Minister of Agriculture Noel Holder accused the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) of playing politics by striking prior to the findings of the Commis-sion of Inquiry being made public, while stating that the reports reveal sugar workers to be the highest paid in the country.
“They still want to have negotiations on wages before the results of the Commission of Inquiry have been made public. That is political,” Holder told Stabroek News. This publication asked the minister how he could justify this response considering that collective bargaining usually occurs between the two parties prior to the second crop and has been the case since 1989. The minister responded, “GuySuCo has broken all records over the last few weeks and they are going to meet that target shortly. I think what the union wants to do is to make GuySuCo not meet that target.”
Holder held firm that the strike action was condoned by the opposition PPP of which President of GAWU Komal Chand is a member; he is also a Member of Parliament.
He called GAWU “irresponsible,” adding, “what came out of the inquiry is [cane harvesters are] the highest paid people in the country [yet] want to go on strike…”
Chand told Stabroek News that cane harvesters would gross an average annual salary of $1.2 million. “This is a risky business,” Chand said. “This is hard work. One has to look at that when you are talking about wages… You have to quantify what they earn with other factors.”
Chand said harvesters work roughly 30 weeks out of the 52 in the year and their wages would be reflective of the fact that they are seasonal workers. “… Some of them are not qualified for out-of-crop work and they are working more than the five days,” he said.
The head of the union noted that there will be “a few high earners,” but for that to be the standard was in itself irresponsible as it did not reflect the industry as a whole.
Chand said one would also need to take into account the “pittance of a pension” that the state owned corporation subscribes to. He added, “The pension scheme is limited to some workers. For years we have been calling on GuySuCo for a contributor scheme.”
He pointedly denied any political motive behind the strike, noting, “We have engaged in collective bargaining annually since the restoration of collective bargaining in 1989 to the sugar industry.” The head of GAWU said engagements have never before gone this long without the two sides meeting.
In a statement yesterday the union stated, “The commencement of wage negotiations for the past 25 years never delayed as late as October. In recent years at this time of year, though GuySuCo’s performance was not as good as it is this year, the corporation and the union would have seen the wages issue already being resolved or the parties being close to an agreement.”
The statement continued that General Council members of the union “noted that other public sector employees have already been granted wage/salary increases since the passage of the 2015 Budget. However, seemingly sugar workers who are also eligible to benefit from wage increases are not being attended to.”
Chand said GuySuCo had alerted the union that talks would begin once the COI report was handed over to the government. He said, “The goal post has shifted,” now to after the findings are made public. He said while the union is understanding that the findings of the COI would impact the industry as a whole, collective bargaining engagements were necessary.
The trade unionist stated that for GuySuCo to put off discussions was against the Collective Labour Agreement (CLA) and the corporation was now in breach of the Trade Union Recognition Act.
Chand reiterated that both the union and the corporation had agreed that October 7, was a fixed date to address the union’s wage claim, which had been submitted since March. However, on Octo-ber 6, GuySuCo requested the date be deferred.
As a result, GAWU made a decision to call for an industry-wide strike as of Sunday.
Strike illegal
In response to the strike, GuySuCo wrote to the union’s General Secretary Seepaul Narine on Sunday calling action illegal.
In the letter to Narine, Chief Industrial Relations Manager Deodat Sukhu charged that the strike was called without the required 72 hours’ notice. He cited the 1976 Recognition and the Avoidance and Settle-ment of Dispute Agree-ment between the corporation and the union which states that the union is to write the corporation within 72 hours indicating its intention to strike. “We therefore consider this strike illegal having not received such notice,” Sukhu stated.
In the letter Sukhu noted that the corporation cannot meet with the union for collective bargaining as “the corporation can only meet to consider you proposals after the Commis-sion of Inquiry’s report have been considered by the shareholder, the Government of Guyana and guidance provided on the way forward.”
He called for a “cessation of the current strike action, a speedy return to normalcy and dialogue, in the interest of the employees, the corporation and the nation as a whole.”
GAWU has not signalled any intention to call off the strike unless the corporation agrees to follow through on discussions for wage and salary negotiations for 2015 given that the year is in its fourth quarter.
