Following days of protest, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) Paul Bhim yesterday said that sugar workers can expect the Holiday-With-Pay (HWP) payout next Friday.
Bhim told Stabroek News yesterday that the corporation is also dealing with concerns of the workers over the conditions of an agreement between GuySuCo and the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) over salary increases based on a job evaluation.
“We will pay the workers on the 8th June but we are still sorting out their queries,” he said, while adding that yesterday there were no strikes at any estates as all the workers has reported to work.
Bhim’s comments came after there had been several strikes at the Wales, Enmore and Uitvlugt estates, where workers expressed their dissatisfaction with GuySuCo’s delay in paying out the HWP. GuySuCo has blamed its inability to make the payments in part on low production due to low worker turnout during the first crop season. It also blamed the situation on the unfavourable weather that forced the company to prematurely close the crop.
Workers at the Enmore Estate embarked on a three-day-long strike on Tuesday over concerns about proposed increases based on the job evaluation, which had found that they were underpaid for two decades.
At the same time, they criticised calls by GAWU for “industry wide protests” over the HWP, accusing the union of failing to adequately represent them.
Prior to calling for industry-wide protesting, GAWU on Wednesday said the corporation remained mum and non-communicative on the HWP, which was due since May 25, 2012.
It added that it was perplexed that the corporation seemed to have no respect to its dependable workforce in identifying at least an early date of the payment and pledged to do everything possible to press for the issue to be settled within the next few days.
