of the union authorised so to do by
the rules thereof, are hereby empowered to bring or defend,
or cause to be brought or defended, any action, suit,
prosecution, or complaint in any court of law or equity,
touching or concerning the property, right, or claim to
property of the union; and shall and may, in all cases
concerning the movable or immovable property of the union,
sue and be sued, plead and be impleaded, in any court of law
or equity, in their proper names, without other description
than their appointment as trustees or the title of his office, as
the case may be; and the action, suit, prosecution, or
complaint shall not be discontinued, nor shall it abate, or by
the death or removal of any such trustee, or by any such
trustee ceasing to be a trustee, or by the death or removal
from office of any such officer, but shall and may be
prosecuted by their successor or successors as if the death,
resignation, or removal had not taken place; and those
successors shall pay or receive the like costs as if the action,
suit, prosecution, or complaint had been commenced in their
names for the benefit of, or to be reimbursed from, the funds
of the union, and the summons to be issued to the trustee or
officer may be served by leaving it at the registered office of
the union.
21. A trustee of any trade union registered under this
Act shall not be liable to make good any deficiency which
may arise or happen in the funds of the union, but shall be
liable only for the moneys actually received by him on
account of the union.
22. (1) Every treasurer or other officer of a trade union
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audit.
[31 of 1946]


Withholding
or
misapplying
union effects.
registered under this Act, at the times at which by the rules of
the union he should render the account hereinafter
mentioned, or upon being required so to do, shall render to
the trustees of the union, or to the members thereof, at a
meeting of the union, a just and true account of all moneys
received and paid by him since he last rendered the like
account, and of the balance then remaining in his hands, and
of all bonds or securities of the union, which account the
trustees shall submit to the Director of Audit for audit within
fourteen days of its receipt from the treasurer.
(2) The treasurer, if thereunto required, upon the
account being audited, shall forthwith hand over to the
trustees the balance which on the audit appears to be due
from him, and shall also, if required, hand over to the trustees
all securities and effects, books, papers, and property of the
union in his hands or custody.
(3) If the treasurer fails to do so the trustees of the
union may sue him in any competent court for the balance
appearing to have been due from him upon the account last
rendered by him, and for all the moneys since received by
him on account of the union, and for the securities and effects,
books, papers, and property in his hands or custody, leaving
him to set off in the action the sums (if any) he has since paid
on account of the union; and in the action the trustees shall be
entitled to recover their full costs of suit, to be taxed as
23. If any officer, member, or other person, being or
representing himself to be a member of a trade union
registered under this Act, or the nominee, executor,
administrator, or assignee, of a member thereof, or any
person whatsoever, by false representation or imposition,
obtains possession of any moneys, securities, books, papers,
or other effects of the union, or, having them in his
possession, wilfully withholds or fraudulently misapplies
them, or wilfully applies any part of them to purposes other
between attorney-at-law and client.
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Regulations for
registration.
[8 of 1943
9 of 1947
12 of 1967]
than those expressed or directed in the rules of the union, or
any part thereof, the court of summary jurisdiction for the
place in which the registered office of the union is situate,
upon a complaint made by anyone on behalf of the union, or
by the Registrar, may, by summary order, order that officer,
member or other person, to deliver up all those moneys,
securities, books, papers, or other effects to the union, or to
repay the amount of money applied improperly, and, if the
court thinks fit, to pay in addition a fine of three hundred
dollars, together with costs not exceeding five dollars; and, in
default of that delivery or repayment of that amount of
money or payment of that penalty and costs, the court may
order the person so convicted to be imprisoned for any time
not exceeding three months:
Provided that—
(a) nothing herein contained shall prevent the
union from proceeding by indictment
against the party aforesaid; and
(b) no one shall be proceeded against by
indictment if a conviction has been
previously obtained for the same offence
under this Act.
24. With respect of the registration, under this Act, of
a trade union and its rules, the following provisions shall
have effect:
(a) an application to register the union and
printed copies of the rules, together with a
list of the titles and names of the trustees
and of the officers, shall be sent to the
Registrar under this Act;
(b) the Registrar, upon being satisfied that the
union has complied with the regulations
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respecting registration in force under this
Act shall register the union and its rules;
(c) no union shall be registered under a name
identical with that by which any other
existing trade union has been registered, or
so nearly resembling that name as to be
likely to deceive the members or the public;
(d) the Registrar shall not register any
combination as a trade union unless in his
opinion, having regard to the constitution of
the combination, its principal objects are
statutory objects, and may withdraw the
certificate of registration of any registered
union if the constitution of the union has
been so altered that, in his opinion, its
principal objects are no longer statutory
objects, or if in his opinion the principal
objects for which it is actually carried on are
not statutory objects;
(e) anyone aggrieved by refusal of the Registrar
to register a combination as a trade union
may appeal to the High Court within the
time and in the manner and on the
conditions directed by rules of court;
(f) where a union applying to be registered has
been in operation for more than a year
before the date of the application, there shall
be delivered to the Registrar before the
registration thereof a general statement of its
receipts, funds, effects, and expenditure, in
the same form, and showing the same
particulars as if it were the annual general
statement hereinafter required to be
transmitted annually to the Registrar;

