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GAWU pickets Finance Ministry on retroactive tax waiver

Dec 24, 2009 News

Two days before Christmas, the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers’ Union (GAWU) picketed the Ministry of Finance to up its demands for a waiver of income tax on a recently awarded three per cent retroactive pay.
Sugar workers are expected to receive the payout today retroactive to January 1, 2009.
GAWU, on Monday, wrote Minister of Finance, Dr. Ashni Singh, asking that he considers waiving the income tax on the retroactive pay.
Yesterday’s exercise was one of the many that the union has been staging since an arbitration tribunal “recommended” a three per cent increase for workers earlier this month.
GAWU is arguing that taxing the pay will effectively send sugar workers home with only two per cent.
The unions President, Komal Chand, yesterday told media houses that there has been no reply from the Minister on the decision.
“We are carrying through this exercise today because it is part of our struggles for the rights and livelihood of workers. The struggle will continue.”
The union representatives, carrying placards, also accused the Minister of lying to the public when he said that government in the Skeldon sugar factory invested a total of US$113.1 million.
According to a placard, the US$113 is a loan. So how could government have invested that?
Similarly, a US$12M funding for the establishment of a sugar packaging plant represented monies from the European Union as part of the programme to assist Guyana following a phased sugar price cuts in that region.
GAWU, in the letter on Monday to Dr Singh, requested the Ministry’s “consideration to waive the Income Tax on the retroactive payment of three (3) per cent from 1st January, 2009 arising from the Gobind Ganga Arbitral Tribunal recommendation.”
GAWU, in arguing the case for the tax waiver, said that similar deserving steps were taken in the past when public servants received a special $4,000 allowance awarded to them last year.
The letter, written by GAWU’s General Secretary, Seepaul Narine, was also copied to Minister of Agriculture, Robert Persaud, and GuySuCo’s Chief Executive Officer, Errol Hanoman.
President of GAWU, Komal Chand, on Tuesday explained that taxing the “measly” three per cent was already small and to further tax it effectively would be placing only two per cent in the hands of workers.
In October, wage talks between GuySuCo and GAWU broke down after the Corporation refused to budge from a three per cent offer. GAWU had demanded 15 per cent but came down to 10 per cent.
Conciliation talks went nowhere and Government stepped in last month and ordered a compulsory arbitration.
A three-person Tribunal headed by Bank of Guyana’s Dr. Gobind Ganga earlier this month “recommended” a three per cent increase.
GuySuCo was given until March next year to give workers the retroactive pay, which becomes effective January 1, 2009.
After GuySuCo promised to start paying the increase effective January1, 2010, GAWU had picketed the Ministry of Finance and Bank of Guyana and several sugar estates to pressure for payments before Christmas.
Last week, the cash-strapped Corporation said that it had worked out a deal and had rearranged payments to creditors and will be paying workers their retroactive increase by this week.

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