The Guyana Sugar Corporation is currently functioning on a skeleton staff even though it falls under the category of essential services.
Employees of the corporation, except field staff, are working on shift/rotation systems in order to limit the number of persons in one place at any given time.
Head of the corporation’s Human Resources, Michael Carter, yesterday told Stabroek News that they have met with the unions and agreed on the terms under which employees will work during the coronavirus (COVID-19) period.
“Our staff in many departments at all estates are working one day on, one day off, so we are basically operating on a skeletal staff system. So far we have not implemented any pay-cut system,” Carter explained.
“Additionally, the management of GuySuCo will be implementing a shift/rotation system on Estates and at the Head Office, in order to minimise large gathering of employees at various locations, at any given time,” the corporation said in press statement last week.
Other measures implemented by the corporation include; sanitising of labour transportation, workstations and machinery, between shifts, and at all locations.
Additionally, hand washing/sanitising of hands by all staff members is emphasised and encouraged by the company. On this note, they have provided anti-bacterial soaps and hand sanitisers to all offices in the corporation; Albion, Blairmont and Uitvlugt Estates, GuySuCo’s La Bonne Intention Head Office Complex, Demerara Sugar Terminal, GuySuCo Air-craft Service and the GuySuCo Training Centre/ Port Mourant (GTC/PM).
Employees are also participating in educational sessions facilitated by the estates’ medical officers, nurses and medexes; welfare officers; factory, field and administrative staff, including managers and security officers as well as local union representatives.
Relevant information, public health advisories and prevention methods on COVID-19, the company said, are also made available to all employees, digitally and via hard copies or handouts.
Apart from these initiatives, the unions are also engaged in informing sugar workers of measures they and their families should embrace to restrict transmission of the virus, the release added.
It was also announced that the GTC/PM which was closed on March 18, will remain so until further notice, and all students have returned to their homes. In addition, visitors to the corporation are subjected to screening at entrances to all its locations.
Meanwhile, Carter said that they are scheduled to meet with the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers’ Union (GAWU) during the course of this week to further discuss working arrangements for field workers.
Workers from two estates, Albion and Blairmont, are currently off the job after protesting against working in what they called an “unhealthy environment” due to their concerns about being put at risk for contracting the COVID-19. As such the operations at these two estates are suspended for the week.
“We met with GuySuCo this morning and they said that there has been no burning or harvesting of sugar canes since yesterday [Sunday]. So suspension has been in effect since Sunday and will last for this week,” General Secretary of GAWU Seepaul Narine said on Monday. He too had said that the union and GuySuCo will assess the situation at the end of the one week to decide what other measures will be put in place for workers.
Touching on the setbacks for this season’s crop, Carter said that if the crop should end prematurely, the production targets will not be met and this will affect the revenue expected to be generated by the corporation.
GAWU had written to GuySuCo pointing out that recently, workers have been expressing their fear about contracting COVID-19. It added that this fear had “heightened” in recent days as the number of persons infected countrywide has risen with reports indicating that this number could climb even higher in the coming days.
The union has also asked that workers receive financial support during the suspension, calling for GuySuCo “to provide appropriate financial support to the beleaguered and hard-pressed sugar workers.” Towards this end, it urged the corporation “to approach its political bosses to access sufficient financial support to ensure that it can assist its workers in this crisis period.”
But while the company’s finances do not allow for such measures, they have forwarded the recommendation to the Minister of Agriculture, Noel Holder.
