Sugar workers to receive overdue production bonus

Feb 05, 2011 News

– as GuySuCo, GAWU reaches agreement

The Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) and the Guyana Sugar Corporation Inc (GuySuCo) have announced that they have reached an agreement over a traditional annual production bonus for sugar workers who were not paid last year because of low production.
In a joint statement yesterday, both parties said that an agreement was reached for five days’ pay for Annual Production Incentive (API) for 2010.
It was disclosed that negotiations continued this year with both GAWU and GuySuCo meeting on four occasions to determine the quantum of days’ pay to be paid for a production of 220,818 tonnes of sugar- – last year’s declared production.
“The Corporation, previously, taking into account the low production, felt that it was not possible to make an award. The union pressed for an award noting that an award has always been determined on whatever is the year’s production.”
While last year’s production was at a two-decade low point, leading to an estimated 400,000-plus tonnes of sugar cane carried over to this year. This year started on a good footing for the industry which is hoping to shy away from the record number of strikes over the last 13 months.
“It has been recognised that excellent harvesting conditions began to prevail just after the first week in January and the Corporation wisely decided to commence the first crop much earlier than in previous years.”
According to the joint statement, already the industry has reaped approximately 80,000 tonnes of the “carried over” canes and as yesterday production for the crop was standing at 15,893 tonnes of sugar.
“The Union opined that the settlement of this issue would further boost the workers’ morale which has improved significantly over the past two weeks as the Corporation was addressing the API issue. The Corporation has confirmed that cane cutters attendance at work has appreciably improved from 43 per cent at the conclusion of the last crop to a range varying on the estates between 63 per cent and 73 per cent currently.”
Wales and Enmore are yet to commence their crop and hopefully the two estates would begin operations within the next two weeks to ensure that the weekly production appreciates to the targeted levels, the statement said. Government has announced that it will be plugging $1B into the sugar industry to help pay debts, among other things.
During an early morning visit Thursday to the Enmore Estate, East Coast Demerara, geared to bolster confidence in workers, Minister of Agriculture, Robert Persaud, and a team from the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo), also called for workers and Corporation to ensure that targets are met.
This year, the country has set an ambitious 300,000-tonne target with Persaud confident that the first crop would be a good one. With attendance a dismal mid-40 per cent last year, it has surged up to a heartening 72 per cent in recent weeks.
It is a growing problem facing an industry which five years ago faced a shortage of sugar cane and little work for harvesters.
Last year, the situation changed dramatically with GuySuCo announcing that more than 400,000 tonnes of cane had to be carried over to this year’s first crop because there were no workers.
Last year, government plugged $2B into the industry to help GuySuCo pay-off debts. This year, a sugar packaging facility at Enmore is expected to be commissioned to the tune of US$12M. That facility and the Enmore factory, which is slated to be modified, were inspected yesterday.
Sugar prices have raisen about 40 per cent over 2010 levels with cane yields said to be excellent, two very heartening signs. Last year, sugar production fell to 220,000 tonnes with GuySuCo claiming debts to the tune of $7B.

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Sugar workers to receive overdue production bonus

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