CIOG lauds financial aid to severed sugar workers

Days after the government announced that sacked sugar workers will be given a cash grant of 250,000, the Central Islamic Organisation of Guyana (CIOG), has applauded this move by the PPP/C Administration.
“This assistance will undoubtedly alleviate the sufferings of the seven thousand sugar workers and their families,” CIOG stated in a release on Thursday.
Further, the religious body commended the Dr. Irfaan Ali-led Government on its decision to reopen three of the four closed estates. The reopening, CIOG reasoned, will have a positive impact on not only the lives of sugar workers, but the communities in which they live.
“CIOG congratulates the government for displaying their caring attitude and consistency in delivering on their promises to this nation.”
The Islamic organisation also expressed trust that the severed workers will utilize the grants wisely and for the benefit of their families. “God Bless Our Government and Guyanese people,” CIOG concluded.
Vice President Dr Bharrat Jagdeo on Monday last announced that the Government would give a one-off payout of $250,000 to each sugar worker who was sacked under the A Partnership for National Unity+Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) administration. This will amount to some $1.8 billon.
He was at the time meeting with sugar workers at Skeldon, Berbice during a one-day visit.
Some 7000 sugar workers had lost their jobs at the end of 2016, when the APNU+AFC moved to downsize the sector; the majority came from Region Six.
“By January or so, each sugar worker, each sugar worker who was severed, would also get another $250,000 on their severance. That would be between $1.7 and $1.8 billion, because we have 7,000 workers who were severed who will all get that. If this is crucial, it is important that we fix this. It was a great injustice and many people stood out there and remained silent. Many of them to justify the action of APNU because of politics, but any decent person would have stood up and defended it. It was only the People’s Progressive Party,” Jagdeo said.