Barama’s Land of Canaan operation is expected to be back in business by the end of next month.
Six months ago, the company announced the closure of the ply-sheet facility, after a boiler was damaged.
A source inside the Land of Canaan operation yesterday confirmed that the company will be restarting later in April. An advertisement in yesterday’s Kaieteur News stated that “former and new employees to work at the Ply-Sheet Factory (Barama), Land of Canaan” can apply for work.
The source told this newspaper that a new boiler was bought and has already been shipped. The boiler will be installed at the end of this month. This new development comes six months since Barama last said that it would take a year to repair the damaged boiler.
Last October, Barama made some 274 workers redundant after one of the boilers was irreparably damaged. The company had said that it would have taken nearly a year or more for the boiler to be replaced.
Meanwhile, the source at Barama said that the response to the advertisement from old workers was “overwhelming.” He said many of the former employees replying to the advertisement are those from Linden. He, however, noted that the operation can only accommodate 100 workers until another boiler is installed.
President Bharrat Jagdeo had intervened following the laying off of the workers, offering them a stipend of $25,000 for three months if they chose to attend weekly computer classes.
