Skeldon workers protest for severance payment

– as unemployment, cash woes in sugar belt bite hard

It is approaching a year since Government shut them down and on Friday workers from the Skeldon Estate took to the streets to protest for the immediate payment of the severance they are owed by law.

The picketing exercise was held outside of their former workplace; that is, the Estate’s Administrative Office. And according to their union, the Guyana Agriculture and General Workers Union (GAWU), it illustrates the indifference of Government to the ordinary worker.
“Today brings us to 273 days since Skeldon, Rose Hall and the East Demerara Estates were closed, and 638 days since Wales Estate met a similar fate. For the thousands who have been affected, those days have been difficult and troubling and several previously mundane tasks have become a challenge in themselves,” the Union said in a statement.

 “For the jobless Skeldon workers, they shared that they have found it difficult to secure jobs in the area. They were quick to point out in the per chance instance when they managed to find a job, the pay is hardly sufficient and it is only for a short period. This, they said, had forced them to utilise the first half of their severance to meet their expenses and obligations.”
According to the Union, the workers have by now exhausted those monies and are worried about feeding their families and sending their children to school. In addition, the Union pointed out they have to pay for basic amenities, among other things.
“They said that they are facing troubling times and their outstanding monies will greatly assist them. (Friday’s) picketing followed another hearing of the severance pay matter (Thursday). At the hearing, the Judge requested GAWU, [Guyana Sugar Corporation] GuySuCo and [National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited] NICIL to present their arguments, in writing, within two weeks and on October 29, 2018, she committed to making a ruling on the matter.”
“It is to be recalled, that GuySuCo, through its attorney-at-Law, on spurious grounds, was seeking to have the matter dismissed. The Corporation has a legal obligation to settling the workers’ payments and the GAWU in fulfilling its responsibility, as the workers’ bargaining agent, as it has done on many occasions when it has exercised its right to take legal action in defence of the retrenched workers.”
GAWU drew reference to the way the Trinidad and Tobago Government is handling the closing down of the Petrotrin refinery and contrasted it with the coalition Government’s approach. The Union noted that in the twin island republic, the workers will receive assistance from the State in addition to their severance.
“Today as workers have to picket to demand what they are lawfully entitled, workers of Trinidad and Tobago – Petrotrin – will receive their severance payments when due and those who are aged 55 and over will also receive their pensions. The severance package we understand from news reports may very well be enhanced, recognising the hardships they will face.”
“But added to that, they will receive the assistance of the State to pay their electricity bills, to purchase food, to have access to health centres, among other things. For the 7000 workers whom the Granger Administration has made jobless, they have not even heard from the Government to even, at least, provide some moral support in this hard time of their lives.”