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Second
Schedule.
Rules of
registered
unions.
[8 of 1943]
(g) the Registrar, upon registering the union
shall issue a certificate of registration, which
certificate, unless proved to have been
withdrawn or cancelled, shall be conclusive
evidence that the regulations of this Act
with respect to registration have been
observed;
(h) the Minister may from time to time make
rules respecting registration under this Act,
and respecting the seal (if any), and the
forms, to be used for the purpose of
registration, and the inspection of
documents kept by the Registrar under this
Act, and respecting the fees (if any) to be
paid on registration, not exceeding the fees
specified in the Second Schedule, and,
generally, for carrying this Act into effect.
25. With respect to the rules of a trade union
registered under this Act, the following provisions shall have
effect:
(a) the rules of every union shall contain
provisions in respect of the several matters
mentioned in the First Schedule;
(b) a copy of the rules shall be delivered by the
union to every person on demand on
payment of a sum not exceeding twenty-five
cents;
(c) every alteration of the rules of a registered
trade union shall be registered with the
Registrar and shall take effect from the date
of registration unless some later date is
specified in the rules;

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First Schedule.

Registered
office of
unions.

Withdrawal or
cancellation of
certificate of
registration.
[8 of 1943
9 of 1947
12 of 1967
4 of 1972]
(d) the rules of a registered trade union shall
not be altered so that they cease to contain
provisions in respect of the several matters
in the First Schedule.
26. (1) Every trade union registered under this Act
shall have a registered office to which all communications
and notices may be addressed; if any union under this Act is
in operation for seven days without having that office, the
union and every officer thereof shall be liable on summary
conviction to a fine of seventy-five dollars for every day
during which it is so in operation.
(2) Notice of the situation of the registered office,
and of any change therein, shall be given to the Registrar and
recorded by him, and until that notice is given the union shall
not be deemed to have complied with this Act.
27. (1) No certificate of registration of a trade union
shall be withdrawn or cancelled otherwise than by the
Registrar, and in the following cases:
(a) at the request of the union to be
evidenced in the manner from time to
time directed by him;
(b) on proof to his satisfaction that a
certificate of registration has been
obtained by fraud or mistake, or that
the registration of the union has
become void under section 15, or that
the union has wilfully and after notice
from the Registrar violated any of the
provisions of this Act, or has ceased to
exist;
(c) under the provisions of section 24 (d).

