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One year later…Worker dismissed by drunken Skeldon estate manager to be reinstated
One year after being unceremoniously dismissed by a power drunk Guyana Sugar Corporation (GUYSUCO) Manager, Stephen Daniels, is set to be reinstated through the interventions of the Junior Minister of Social Protection, Simona Broomes and Minister of Agriculture, Noel Holder.
Stephen Daniels (right) meeting with President of GAWU, Komal Chand (left) and other officials
During a meeting yesterday at the Ministry of Social Protection, Brickdam, Broomes sought assurances from the President of Guyana Agricultural and General Workers’ Union (GAWU), Komal Chand, and other officials, that Daniels would be back on the job and would receive whatever benefits he is entitled to.
It is understood that the matter was brought to the attention of Broomes and Holder, who was also at the meeting yesterday.
Holder is reported to have asked for a review of the matter from Errol Hanoman, the interim Manager of GUYSUCO.
Broomes lamented the fact that the matter had been dragged out by the previous administration, who did not deal with it. She pointed out that Government has stepped in, as the procrastination was where the frustration was coming from.
Holder also lambasted the way the matter was handled at first. He noted that a great injustice was done to Daniels, but Government moving forward would take a different approach to managing the sector and employees.
“When it was brought to my attention I got on to the new management of GUYSUCO,” Holder said. “They investigated and within a matter of days (they responded) because an injustice was done to the individual.”
Chand observed that the Manager should have recused himself from any involvement with Daniels. He observed that this did not happen and he now expressed thanks to both Ministers for the resolution reached in the matter.
In September 2014, Daniels had been embroiled in a confrontation with the infamous Skeldon Estate Manager, Dave Kumar.
According to the reports, the Estate Manager and two of his colleagues were on a drinking spree when they encountered a group of workers on a bridge at the Dock Mill.
The group was reportedly in the process of supervising the offloading of cane, but Kumar is said to have demanded that they move out of the way. Daniels, who was a part of the group, had refused to move immediately, triggering the Manager’s anger.
He was dismissed the next day.
After Daniels’s dismissal, which went to arbitration, angry workers at Skeldon took strike action claiming that Kumar was drunk. The strike forced a shutdown of the Skeldon Estate, as well as the power supply from the co-generation plant. With the plant shut down, there were widespread blackouts in Berbice.
Throughout all of this, the then People’s Progressive Party (PPP) Government refused to reinstate Daniels, or adhere to the overwhelming calls for Kumar’s dismissal.
According to Daniels, yesterday, from the time of his dismissal it all went downhill for him. The man related that his family life was on the rocks at the time, and that the dismissal was coupled with the bank foreclosing on his house after he was unable to find employment.
Kumar himself is no stranger to controversy. He has reportedly been embroiled in drunken brawls, which has caused his workers to strike in protest of his behaviour. Last year he was arrested by a police patrol for publicly urinating after a night out in Corriverton, Berbice.
That was not before reportedly threatening to urinate on the ranks making the arrest.
He was also badly beaten in another brawl at Number 78 village, after accosting a female bar owner and using expletives to her.
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