Sugar workers on the Blairmont Estate in Berbice have resumed work after striking in protest at GuySuCo’s non-payment of rates from a 2013 arbitration award but will continue industrial action if their monies are not paid, their union’s General Secretary Kenneth Joseph says.
GuySuCo has said that all workers have received their full payment in accordance with the agreement between GuySuCo, the union and the Norman Mc Lean Arbitration Tribunal and the corporation could not pay out more money because their demand was outside of the award.
Speaking to Stabroek News, Joseph said that the National Asso-ciation of Agricultural, Commercial and Industrial Employees (NAACIE) workers have no intention of negotiating with the corporation and intend to meet with other factory workers to consider further action. “They have violated that agreement and even though the workers have returned to work we will continue to take industrial actions until the money is paid in full,” Joseph said.
“They are aware that they are indebted to the workers and we have no intention of negotiating with them because it is about paying workers their money,” he stressed.
In a brief statement, NAACIE had said that after a prolonged struggle, it had eventually achieved the desired salaries but this was short lived as a result of the “corporation action in causing the prices of jobs done by the NAACIE members to be once again unfavourable and anomalous when compared to workers with lesser skills or no skills at all.”
NAACIE said the agreements of July 2011 and the Norman Mc Lean Arbitration Tribunal of 2013 was another attempt to ensure fairness but “the corporation in its ongoing attempt to be unfair to NAACIE members refused to pay workers what was from the Award of the Arbitration and what was confirmed by the Minister of Labour during a meeting with GuySuCo and NAACIE”.
The statement added that NAACIE hopes the corporation would see their actions as the beginning of a confrontational relationship with the new GuySuCo Chief Executive Officer, Raj Singh and his team.
Human Resources Director of GuySuCo Jairam Petam however stated that the union’s demand was outside of the award and therefore the corporation could not meet their ultimatum. He said that rates from the Award of the arbitration were the result of a meeting between GuySuCo, the union and the Norman Mc Lean Arbitration Tribunal and have been paid in full to the workers.
