President David Granger says government has not yet finalized a plan for the retrenched workers of Wales Sugar Estate.
While he stressed that there are plans for the workers to be employed, the Head of State, responding to questions on last week’s edition of “The Public Interest” could not definitively explain the scope of those plans nor the options being considered for the diversification of Wales.
He noted that those issues are currently being discussed by the Ministry of Agriculture and GuySuCo, with Minister Noel Holder expected to make an announcement.
“I know the Ministry of Agriculture is working on a plan but I have not seen it,” the President said.
In January of this year, government announced its intention to close the Wales Sugar Estate by next year. It is the first major decision it has been taken on the beleaguered industry which has seen slumping production over the last decade and swingeing debt.
This decision and the manner in which it was communicated has come in for criticisms from the main opposition People’s Progressive Party and the Guyana Agriculture and General Workers Union (GAWU).
Chief among the concerns has been the intended fate of the nearly 17,000 workers.
Holder had explained soon after the closure announcement that most of the factory workers will be absorbed by Uitvlugt and that those few persons who will be made redundant will receive severance.
“The people who will really be affected will be some workers in the Wales factory. Now there are substantial vacancies at the Uitvlugt factory, so a lot of the workers from the Wales factory will be absorbed… There will be a few who will become redundant and they (will) receive severance,” he had said.
However Stabroek News reported on January 22, that the 73 tillage employees and 110 from the planting division were told by GuySuCo that they would have to wait until October before the state-owned corporation could provide answers in relation to their employment.
Since that time there has been no clear explanation of what the proposed plans will entail.
