GuySuCo to implement alternative livelihood programme

The Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) is examining programmes targeted at redundant employees and communities affected by the downsizing of the sugar industry.
Public Relations Officer of GuySuCo, Audreyanna Thomas, said the corporation has developed an alternative livelihood programme targeted at workers who would be affected by the transition to scaled-down sugar production.
On Friday, officials of GuySuCo, during a press conference, declared that the alternative livelihood programme is aimed at securing employment for workers made redundant as estates are amalgamated or closed. One component of this programme is contractual opportunities. “We’re examining those opportunities to determine which of those might be available for our employees to become engaged in and provide us with services,” Thomas explained.
At year’s end, employees at the East Demerara and Rose Hall estates will become redundant. It is expected that some 1,500 persons will be made redundant by end-of-crop season. Over at Rose Hall, GuySuCo is examining amalgamating employees at Blairmont and Albion Estates to reduce the number of employees during the downsizing.
Over at the Wales Estate, GuySuCo has already paid severance to 389 persons, while 340 cane harvesters and support staff were transferred to Uitvlugt.
“We’re looking at what opportunities are there within the corporation as it relates to these contractual services, so that we can make those opportunities available to the employees,” Thomas explained.
GuySuCo will also commence “a massive skills training programme” to reskill redundant employees. Some 500 employees from the Wales and East Demerara estates have been tapped for participation in this exercise.
Thomas said that, currently, 100 employees have indicated an interest in being retrained in areas such as sewing, cosmetology, caring for the elderly, catering, mechanical and electrical works, and small business management, among other areas.
When it begins operations at the Albion, Blairmont and Uitvlugt estates, it is expected that GuySuCo would retain some 10,000 workers in addition to the skeleton staff at Wales, Rose Hall and Enmore Estates who are manning the corporation’s pumps and other infrastructure.
Meanwhile, GuySuCo is facilitating the implementation of a sustainable community programme to mitigate the setback in communities surrounding the Rose Hall and Enmore estates, which are winding down operations preparatory to closure.
On Thursday, Junior Finance Minister Jaipaul Sharma had announced that the Special Purpose Unit (SPU) that has been established to diversify and privatise the assets of the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) would also be responsible for finding employment for workers deemed ‘redundant’, who would have to be released.
The total loss of jobs has been bandied as high as 10,000, but according to Minister Sharma, the full tally of persons who would become redundant as a result of the additional closures should be no more than 1,500. He, however, did not outline what Government would do to assist those 1500 persons to be gainfully employed.
Since the decision was taken to close several estates and factories, sugar workers and their unions have been at loggerheads with Government regarding the future of thousands of workers. Workers have since lamented, in several media reports, the hardships they are already facing as a result of Government’s decision regarding closure of estates.