GuySuCo will pay sugar workers an Annual Production Incentive (API) of 6 days pay for last year.
The decision was made yesterday after GuySuCo upped its previous offer of 5 ½ days API to 6 days pay. The new figure, which was termed “a final offer,” was accepted by members of the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU), a statement from the union said. GuySuCo had indicated to the workers that if this figure was not accepted the matter would have been referred to arbitration.
The payment of the API had become an icy issue between the sugar corporation and GAWU. The union was asking for eight days pay for the production of 233,735 tonnes of sugar but GuySuCo was only offering four-days pay initially.
This offer was later reduced to 3 ½ days pay before subsequently being increased to 5 ½ days pay before yesterday’s final offer.
According to the union, its 50-member delegation, in a private review, said “the rank and file had reached an exhaustion point in their struggle for an acceptable number of days’ pay.” The review said there was need for the incentive, which ought to have been paid since mid last month, and this influenced the decision to accept the 6 days pay.
Meanwhile, the sugar corporation, in a statement issued yesterday, said it was pleased that an agreement had been reached with the union. GuySuCo further said that it is currently in its third week of grinding and “there have been a number of positive signs.
Total production as of today is 18,579 tonnes of sugar out of a 1st crop target of 91,675 tonnes,” the release said.
The corporation noted that in its first week of grinding, the estates at Albion and Uitvlugt earned an extra day’s pay as their Weekly Production Incentive (WPI). During last week Albion, Rose Hall, Blairmont and Wales Estates qualified for one-day WPI.
