About 42 factory workers at the Enmore sugar estate went on strike yesterday over “premium payment” for work done and while the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) said they were not entitled to it, offered to make a one-time payment.
However, the workers told Stabroek News yesterday that they will remain on strike indefinitely and GuySuCo has expressed dismay at the “irresponsible” actions. This is the second strike for this week that the beleaguered corporation has faced. In a statement, the corporation said that the workers working the 6 am to 2pm shift at the factory took industrial action while demanding “premium payment” which is one and a half times a normal day’s pay for work done last Saturday.
The corporation said however, that they were not required to work for two days during that week because of the unavailability of canes to grind since the canes could not have been burnt due to the inclement weather. “The corporation’s business rule on the payment for premium pay for Saturday states that a daily paid time worker must complete 40 hours (of work) before he/she is entitled to this premium payment,” the statement said.
It added that a similar demand was made by Blairmont and Enmore factory workers several years ago and the matter was resolved at conciliation where the Chief Labour Officer concurred with GuySuCo’s position. “When the workers at Enmore (yesterday) decided to proceed on strike they were advised by management that on this instance only, they will be paid the premium payment as a medium to facilitate a meeting with GAWU early next week to bring a permanent settlement on this matter, despite the fact that it was resolved at conciliation a few years ago,” the statement said. It added that the decision was also made because 4750 tonnes of cane was waiting to be processed.
Efforts to reach officials of the Guyana Agricultural Workers Union (GAWU) yesterday were futile and reports are that the matter is engaging the attention of the Chief Labour Officer who has been meeting with both parties in recent times over similar strike actions.
Concerns
Yesterday, the Enmore factory workers told Stabroek News that they were not going to return to the factory unless their concerns are addressed.
The workers noted that GAWU head Komal Chand has not addressed their concerns as promised and called for him to step down as head of GAWU. Chand could not be reached for comment yesterday.
According to Hickman Adams, he and Deochand Singh led the protest action since the rights of the workers are not being addressed by GuySuCo. He said that he worked with the entity for a number of years and the refusal of the corporation to make the payment will lead to many persons joining the 300 plus persons who have left the industry in recent years.
Adams said that the safety of the workers also needs to be addressed since the entity has refused to replace clothing and other apparel which are damaged while on the job. “The boots what I have, it gat to last me whole year and if something happen to it they going replace it but that gat to carry me through next year,” said Roochand Kawall- one of the striking workers. The 57-year-old man stated that the strike was on the horizon since according to him, the corporation has paid little attention to their concerns. He said that the workers receive an average of $5,000 per month in payments, adding “tell me with that money what it could do.”
Losing sugar
Other workers told Stabroek News that the corporation has paid little attention to the operation of the factory and said that the facility has been losing sugar. According to them, almost daily two tonnes of sugar is counted as a loss since the machinery there has malfunctioned. They said that the engineers tasked with repairing the equipment are also lacking in experience and the operations are not given adequate attention.
Yesterday afternoon this newspaper was told that officials of the corporation were expected to meet with representatives of GAWU where the matter was expected to be discussed. Guysuco, in its statement said that another estate earlier this week raised a similar demand as Enmore and a meeting was already fixed for Monday with GAWU to deliberate on the matter.
This was told to the Enmore factory reps yesterday but they still proceeded on strike, the statement said.
It added that Singh and Adams refused to entertain management’s proposals and opted to lead the workers on strike. “These representatives most irresponsibly stated that they will remain on strike and allow the 293 punts of cane (1,750 tonnes) in dock and 500 punts of burnt canes (3,000 tonnes) in the cultivation ‘to spoil’,” the statement said. It added that several attempts were made to meet with the reps but they refused.
On Thursday, workers at Enmore took strike action over their working conditions and outlined several concerns to representatives of the Alliance For Change (AFC).
