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Arbitrators to hold final meeting today

Dec 05, 2009 News

The arbitration meeting between the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) and the Guyana Sugar Corporation Inc. (GuySuCo) is expected to come to an end today.
President of GAWU, Komal Chand, who told Kaieteur News, yesterday, that the tribunal panel which is being chaired by Gobin Ganga will hold its last sitting today, after which the arbitrators will have now until December 12, 2009, to arrive at a decision on the wages and salaries increase for sugar workers.
The wages talk between GAWU and GuySuCo was declared deadlocked late October as government stepped in and imposed compulsory arbitration.
In a statement, Minister of Labour, Manzoor Nadir, said that he was forced to order the move “after conciliation proceeding between the Guyana Sugar Corporation and the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers’ Union was declared deadlocked on October 29, 2009 by the Chief Labour Officer. He said that he decided to impose compulsory arbitration by virtue of the powers conferred upon him by Section 4 (1) (c) of the Labour Act, Cap. 98:01.
In early October, several workers from the Rose Hall factory reportedly walked off their jobs forcing operations to a standstill there.
While not being too optimistic about the outcome of the meeting, Chand urged for the arbitrators to recognise the fact that sugar workers are stakeholders in the industry and if they are not satisfied, then the possibility exists that they will drift away from the industry.
Those on the tribunal panel include Yog Mahadeo (Chief Financial Officer of GT&T) who is the union’s representative, while former Permanent Secretary of the Health Ministry, Sonya Roopnauth will be representing GuySuCo.
Secretary to the tribunal panel is Deputy Chief Labour Officer, Clive Nurse.
GAWU, although not announcing its demands, had indicated that it may be asking for a 15 per cent wage hike for workers.
But GuySuCo is sticking to a three per cent offer saying that it cannot afford more in light of poor production and other factors.
GuySuCo says that losses for this year are projected at $2.5B and a further $5B owed to commercial banks.
GuySuCo’s Chief Executive Officer, Errol Hanoman, had noted that the company is facing a grim financial situation with almost $1.8B owed to creditors at the end of September 2009.
In 2008, GuySuCo, which is one of Guyana’s biggest foreign exchange earners declared losses of $4B, with $3B owed to commercial banks.

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