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East Canje sugar workers strike over NIS benefits
The workers on strike yesterday
The sugar woes for the New Year may have just begun. More than 300 sugar workers from two gangs attached to the Rose Hall Estate in East Canje yesterday congregated at Adelphi in solidarity with several workers who have not received benefits from the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) after proceeding on sick leave.
One worker in particular, Fazil Ally, 35, a cane harvester said that the National Insurance Scheme has “no money to pay him”. “The government has reluctantly failed to intervene with the funds of the NIS and disqualifies people with payment for any good reason”.
A chain-cut accident he endured several years ago injured his eyes in 1992; he was a weeder back then. The accident was reported and he proceeded on a month’s leave. But his eyes got worse a year later and then he started to get hassle from the scheme.
“The Estate doctor gave me some leave and a paper to go to the hospital and the hospital doctor recommended that I do a surgery. I went and do the surgery and carry in the claims and they said I cannot get no pay. Then they said that they will pay me for the hospital surgery, but they changed their minds and said they will not pay for the surgery too.”
For the past seventy days, Ally has been on disability leave. The sole breadwinner for the home, he has two children and a wife to maintain. He is worried.
The workers said that they would not return to work unless some payments are made to Ally.
“If he ain’t get pay, we ain’t going back to work”, said one worker. “If we get good justice, we gonna go to work”.
“If the doctor give you twenty-one days, they at NIS calling you in and say that they gonna only pay you for seven (days)—they don’t pay you what you deserve—they do me that already”, said another worker.
Other workers had similar complaints.
Rajesh Persaud stated that he appealed after a fall, injuring his stomach since last year, and proceeded on 56 days leave “and no response”. He claimed that the NIS doctor rejected all the medical papers from the doctor. “After 35 days, he called me and tell me that he won’t accept any claim. “
They argued that the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) is “not doing anything for sugar workers. They ain’t representing sugar workers—they just taking people money!”
Another worker, Jaimangal Dhanai, claimed that since last year May, “I went on seven days sick leave and up to today I didn’t receive any payment. They said I have to appeal.
Yet another worker, Buddy Dayal, “performed a cyst operation—received two sets of 14 days sick leave from a New Amsterdam Hospital doctor, but was turned down by the NIS doctor when he applied for more sick leave. He was told that he would only receive NIS pay for the first fourteen days of leave.
“The NIS doctor slice my days to fourteen [days] and he told me fourteen days were enough; and asked me to go back to work. He said I won’t get pay for the other fourteen days”.
“Let we sign a vote against them to get them (GAWU out). We want to form a new union! Komal Chand and the government is like so [putting two fingers together].”
“Komal Chand is representing the government, and not sugar workers!” shouted the workers.
Steve Braithwaite, another worker, said that he suffered an accident at the back dam and was referred to the NIS doctor by N/A Hospital.
“Within weeks of the treatment, [the] NIS doctor called me back, stopped my leave and stopped my payment. [He then] forward me to the NIS medical board, where four specialists released a payment [for me]. I come back in Berbice, NIS keep pushing me around [for the payment]. They paid me only 10 per cent of my disability claim.
“The estate’s medical board medically discharged me. I can’t work with this hand I am suffering with the hand. The hand cannot straighten,” he lamented.
An individual standing in solidarity with the workers, said that “There is the lack of funds and the money is being diverted to different projects unknown to the workers and to the people of Guyana. Show me where the money of the NIS is.
“Chris Ram indicated vividly, that by 2015, NIS will not have any money whatsoever if the trend continues.”
Efforts to contact the National Insurance Scheme for a comment proved futile. The workers said that they will continue industrial action until the aggrieved workers receive the NIS benefits due them.
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