A week after sugar-producing operations were halted at two Berbice estates, some workers have resumed their duties while others are expected to return to work today.
The sugar workers, just over two weeks ago, had protested against working in an unhealthy environment in light of the coronavirus situation. After workers downed their tools, the management of the sugar corporation suspended operations at the two estates for a week.
GuySuCo’s Communications Manager, Audreyanna Thomas, yesterday told Stabroek News that workers from Blairmont Estate have returned to work while those from the Albion Estate are scheduled to return to work today.
Thomas explained that the management of the corporation has noted the concerns expressed by the workers and has put systems in place to address them.
With the measures in place, the workers, she added, are expected to continue working for the remainder of the crop cycle, which is scheduled to conclude in the second week of May.
General Secretary of the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU), Seepaul Narine, yesterday also confirmed that the sugar workers, who were at home for the past week, have resumed their duties.
He explained that the management of GuySuCo, has decided to stagger the amount of workers being transported at one time.
“Operations have resumed and what they are doing is that they are transporting the workers by half of the capacity. They would usually transport 60 persons but now they are transporting 30 at a time to the different locations,” Narine related.
Like Thomas, Narine explained that factory workers have been working on a shift rotating system, therefore minimising the number of persons in the factory at one time and the risk of any possible transmission of the coronavirus.
The union in solidarity with the workers had called for the corporation to suspend its operations in the interest of workers safety. Two Thursdays ago, the Union had written to GuySuCo pointing out that recently, workers have been expressing their fears about contracting the coronavirus. It added that this fearfulness had “heightened” in recent days as the number of persons infected nationwide had risen with reports indicating that this number could climb even higher in the coming days.
The corporation had said that it has implemented measures such as sanitising of labour transportation, workstations and machinery between shifts, at all locations.
The other departments within the sugar corporation have been functioning on a skeleton staff even though its products fall within the category of essential services.
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 and local unions’ representatives.
Relevant information, public health advisories and prevention methods on COVID-19, the company said, are also made available to all employees, electronically and via hard copies or handouts.
Apart from that, the Unions, through their structures, are also engaged in informing sugar workers of measures they and their families should embrace to restrict transmission of the virus, a release from the company had explained.
