Human Resources Director, Jairam Petam yesterday told Stabroek News that GuySuCo suffered a 2,000-tonne production loss due to the recent industrial action by sugar workers on four Demerara and Berbice estates. He said however that the corporation was still optimistic of meeting important markets requirements.
Paul Bhim, Acting Chief Executive of GuySuCo said on Monday that workers had returned to work on all estates.
The industrial imbroglio between the union and GuySuCo has been sent to conciliation at the Ministry of Labour.
Thus far both the sugar corporation and the union have refused to substantially shift from their originally stated positions.
Workers on the estates of Rose Hall, Enmore, Wales and LBI had down tools last Wednesday after the sugar corporation’s refusal on the preceding day to agree to a 14% wage hike. The corporation proposed 4.5%. The workers had not been formally called out on strike by the union.
After the strike, Guysuco had said that the EU-imposed price cut and the high costs of fuel, freight and fertilizers had placed the corporation in a predicament adding that at year end the price cuts will cause the corporation to lose almost $1.2 billion. These “senseless” strikes, Guysuco said, made it even more difficult to improve on the current wage offering and the company urged workers to “allow good judgment and sense to prevail.”
Management officials of the sugar corporation had related to the media at a press briefing that 1% in the context of the industrial negotiations was equivalent to a $150 million and thus any acceptance of a 14 percent wage hike would result in bankruptcy for the corporation. Work was substantially resumed on Monday at the various estates.
President of the Guyana Agricultural and General Worker Workers Union (GAWU) Komal Chand had told the media that the reality of inflation and a rising cost of living were the undergirding factors behind the requested wage hike. GAWU declined to speak further on the matter yesterday, referring Stabroek News to the Ministry of Labour.
In recent times, there has been much debate on the viability of the Demerara estates whose unit cost of production was above the world market price for sugar. This cost inefficiency of the Demerara estates has been exacerbated by the EU price cuts.
Further, in the procurement of World Bank funding, the Government of Guyana had agreed not to make substantial physical infrastructural capital investments in the Demerara factories in addition to cutting labour costs by 5 percent per year.
A Guysuco publication of April – July 2005, Issue No. 172 made reference to the 54,000 man-days lost due to strikes, resulting in a 12,000-tonne shortage or a US$4.3 M loss in revenue.
