– GuySuCo accuses union of hasty action
After a two-day strike over the non-payment of a day’s Weekly Production Incentive (WPI), angry sugar workers at the Rose Hall estate are set to resume work today; GuySuCo yesterday afternoon agreed to pay up.
However, the sugar corporation said it was justified in its actions and has criticised the hasty strike actions of the workers.
According to a press release issued yesterday by the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU), the main sugar union for workers, almost 3,000 workers began strike action on Sunday and continued into yesterday. The release said that the workforce was upset when late Saturday morning GuySuCo “withdrew a day’s pay earned by the workers for having produced sugar equivalent to or over the week’s Weekly Production Incentive (WPI) target of 1, 350 tonnes.” GAWU accused the corporation of manipulation in an attempt to deprive the workers of about $6 million of hard earned incentive, since the target had been met.
GAWU President Komal Chand blamed the incident on the sugar corporation going back on its word. He said on Saturday morning the workers were told by GuySuCo officials that they had surpassed their Weekly Production Incentive (WPI) target by two tonnes and they would be granted a day’s pay, in keeping with the agreement between the two entities. However, after the announcement was made, GuySuCo rescinded its announcement, saying that there might have been an incorrect computation. Chand explained that once the workers achieve 100 per cent of their WPI target, they are entitled to a day’s pay. If workers achieve 130 per cent of the WPI target, they are entitled to two days’ pay, Chand added.
He said the actions by the sugar corporation caused Sunday’s industrial action, which intensified yesterday with a picketing exercise at the estate. However, the issue was settled yesterday after a meeting held between the two sides. During the meeting, the corporation authorised the payment of the one day WPI to the Rose Hall workers.
Explaining its side of the matter, GuySuCo, in a release yesterday, said that given last week’s marginal achievement over the WPI target, the management “requested that the figures be scrutinized by the relevant technical department.” GuySuCo said that this was not an “unreasonable request on the part of management.”
The sugar corporation also expressed its disappointment at the “unilateral decision taken by sugar workers attached to its Rose Hall Estate to engage in strike action as of last Saturday, without allowing due process to be followed in addressing their grievance.”
GuySuCo said that “this is yet another instance where the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers’ Union has taken strike action, without giving the corporation reasonable notice.
GAWU, in its release, said GuySuCo was always seeking to “exonerate itself from creating, aiding and abetting the conditions for workers to embark on industrial action/s” when this was not the case.
Rose Hall Estate as at November 21, 2009 produced 33,855 or 91.5 per cent of its production target (36,993 tonnes) for 2009. The industry is struggling to meet its revised target of 248,668 tonnes sugar for this year, having produced 224,571 tonnes as at November 21, 2009, the union stated.
The current salary dispute between GuySuCo and GAWU has gone to arbitration, after Labour Minister Manzoor Nadir intervened following a deadlock in the conciliation process between the two entities.The proceedings, which commenced two Mondays ago, are set to continue today.
