Following talks between GuySuCo and the Guyana Agricultural & General Workers’ Union (GAWU), cane harvesters of the Rose Hall Estate, who were on strike for six days, have returned to work.
The strike started on September 28 and saw hundreds of workers from the harvesting gangs refusing to work after management informed them that a new payment strategy was being implemented and they would have to meet daily quotas for payment.
They had maintained that they would not return to work until the matter was settled.
The workers had also called for the removal of the estate manager, Yudy Persaud, who they believe did not have their best interest at heart.
In a press release issued yesterday, GuySuCo said that while the workers took strike action to express their dissatisfaction over how the payment system was allegedly being applied, management was simply enforcing rules.
It said every piece-rated employee (harvester, planter, shovel-man, fertilizing hand, etc) within the corporation is expected to complete their respective shared tasks based on the agreed required standard.
It further explained that a cane harvester is therefore expected to manually cut and load or cut and stack (semi-mechanical) no less than 2.6 or 5.0 metric tonnes of cane per day, respectively. “This is an established productivity index in the corporation and the estate management was simply enforcing the rules at the Rose Hall Estate. It should be noted that this procedure is observed at other estates,” the release said.
GuySuCo added that on October 3, during a meeting with management, the union’s representatives were better informed that the ‘work shared, work cut’ principle, which has been a part of the rules for a number of years, was merely being enforced. “This is a principle that all harvesting representatives’ are knowledgeable of,” it added.
The corporation reiterated that the workers were at no time deprived of their normal payments. “Workers were advised that payment for obstacle (extras) is based on a principle that the work shared must be completed to offset full payment of the extras. The misconception that workers payment for canes cut and loaded was withheld is misleading,” it added.
According to the release, GuySuCo’s management is pleased that the representatives saw the wisdom from the discussion to have normalcy prevail. It said too that GuySuCo is committed to working with the employees at Rose Hall to ensure that the estate achieves its target for this second crop.
In addition, management and union have agreed to reconvene a second meeting on October 12, 2016 to have further dialogue on the issue and other related concerns.
“The corporation also wishes to inform all employees that a fundamental requirement for developing a business that is resilient, sustainable and profitable, is discipline, and management will require no less in its quest to nurture a stable industrial relations environment and to secure the employment for all of its 17,000 employees,” the release stated.
