The Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) and the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) yesterday inked an agreement for a four per cent wage/salary hike for workers, retroactive to January 1st, 2013.
GAWU announced the agreement in a press release and said that the agreement followed five engagements at the bilateral level and two at the conciliatory level beginning on June 4th, 2013. The agreement also caters for improvements in allowances and additional yearly issuance of Personal Protective Equipment to workers, the release added.
According to the release, the negotiating team, in approving the agreement, took into account the interim Audited Statement of the Corporation for 2012 and the Management Accounts as at August 31, 2013, which indicate that the Corporation is in dire financial straits.
GAWU said that the Corporation is hoping that favourable weather would permit the industry to operate all its seven grinding estates until the week-ending December 21st, 2013, thus allowing the realisation of the revised target of 201,000 tonnes of sugar for the year. That mark would still be a low figure for the industry.
The release said that the union and the Corporation are to hold another set of discussions on Annual Production Incentive (API) for 2013. The sugar production for the year so far is at November 15, 2013 is approximately 16 5,000 tonnes sugar. The first crop was a paltry 48,000 tonnes.
