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Sugar workers wages dispute…

Sep 28, 2008 News

Oral submissions on dispute presented

Yesterday, oral submissions were made to the tribunal dealing with the wages dispute between the Guyana Sugar Corporation and the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU).

Representatives from both sides presented their arguments to the three-man tribunal at the Cheddi Jagan Research Centre. On Wednesday last, written arguments were submitted to the arbitration tribunal.

Representatives from the sugar company and the union documented their arguments on the issue, and submitted a copy to each member of the tribunal.

Chairman of the tribunal, Gobind Ganga, who accepted the written arguments, said that he is hoping for an early conclusion of the matter. He noted that the dispute is of national interest, and as such the matter will be expedited.

The disputing parties also agreed that the matter should be concluded at an early date, and noted that they are prepared to work towards that objective.

GuySuCo and GAWU met with the tribunal on September 11 last as the soured wages negotiation between the parties reached tribunal level.

During that meeting, it was agreed that both sides will present oral and written arguments to the tribunal.
It was agreed that, by mid-November, the arbitration tribunal will commence the preparation of its report.

Soured wage negotiations between the company and GAWU resulted in workers taking industrial action which lasted for almost four weeks. The three-man team was commissioned on August 29 last to deal with the dispute.

Other members of the team are attorney-at-law Cecil Seepersaud and Major General (ret’d) Norman McLean.
Both sides will be bound by the decision of the arbitration panel.

Labour Minister Manzoor Nadir was forced to intervene in the matter after a deadlock was declared on the negotiations. Consequently, he imposed compulsory arbitration.

Both parties are still maintaining their positions, with GAWU demanding a 14 percent salary increase for the workers and Guysuco standing its ground with a 5¼ percent increase.

The 5¼ percent is an improvement on the sugar company’s original offer of 4 ¼ percent. However, the union has rejected that offer.

As a result of the strike actions, Guyana lost some $300M in revenue. This is as a result of Guyana missing the targeted 55,000 tonnes required in a contractual obligation with its European Union market.

The agreement was that the corporation would have provided the quantity of sugar by September 5.
However, on that date, only 45,000 tonnes were shipped.

Chief Executive Officer of GuySuCo, Nick Jackson, told Kaieteur News that the $300M in lost revenue includes the demurrage that was paid on the vessels.

The corporation had to pay a fee for the ships, which were hired, to stay longer than expected in Guyana.
Commenting on the loss of revenue, Minister of Agriculture, Robert Persaud, said this fact is of grave concern to Government. In an invited comment earlier, Persaud had said the corporation is in a very peculiar financial situation.

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