…Govt claims workers were told beforehand about decision
Government has come out to defend reports that it now plans to send home 900-plus sugar workers who were retained to work within the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA), stating that that figure forms part of the estimated 4763 terminated Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) workers.
According to the Agriculture Ministry, those 900 workers are catered for in the original figure released by Government. These workers were retained by the Corporation to man certain key facilities and structures and to provide security, through attachments to the NDIA.
Agriculture Minister Noel Holder
Agriculture Minister Noel Holder has been quoted in various sections of the media as saying that some 4000-plus workers would be sent home. Holder at no point stated that the retained workers, who were placed to work with the NDIA would form part of the total figure.
The Minister came in for much criticism, since for some, he created an impression that the workers would have been retained on a long-term basis and not temporarily. To defend this position, the Agriculture Ministry said that the workers were aware that at the end of the extended period, they too would be sent home and paid their severance. These are workers of the Skeldon, Rose Hall and East Demerara Estates that have been closed.
“The Sugar Corporation had explained to the workers earmarked for retention that their severance package would have been estimated, and at the end of their period of retention, a final calculation made of what is owed to them,” the Ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.
According to the Ministry, the first list of workers to be paid severance was numbered approximately 3700 which together with the 900 that will be sent home equal 4763 severed workers – and not an additional 900. The Ministry also provided a breakdown of workers dismissed per estate in the issued statement.
On Monday, the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers’ Union (GAWU) was the first to state that the retained sugar workers attached to the NDIA would be sent home. GAWU claims being informed of this decision by GuySuCo, and that the workers identified for retrenchment would be notified shortly.
The Union said that these workers were mainly retained as the sugar company was seeking to provide certain services to the NDIA. Unfortunately, an arrangement in that respect has fallen through, and the workers are now facing redundancy. This comes mere weeks after hundreds of workers were dismissed and the Government approved provisions to offset partial severance payments to displaced workers.
GAWU on Monday said further expansion of unemployment in the sugar belt was without doubt making a “really bad situation even worse”. Given the absence of any plans to deal with the fallout from the closure of several estates and the fiasco that has surrounded the workers’ severance payment, this pending retrenchment has been described as “heart-rending”.
Despite Government’s move to close several sugar estates, many civil society bodies and other interest groups have been urging it to rethink the closure of estates and to implement plans that would address the welfare of workers, or at least put measures in place to cushion the effects of the closures.
In November, GuySuCo announced plans to retrench thousands of workers. GAWU says the downsizing and subsequent closure of sugar estates would lead to the loss of more than 15,000 jobs, and the potential threat of poverty for 50,000 to 100,000 people.
The Special Purpose Unit (SPU), which forms part of the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL), has been mandated to conduct evaluations, surveys and inventory assessments before any steps are taken to actually sell the estates. The SPU has since solicited the assistance of an international financial company to undertake these assessments as part of the plans to downsize the industry.
