The Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) and the state-run Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) on Friday reached an agreement that will now see sugar workers receiving a “one-off payment” of monies to settle wage increases owed from 2019.
According to a press release from GAWU, this agreement was made subsequent to a meeting between Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo and members of GAWU’s general council and negotiating team. “Through the agreement reached, the workers stand to benefit from some $200M in payments which expectedly would be paid soon,” GAWU said.
The payment, according to the union, would be a one-off payment which is equivalent to five percent of six months of their earnings in the year 2019. During the meeting with Jagdeo, he expressed his concern over the dispute between the union and GuySuCo, which he noted was not in the interest of either side.
As a result, the union added that the Vice President reminded both parties of the government’s commitment to reviving the sugar industry as he even mentioned the administration’s release of some $9 billion to the sector.
The Chairman of Board of Directors of GuySuCo Pravinchandra Dave, and GuySuCo’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Sasenarine Singh were present at the meeting.
Meanwhile, the union noted that its president, Seepaul Narine, mentioned the issues that led to the negotiations reaching that point. Narine during the meeting added that the Union will be committed to examining offers that are reasonable as it is aware of the state of the sugar industry. “GAWU held that the workers during
discussions with GuySuCo on the matter the workers had high expectations of a favourable outcome, but the Corporation’s procrastination was not helpful,” the release said.
The intervention of Jagdeo was welcomed by the union as it noted that discussions in the future can lead to conflicts being avoided. Following the meeting it was agreed that the negotiations for 2021 would be addressed.
GuySuCo had previously indicated that it was unable to fund an increase for the workers and would have to rely on central government for assistance to meet wages and salary obligations.
Sugar workers from various estates have recently protested to press for the speedy conclusion of negotiations on the pay increases, including the increases for 2019. The wage negotiations between the Union and GuySuCo have dragged out for three years.
General Secretary of the union Aslim Singh had told Stabroek News last week, “They keep telling us bring a proposal and to ask workers to have patience but they have not dealt with the proposals in 2019 and 2020 how can we move on from there?”
