GAWU says transfer of remaining Wales workers “forced labour”

The transfer of some 374 workers currently attached to the now closed Wales Sugar Estate to Uitvlugt Sugar Estate has been likened to “forced labour” by the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU).

GAWU made the characterisation in response to the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) Senior Communication Officer Audreyanna Thomas, who in a letter published Tuesday, contended that the entity could not be compelled to pay workers their severance.

GAWU, through an official statement on Thursday, noted that the letter was just “another sad attempt to justify the company’s wrong decision to deny some 300 workers from Wales Estate their rightful severance entitlement”.

Thomas had argued that cane harvesters and cane transport operators could become entitled to the payment of severance or redundancy allowance “only if their contracts were terminated in accordance with sections 12 and 21 (1) of the Termination of Employment and Severance Pay Act (TESPA)”, suggesting that redundancy must be determined specifically by the employer.

But GAWU retorted that the Corporation has forgotten that the decision to end sugar production at Wales in effect made the workforce redundant. “All hell will break loose across Guyana if the employer has to decide about their entitlement that is why workers over the years have fought for their rights with trade unions,” GAWU President Komal Chand recently told Guyana Times.

The Union on Thursday further disagreed with the Corporation’s interpretation of TESPA, noting that a worker was entitled to severance if he/she was sent to a location more than 10 miles away from his/her base location.

“On this we wish to point out that Uitvlugt Estate, not taking into account the journey into the cultivation areas, is some 22 miles away from Wales. Clearly, the section of the Act referred to by GuySuCo must be taken account of and it supports the workers’ cause. We see the Corporation’s assertions as mere semantics intended to divert and distract from the truth of the matter,” GAWU pointed out.

GuySuCo further contended that the Wales workers would be paid a disturbance allowance for their journey to Uitvlugt, in keeping with the 2004 Collective Labour Agreement (CLA). However, GAWU has clarified that GuySuCo omitted that the very CLA does not speak to any permanency of the allowance.

“Having regard to the need to move field and factory workers between and among estates, from time to time…” quoted GAWU from a section of the agreement.

“In this regard, GuySuCo, by its ill-thought-out attempt, may be guilty of yet another disrespect of the CLA,” GAWU noted.

GAWU further stressed that GuySuCo was operating “contrary” to local laws by allowing conditions that were unsuitable for work and by the denial of severance.

“It is disheartening to register, at this time, when our nation is observing the centennial anniversary of the end of indentureship in our country, that the Corporation is engaging in schemes that promote forced labour and is paying pay no, or little, or selective recognition of the laws, the CLA, and customs and practices which seek to promote and protect workers and which have been won due to their arduous and self-sacrificing struggles,” GAWU strongly expressed.

It was on Tuesday that the GAWU President condemned the Sugar Corporation’s disclosure that for the requisite categories, it was under no legal obligation to pay the workers severance.

The workers attached to Wales Estate had gathered on Monday outside the factory gates where they had reiterated calls for their outstanding severance benefits. At the Wales Community Centre on Friday last, workers bolted from a meeting with several Government Ministers when Public Security Minister Khemraj Ramjattan had disclosed that GuySuCo could not afford to pay workers severance benefits.

Government ended sugar operations at Wales Estate as a result of billions of dollars it accrued in losses over the years. However, the closure has affected hundreds of workers, their families and the surrounding communities. Many workers told Guyana Times of the difficulties they have encountered finding employment, while many women who traditionally were housewives have sought out jobs to support their families. It was at high-level sugar consultations last year with GuySuCo, the Union and the Opposition that Government disclosed that only three estates across the country would be kept.