Despite its disappointment at the recent ruling of the arbitration tribunal, the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Guyana (FITUG) is calling on GuySuCo to pay its workers the award and other incentives immediately.
FITUG says that it “is totally dismayed and disappointed” over the ruling by the Gobind Ganga Arbitral Award”. In a release, the union noted that the 3 percent increase after taxation will only amount to two percent for the nation’s 19,000 unionised workers.
The union, however, is calling on the GuySuCo Board and its Chief Executive Officer (CEO) “to be sensitive” to the employees’ needs especially at this time of year. The release said that the workers also have to send their children to the new school term in January.
According to the union, while it is not “unmindful” of GuySuCo’s financial challenges, it has noted the lengthy list chronicling mismanagement by the Sugar Corporation, which GAWU submitted in its Memorandum to the Arbitration Panel. The indications of the Corporation’s mismanagement has been recorded in two separate Reports-one by the Commission of Enquiry into the East Demerara Estates and another by the Review Committee in (2007), which investigated the Uitvlugt Estate, the release said.
“Sugar workers could never be blamed for GuySuCo’s mismanagement, which eventually saps workers’ morale and influences the inability to meet targets”, the release says. “It is a pity that the recent tribunal bought, seemingly hook, line and sinker, the Corporation’s lament of “financial difficulties” as if that status was solely the fault of the struggling, but faithful, hard working, productive sugar workers”, it added.
FITUG also supports sentiments recently expressed by NAACIE General Secretary Kenneth Joseph that GuySuCo “is routinely and unilaterally breaching previous and current standing agreements with the sugar unions and that the government is announcing inflation rates that are less than what actually prevails.” According to FITUG, these developments are “a serious breach of faith with the nation’s workers.”
The union, in the release, also noted that according to GuySuCo’s turnaround plan there would have been an increase in wages of between 4 to 5 percent for the year, if a certain production target had been met.
It noted that the current short-fall “is marginal from the Corporation’s original end of year target, and that a sensitive employer would have voluntarily paid at least the budgeted increase.”
The affiliate members of FITUG are the Guyana Agricultural & General Workers Union (GAWU), the Guyana Labour Union (GLU), the Clerical and Commercial Workers Union (CCWU) and the National Association of Agricultural, Commercial & Industrial Employees (NAACIE).