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(2) With regard to paragraphs (b) and (c) of the
preceding subsection, not less than two months’ previous
notice in writing specifying briefly the ground of any
proposed withdrawal or cancellation of certificate (unless the
registration is shown to have become void as aforesaid, in
which case it shall be the duty of the Registrar to cancel the
certificate forthwith) shall be given by the Registrar to the
trade union before the certificate of its registration can be
withdrawn or cancelled (except at its request).
(3) A trade union whose certificate of registration
has been withdrawn or cancelled shall, from the time of the
withdrawal or cancellation, absolutely cease to enjoy as such
the privileges of a registered trade union, but without
prejudice to any liability actually incurred by the union,
which may be enforced against it as if the withdrawal or
cancellation had not taken place.
(4) If after the withdrawal or cancellation of the
certificate a trade union continues in active operation, except
for the purpose of winding up its affairs, every trustee,
member of the committee, secretary or other officer of such
trade union remaining in office or taking any active part in its
operations, shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on
summary conviction to a fine of fifteen dollars for every day
during which such trade union continues in active operation.
(5) Where a certificate is withdrawn or cancelled
pursuant to any notice under subsection (2) or on the ground
that the registration has become void as aforesaid, any one
aggrieved by the decision of the Registrar may appeal
therefrom to the High Court within the time and in the
manner directed by rules of court.
(6) Anything to the contrary herein
notwithstanding, until the expiration of the time allowed for
the filing of an appeal pursuant to subsection (5) or where
such an appeal has been filed until the determination thereof,
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Membership of
minors.
[O. 4/1974]

Member’s
nomination of
payee.
[4 of 1972]

Change of
union’s name.

Amalgamation
of unions.
subsections (3) and (4) shall not apply to the withdrawal or
cancellation in question.
28. A person under the age of eighteen, but above the
age of sixteen, may be a member of a trade union, unless
provision is made in its rules to the contrary, and may, subject
to those rules, enjoy all the rights of a member except as
herein provided, and execute all instruments and give all
acquittances necessary to be executed or given under the rules
of the union, but shall not be a member of the committee of
management, trustee, or treasurer of the union.
29. A member of a trade union, not being under the
age of sixteen years, may, by writing under his hand,
delivered at or sent to the registered office of the union,
nominate any person, not being an officer or servant of the
union (unless the officer or servant is his husband, wife,
father, mother, child, brother, sister, nephew, or niece), to
whom any moneys payable on his death, not exceeding five
hundred dollars, shall be paid at his decease, and may from
time to time revoke or vary the nomination by a writing
under his hand similarly delivered or sent; and on receiving
satisfactory proof of the death of a nominator, the union shall
pay to the nominee the amount due to the deceased member
not exceeding that sum.
30. (1) A trade union may, with the approval in
writing of the Registrar, change its name by the consent of not
less than two-thirds of the total number of members.
(2) No change of name shall affect any right or
obligation of the union or of any member thereof, and any
pending legal proceedings may be continued by or against the
trustees of the union or any other officer, who may sue or be
sued on behalf of the union notwithstanding its new name.
31. Any two or more trade unions may, by the consent
of not less than two-thirds of the members of each of those
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Registration of
change of
names and
amalgamation.

Dissolution.

Failure to give
notice or send
document.

unions, become amalgamated together as one trade union,
with or without any dissolution or division of their funds, or
the funds of either or any of them; but no amalgamation shall
prejudice any right of a creditor of either or any union party
thereto.
32. Notice in writing of every change of name or
amalgamation, signed, in the case of a change of name, by
seven members and countersigned by the secretary of the
trade union changing its name, and accompanied by a
statutory declaration by the secretary that the provisions of
this Act in respect of changes of names have been complied
with, and in the case of an amalgamation signed by seven
members and countersigned by the secretary of each or every
union party thereto, and accompanied by a statutory
declaration by each or every secretary that the provisions of
this Act in respect of amalgamations have been complied
with, shall be sent to the Registrar to be registered, and until
that change of name or amalgamation is so registered it shall
not take effect.
33. Notice of every dissolution of a trade union under
the hand of the secretary and seven members of the union
shall be sent within fourteen days thereafter to the Registrar,
and shall be registered by him.
34. A trade union which fails to give any notice, or
send any document which by this Act it is required to give or
send, and every officer or other person bound by the rules
thereof to give notice or send the document, or if there is not
that officer, then every member of the committee of
management of the union, unless proved to have been
ignorant of, or to have attempted to prevent, the omission to
give or send the notice or document, is liable on summary
conviction to a fine of not less than fifteen and not more than
seventy-five dollars, recoverable at the suit of the Registrar or
of any person aggrieved, and to an additional penalty of the
like amount for each week during which the omission
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L.R.O. 1/2012
Annual
returns.
[8 of 1943
9 of 1947]

