With no diversification ventures yet in place, GuySuCo has agreed to offer continuous employment to hundreds of Wales workers who would have been out of a job following the end of sugar cultivation on the West Bank Demerara estate on December 31, 2016.
In a release yesterday, the Guyana Sugar Corporation Inc. (GuySuCo) said it met on February 1, 2017 with a delegation from the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers’ Union (GAWU) and the workers’ representatives from the Wales Estate, Cane Harvesting and Cane Transport sections, to discuss the employment status of these two categories.
The release said that the meeting was told that the Corporation along with the Union’s General Secretary had held earlier discussions with the cane harvesters, where the Corporation expressed its preference to have this category continue in its employ.
Since the end of the Second Crop 2016, the release said that a team from GuySuCo had been engaged in determining suitable alternative placement in order to retain both Cane Harvesting and Cane Transport employees.
The release said that the Uitvlugt Estate on the West Coast of Demerara is preparing to boost its production from 20,000 to 40,000 tonnes of sugar annually.
With this demand for labour at the Uitvlugt Estate and the transitioning of the Wales Estate out of sugar production; the release added that GuySuCo sought to explore the possibility of retaining the cane harvesters and cane transport employees at Wales Estate. The employees from both categories would be transported to Uitvlugt Estate on a daily basis.
GuySuCo said that this decision was also influenced by views from the majority of employees during various protests on their preference to keep their jobs. Currently there are more than 950 employees on register at Wales Estate, out of which 650 will remain employees of that estate.
The Uitvlugt Estate is scheduled to begin its first crop on 11 February, 2017 and the Union’s delegation was informed that work will be made available to the cane harvesters along with the cane transport employees from the Wales Estate.
The Corporation exhorted the Union’s delegation to see this decision regarding the future employment of cane harvesters and cane transport employees, as meaningful and in the best interest of the employees, their families, communities, Guyana and the Union.
In January last year, GuySuCo had announced that cane cultivation would end at Wales at December 31st. The surprise announcement plunged the industry into uncertainty and left hundreds worried about their jobs. Discussions are currently underway between the government and the opposition that could lead to sugar estates being sold or closed.
