Albion/Port Mourant Estate in Berbice has claimed the distinction of being the first sugar estate for the year to surpass its weekly target, an event that is renewing hope and resulting in a bigger payday for workers.
Albion Sugar Estate
According to a release from the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo), the Albion/Port Mourant Estate has surpassed its sugar production target for the week ending March 19, 2022, by 7.9 per cent.
“This was the first weekly target surpassed for the year 2022 in the sugar sector. As a result of this achievement, qualified employees (who worked 80 per cent or more days available for the week) of Albion/Port Mourant Estate will benefit from an additional day’s pay (tax-free),” GuySuCo said.
Further, the sugar company stated that the target was surpassed even in the face of challenges posed by the intermittent rainfalls. In fact, almost 30 millimetres of rain fell during the week under question. This resulted in the estate’s mechanical harvesting being stalled. Despite this, the estate was able to leverage the attendance of the harvesters and increased human productivity.
“The Corporation at the commencement of the 1st Crop, 2022, introduced an improved Personal Performance Incentive (PPI) Scheme, which saw cane harvesters responding positively to same; hence, their improved attendance and productivity.”
“This PPI handsomely rewarded each worker progressively as they improve their productivity with some workers adding more than G$15,000 to their weekly pay packet this week. The Corporation has also implemented a similar incentive scheme for the planters, fertilising crew and chemical weed control workers,” GuySuCo said.
In the statement, quotes are included of Cane Harvester Omadat Seecharan who is attached to the 15B gang at the Albion/Port Mourant Estate. He lauded the GuySuCo management for paying out the incentive.
“I want to thank management and workers for achieving this weekly production incentive. With this, we will have more money for our families and I would like to encourage all workers to come out and let us achieve more weekly targets in the future at Albion Estate,” he said.
Weekly Production Incentive (WPI) is one of several initiatives in place to boost employees’ productivity and was implemented on May 13, 1989. The payment of a WPI is based on the individual estate’s achievement of one hundred per cent (100 per cent) or more of its weekly sugar production target.
“Once the targets achieved, employees on the estate receive one additional day’s pay. If the estate’s achievement is one hundred and thirty per cent (130 per cent) or more of its target, then employees on the estate will receive two days’ pay,” GuySuCo said.
“The Executive Management of GuySuCo congratulates the management and workers of Albion/Port Mourant Estate and urges all employees of grinding estates to strive towards the achievement of WPIs.”
Last year, GuySuCo had reported that 4300 hectares of sugar cane were destroyed for 2021 due to flooding. This is land equivalent to over 52,000 house lots. GuySuCo was only able to rehabilitate 38 per cent of those damaged canes.
Albion Estate, which was expected to contribute 50 per cent of sugar cane cultivation, had a mortality rate of 80 per cent due to the floods. This was cane that would have otherwise been harvested in the first crop of 2022. Berbice estates as a whole had 72 per cent more rainfall than 2020.
So unprecedented is the flooding that GuySuCo experienced earlier in the year that “the Corporation drained some 4.5 million tonnes of water off the land daily during the 65 days flood which is enough water to fill 2000 Olympic sized swimming pools.”
