Demerara Distillers Limited (DDL) said last evening that it could pay its workers a 16 percent increase in wages and salaries but not the across-the-board increase of 20 percent that the unions are demanding.
And while the unions representing the workers did not advise the company of any industrial action, DDL expressed concern “over the apparent organized nature of the workers absence” after some employees did not show up for work, and some of them were seen earlier in conversation with union leaders outside of the compound, a release from Tagman for DDL said.
“DDL is concerned over the apparent organised nature of the workers absence since none of the three unions that represent DDL workers gave any indication that the unions were contemplating industrial action. The existing agreement between DDL and the unions require that the unions give the company 72 hours notice before taking industrial action,” DDL stated.
Meanwhile, the company has committed to ensuring that all employees are paid their current salary adjustments and performance-based increase before Christmas, the release said.
DDL’s Marketing Director Sharda Veeren-Chand was quoted as saying that “Management has been in discussions with the unions for the past six months, regarding their demand for a 20% across the board increase in wages and salaries, and those meetings continued up to this morning (Friday). We made it clear to the union that we could not accept an across the board increase of 20% and we submitted a counter proposal including the rationalisation of the scales which takes the minimum wages earned up by over 16%.”
DDL said that the rationalization process was the subject of an agreement between the company and the unions in 2001, but regrettably neither the unions nor management followed through on the agreement during the past ten years and as a result existing inequities/anomalies have been exacerbated.
The company said further that it had invited the unions to work on the implementation of the agreement in order that there would be equitable remuneration for all workers going forward, and has been pressing the unions for an early conclusion of these negotiations.
In the meantime, the company said while it prefers for any payout to be done through a satisfactory resolution with the union, it is determined that the workers would not be held up by the unions “since the workers have performed well over the last year and their rewards are justified and should be enjoyed before the end of the year.”
DDL is a major rum producer in the Caribbean and also has operations in North America, Europe and Asia.