Registrar’s
reports.

continues.
35. (1) A general statement of the receipts, funds,
effects, and expenditure of every trade union registered under
this Act shall be transmitted to the Registrar before the 1st
May in every year, and shall show fully its assets and
liabilities at the date, and its receipts and expenditure during
the year preceding the date, to which the statement is made
out; and shall show separately the expenditure in respect of
the several objects of the union, and shall be prepared and
made out up to the date, in the form, and comprise the
particulars from time to time required by the Registrar; and
every member of, and depositor in, the union shall be entitled
to receive, on application to the treasurer or secretary of the
union, a copy of the general statement, without making any
payment therefor.
(2) Together with the general statement there shall
be sent to the Registrar a copy of all changes of trustees and
officers made by the union during the year preceding the date
up to which the general statement is made out and a copy of
the rules of the union as they exist at that date.
(3) Every trade union which fails to comply with or
acts in contravention of this section, and also every officer of
the union so failing, shall each be liable on summary
conviction to a fine of seventy-five dollars for each offence.
(4) Everyone who wilfully makes, or orders to be
made, any false entry in, or any omission from, any general
statement aforesaid, or in or from the return of the copies
aforesaid, shall for each offence on summary conviction be
liable to a fine of seven hundred and fifty dollars.
36. The Registrar shall lay before the National
Assembly annual reports with respect to the matters
transacted by him in pursuance of this Act.

LAWS OF GUYANA
22 Cap. 98:03 Trade Unions
L.R.O. 1/2012
Circulating
false copies of
rules.
37. Everyone who, with intent to mislead or defraud,
gives to any member of a trade union registered under this
Act, or to any person intending or applying to become a
member of the union, a copy of any rules, or of any alteration
or amendments thereof, other than those respectively which
exist for the time being, on the pretence that they are the
existing rules of the union, or that there are no other rules of
the union, and everyone who, with the intent aforesaid, gives
a copy of any rules to anyone on the pretence that they are the
rules of a trade union registered under this Act which is not
so registered, shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine
of one hundred and fifty dollars.
_____________
FIRST SCHEDULE
RULES
OF MATTERS TO BE PROVIDED FOR BY THE RULES OF
TRADE UNIONS REGISTERED UNDER THIS ACT
1. The name of the trade union and place of meeting
for its business.
2. The whole of the objects for which the trade union
is to be established, the purposes for which its funds shall be
applicable, and the conditions under which any member may
become entitled to any benefit thereby, and the fines and
forfeitures to be imposed on any member of the trade union.
3. The manner of making, altering, amending, and
rescinding rules.
4. A provision for the appointment of a general
committee of management, of a trustee or trustees, and of a
treasurer and other officers, and a provision for the removal
LAWS OF GUYANA
Trade Unions Cap. 98:03 23
L.R.O. 1/2012
of any person so appointed.
5. A provision for the keeping of full and accurate
accounts by the treasurer.
6. A provision for the investment of the funds, and for
an annual or periodical audit of accounts.

7. The inspection of the books and names of members
of the trade union by every person having an interest in its
funds.
8. The manner of dissolution.
____________
SECOND SCHEDULE
FEES
MAXIMUM FEES
For registering trade union ........................................................
For registering alterations in rules .............................................
For inspection of documents .....................................................
____________________