The Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) yesterday announced that it had reached an interim agreement for salary increases for sugar workers with the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo), although the two sides remain at odds over whether the increases would be retroactive to the start of last year.
GAWU announced that through the agreement, piece-rated workers will be benefitting from a 5% rise in their salaries pay, time-rated workers will receive an increase of $20 per hour, and monthly-paid staffers will receive an increase of $4,100 per month. It also said certain increases have been approved with respect to a number of allowances enjoyed by workers.
The union, however, also argued that with the negotiations having their genesis in 2019, the increases should also cover the same period. “So how can you tell me you are giving me for 2020 and not for what I initially asked for? The union remains resolute that its workers must get the retro from Jan 2019. We are not changing that position,” a GAWU official, who asked not to be named, told the Stabroek News yesterday when contacted.
However, a GuySuCo official said that the corporation would be unable to acquiesce to the union’s terms and that it is free to approach the Ministry of Labour with its complaint. It noted that it could not even afford to meet the 2020 increases that were agreed to but “bent backwards” to facilitate them.
“…We made a proposal and they have accepted. They accepted all the other aspects of the proposal except the period for the [retroactivity] and so we ended up with an impasse. Then in April, we met with GAWU again and it was agreed we would pay the [retroactivity] from January to April. The workers will get for the four months and continue but GAWU still hasn’t accepted. They have not accepted. They wanted retroactive to January 2019 but we proposed January 2020. Because of our current inabilities… we have over extended ourselves to pay even an increase for this year. But the Board and management of GuySuCo empathised with them and said that the workers are due an increase and we had to made the adjustment,” GuySuCo spokesperson Audreyanna Thomas told this newspaper when contacted.
“So to now ask us for that it is almost … The workers will get increases from 2020 but GAWU still hasn’t accepted. We can’t do that which they are asking and they can proceed to the Ministry of Labour if they want and then we would respond in that process,” she added.
In a statement issued yesterday, GAWU said that at an engagement with the Corporation on April 3, 2020, it proposed the implementation of the new rates retroactive to January 1, 2020 while the parties continue discussions regarding retroactive payments for 2019. “We reiterated our proposal in our correspondences to the Corporation of April 08 and 27, 2020. The Union, at this time, re-emphasises our strong conviction that the period of retroactivity ought to commence from January 01, 2019. Our position, in this regard, takes into account that the discussions between the GAWU and the GuySuCo flowed from our 2019 claims,” the statement said.
“Moreover, as we have pointed out previously, other improvements that were approved by GuySuCo during the discussions of our claims were implemented with effect from January 01, 2019. It, therefore, follows the obvious logic that every single improvement ought to begin from that point as well. Additionally, the Union and the Corporation have yet to commence any discussion for 2020 and, therefore, we see the GuySuCo position as being misplaced,” it added.
GAWU said that while it remains ready to recommence the discussions on the lone outstanding issue of retroactivity, it recognised that the workers who have been badly battered by a wage freeze since 2015. “In the intervening period, the cost-of-living rose significantly which deleteriously affected their standard-of-living. Of course, we could not ignore too the hike in the even more acute hike in cost-of-living that has permeated since the COVID-19 pandemic arrived in Guyana. It was against that background we proposed to GuySuCo this interim arrangement,” it pointed out. The union stated that it understood that the Corporation’s financial position has been restricted arising from the refusal of NICIL-SPU to release bond proceeds to the industry to assist mainly in capital works and it lamented how it has affected cane productivity and production. “This charade has been ongoing now for years and seemingly there is no end in sight. At the same time, we have seen too the obvious ignorance of the issues by the powers-that-be,” it said.
But the union is optimistic that the Corporation would soon be able to provide the outstanding payments to its workers, which it said “obviously are in need of the monies”. It is because of the financial straits of the sugar workers that the union said that it had asked government to exempt the sugar workers from taxes during this COVID-19 period. “We look too that the State, as it has done for its other employees, to exempt these payment from income taxes especially at this time when workers need every dollar,” GAWU said.
