Doing the right things the wrong way

Oct 10, 2008 Editorial

The Ministry of Agriculture must explain the composition of the committee appointed to examine the decline in output within the East Demerara sugar estates.

Such a review is commendable given the state of the industry and its continued importance to the economy of Guyana.

However, given that both management and the union are likely to be the objects of the review, it would seem foolhardy of the Ministry to have put together a team which has representation from both sets of stakeholders. This is a sure case of doing the right things the wrong way.

There is no doubt that the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) needs to undertake a scientific and technical study of the decline in production.

The Management of GuySuCo has argued that poor weather, industrial downtime caused by strike and work stoppages, a shortage of labour have conspired to lead to a fall in production.

On the other hand, there have been arguments suggesting that inefficient management practices and poor remuneration of workers are at the heart of the problems in East Demerara.

One commentator in this newspaper has also persuasively argued that given the dramatic decline in the labour force in recent years, more sugar is being produced per worker than ever before but that this increase in labour productivity has not led to increased overall productivity.

There are of course other considerations including the lack of significant investments in the East Demerara estates which could also provide other reasons for the decline.

Both labour and management, despite their unquestionable commitment to the industry, are likely to be at loggerheads when it comes to apportioning blame for the dire straits which the industry faces.

Each side is hardly likely to wish to concede ground and therefore this can affect the overall quality of the final report that emerges.

For this reason alone, the review ought to have been assigned to an independent and professional grouping instead of a committee which includes personnel from both management and labour which will find themselves in the uncomfortable position of adjudicating on their own performance. The establishment of the review committee is also a case of poor timing.

At present there is an arbitration processing taking place in the industry. The arbitration panel is being asked to consider whether the wage demands by the union representing sugar workers are just.

In arriving at their decision, the arbitrators would have to consider, amongst other things, the causes of a decline in production and therefore it would have been much better if this review was conducted before rather than simultaneously.

For workers in the industry, the outcome of this review could well spell the end of the East Demerara sugar estates. For a long time there has been talk that the Demerara estates were becoming unproductive and uncompetitive and thus were slated for closure.

The government has consistently denied that it is closing the estates. Repeated assurances have been given to the sugar workers that there are no plans to close these estates.

However, the caveat has always been that if such a decision was taken, the workers would be the first to know.

While it is still much too early to speculate on the future of the East Demerara estates, the fact that this review is taking place and has been commissioned outside of the Board of Directors suggests that the government is concerned about the situation existing in East Demerara.

A poor review could very well leave the government with little option other than to shut the Demerara estates down. This is all the more reason why the review should have been entrusted to a broad-based technical team.

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