Since the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) questioned the veracity of wage and salary figures for sugar workers contained in the Commission of Inquiry (CoI) report into GuySuCo, the state corporation and the CoI have remained silent.
Head of the union Komal Chand had stated last week that “We would like to have some evidence of these numbers and some explanation because these numbers are very high and if indeed… the average worker could earn this sum of money then there would be no problems to have workers within the industry. There might be problems to reject and select.”
Chand had made the statements during the union’s year-end press briefing on December 31, 2015.
Stabroek News was made to understand by a source close to both the Commission and GuySuCo that prior to the report being discussed in the National Assembly, where it was tabled on December 30, 2015, neither entity wanted to speak on any recommendations or figures presented in the document.
According to the CoI report, harvesters make $2.47 million, cane transporters $2.97 million, mechanical tillage workers $2.91 million, field workshop personnel $2.67 million, planters $1.83 million, fertilisers $1.97 million, pest controllers $1.89 million and weeders $870,771 annually.
GAWU General Secretary Seepaul Narine had read from a number of payslips during the union’s end-of- year press briefing. He said that a factory worker at “East Demerara earning $1.2 million… We have a cane cutter at East Demerara and this is a high earner, $1.4 million; and a cane cutter at Enmore again earning $1.194 million, say $1.2 million. Cane cutter at Uitvlugt earning $1.2 million these are high earners. Then you have an average earner, cane cutter at Uitvlugt $830,000. Cane cutter at Wales $706,000. This is the average… fertilizing hand $583,000 and this is almost the average because they get regular work across the estate. Cane transport high earner they have $1.8 million…and then factory worker at Wales $1.2 million.”
This newspaper was told that the figures in the report were taken directly from documents presented to the CoI by the sugar company.
According to the source, the wage figures were reflective of wages and salaries including incentives and bonuses which may not be reflected in the payslips that were presented by GAWU at the press conference. Additionally Stabroek News was told that since work for a variety of jobs is piece-rated as opposed to time-rated, the potential is there for workers to earn in excess of the minimum amounts.
The source stated that the corporation did not provide figures that were across-the-board but that they could be verified.
Stabroek News was told that for the commission to pronounce or defend its report at this stage prior to the report being discussed in the National Assembly may be seen as an attempt to influence the discussions. The source noted that there were varying opinions but as a collective the commission did not want to convey any political interference.
GuySuCo’s Finance Director Paul Bhim told Stabroek News that he could only refer this publication back to the Commission when asked for a comment. When contacted, Chairman of the Commission Vibert Parvatan refrained from speaking on the issue.
