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Pay the people their money!

Mar 12, 2017 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

The workers who are being made redundant by the closure of the Wales Estate should be paid their severance, in accordance with the law. It is unconscionable for the Guyana Sugar Corporation and the government to have these workers protesting in the hot sun for their just entitlements.
The government has taken a decision to close the Wales Estate as part of the reform of the sugar industry and because of the losses which that particular industry has been racking up over the years. The affected workers can properly be deemed redundant within the meaning of Section 12 of the Termination of Employment and Severance Pay Act of 1997.
In accordance with that Act, if the company cannot find employment for the workers within a ten-mile radius, on the same terms and conditions they enjoyed prior to their redundancy, the workers should be entitled to severance pay. The closest estate to Wales is beyond a radius of ten miles. As such, there can be no disputing that the workers are entitled to their severance pay. They should not have to take up pickets to press their just demands.
This is not a new issue. The same thing happened under the PPP with workers at Diamond. The workers were offered continued employment at other estates, including Enmore. The workers protested. They demanded their severance. The PPPC made all kinds of excuses. They claimed to be offering alternative employment. But the workers demanded their payout in accordance with the law, which required them to be employed on the same or better terms and conditions within a ten-mile radius of their former employment.
The Alliance for Change took up the sugar workers’ case. A court case was filed. It was election season. The PPPC decided that it was better to settle than to face a loss of support and the loss of the case.
The AFC is now a major partner in government. The AFC must recall its role in the protests at Diamond in the run-up to the 2011 elections. It must recall the position it took in favour of the workers. The AFC needs to be reminded that it was the one which had taken up the truncheon of the workers in the sugar belt, and it was the one which had pressed for the Diamond workers to be paid their severance. Now it is in government, how is it that the AFC can be part of an administration which is refusing to pay these poor workers their severance?
The AFC is going to lose credibility unless it rallies the government to the side of the workers. The AFC cannot afford to be accused of double standards – at one time supporting the Diamond workers and now siding with the government in the unfair treatment of the Wales workers.
The government may wish to say that the sugar corporation does not have the money to pay. This may well be so, but this should have been considered when the government took the decision to close the estate. It is for the government to come to the rescue of the Wales workers by paying them their severance, just as the government found the 750 million to pay those creditors who were owed monies for services provided at D’Urban Park. The government came to the rescue of a multi-purpose company which owed contractors, even though there is veil of opaqueness over the whole D’Urban Park project.
No such cloudiness exists in relation to the Wales workers. It is the government which supported the closure of the Wales Estate. The workers are entitled to their severance under the law. They should be paid.
If the government cannot at this time find the funds to pay them, they should consider negotiating with the union for either a deferred settlement or land in lieu of the severance. The government has already floated the idea of giving the displaced workers land so as to cushion the economic and social impact of the closure of the estate.
So why not give them land if the money cannot be found?
The money can of course be found, and should be found to pay the workers and bring an end to the workers having to take to the picket lines to demand their just dues.

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