As several sugar workers protested Parliament on Thursday, Government tabled a new financial paper seeking parliamentary approval for $2.451 billion to pay off hundreds of them.
The supplementary paper caters for workers severance packages but does not include payments for the dismissed Wales sugar workers.
Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo and Opposition Chief Whip and People’s Progressive Party (PPP) executive, Gail Teixeira both confirmed this to be true.
The financial paper totalled $7.5 billion, but only $2.4 billion was set aside for severance pay.
“Form all that we have been told is that it excludes workers from Wales who have been waiting even before (2016). So Wales workers will have to wait and fight,” Jagdeo told the press.
As such, the Opposition tabled a motion to be heard in Parliament to debate the sum. The motion, tabled in Teixeira’s name, was denied by Speaker of the National Assembly, Dr Barton Scotland.
This placed the matter on hold until October 31, 2018, when Parliament meets again.
Jagdeo said he has taken note of the huge sum spent on a newspaper advertisement by the Finance Ministry informing sugar workers that Government will pay the severance.
Earlier in the day, a group of Wales sugar workers and PPP Members of Parliament (MPs) held placards and protested outside the Public Buildings, demanding that they are paid their severance.
The workers raised concerns over the fact that the Wales estate has been closed since 2016 and no alternative employment was ever offered to them, while many remain jobless.
When Jagdeo arrived at Parliament, he greeted the sugar workers, a Rastafarian group, even supporters of the governing A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) Government.
However, on her arrival, People’s National Congress (PNC) chair and Public Health Minister Volda Lawrence only greeted her party supporters and group, neglecting the sugar workers.
Only recently, the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) and the Special Purpose Unit (SPU) are battling over the conversion of the La Bonne Intention (LBI) estate staff club into a sports bar.
However, this move has drawn GuySuCo’s ire as terminated sugar workers feel resources should have been allocated to fund their severance payment rather than establishing a sports bar.
The SPU secured a $30 billion bond for its divestment initiatives.
“The 30 billion dollars what they get, they putting in sports bar [but] things real tight. I aint think they should ah do that; they should come out and give people them money,” one worker said.
However, this issue is before the courts since early 2017. It was last reported that Justice Sandil Kissoon is said to be hearing the matter in the High Court.
These workers demanded severance since they refused to take up work at the Uitvlugt Estate, which is 22 miles away from their original place of employment.
In January of this year, Government had announced that redundant sugar estate workers whose severance payments are $500,000 and less will be paid in full by the end of January 2018, while workers receiving in excess of the aforementioned sum would attain 50 per cent of their severance benefits by t
PPPC MP Irfaan Ali interacts with protestors infront of Parliament Building on Thursday
he end of January and the other 50 per cent at the end of 2018.
The Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) which is the legitimate trade union for the sugar workers had filed court proceedings against GuySuCo and the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited, to which GuySuCo has transferred all of its assets to get them to pay the workers their outstanding severance.
GAWU contended that it is illegal for Government to pay the severance in two tranches as this is against the letter and spirit of what is outlined by Section 21 of the Termination of Employment and Severance Pay (TESPA) Act.
It was outlined that the 7000 redundant workers were to receive their redundancy allowance/severance payment no later than December 29, 2017.
Following this development, Canada’s largest Private Sector trade union, Unifor, had in September of this year, during a conference dubbed ‘sugar too big to fail’, expressed deep concerns over Government’s handling of the sugar industry, particularly when it comes to ensuring that dismissed sugar workers are given their severance package in full.
