According to Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo, government lacks the will to increase the wages and salaries of workers employed by the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo).
Speaking at his weekly press conference yesterday, Jagdeo declared that the “means” exists in the form of the $30 billion bond secured for the refinancing of the sector.
“Government has stripped GuySuCo’s assets and given them to (government holding company) NICIL then NICIL pledged those assets to secure this bond,” he argued, stressing that they can use those resources to finance increases for the approximately 10,000 workers still with the company.
For over two years GuySuCo and NICIL’s Special Purpose Unit have been at loggerheads over management of the company’s assets.
Earlier this year acting head of NICIL Colvin Heath-London said that the SPU has, through nine disbursements, transferred a total of $7,420,759,568 to GuySuCo but the company has not provided an accounting “in the detail required by the bond holders.”
According to the bond agreement, funds are to be used from the bond facility to purchase equipment for plantation white sugar and co-generation plants and to meet operational expenses, including wages and salaries.
While GuySuCo had denied the accusation it is not clear what the current status of the bond disbursement is.
Both Alliance For Change (AFC) Treasurer Dominic Gaskin and People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) Chairwoman Volda Lawrence had told Stabroek News that it was up to the board of GuySuCo in conjunction with the union to agree on salary increases.
Jagdeo however dismissed this as an excuse.
“It is just that they don’t want to give sugar workers an increase in salaries,” Jagdeo charged.
Workers from the industry have been calling for an increase in wages and salaries and recently took industrial action. They have highlighted that their last pay increase was in 2014.
Earlier this month, the majority of the workers attached to the Blairmont Estate in Berbice went on strike to call for an increase in their salaries. The workers said they have not received any raise of pay since 2014 as they protested in front of the Blairmont Estate. Prior to that, they said that they had gotten yearly increases.
Harvey Tombran, the Regional Representative for the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union, had said that on August 30th, the union submitted a proposal for a 15 per cent increase in wages and salaries.
However, the meeting ended after the workers’ representatives pinned small placards on their shirts calling for an end to the “wage freeze.”
Calling the actions disruptive – which the workers denied – GuySuCo said that the meeting ended after the unions failed to remove the placards they wore on their shirts during the meeting.
