President: Redundant sugar workers to receive half severance by month-end

Jan 11, 2018 News

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• says Govt. acted responsibly to safeguard jobs, treasury

Government is estimating that severance pay for redundant sugar workers will be in excess of $4B.

By this month-end, half of the severance pay to about 4,000 workers will be ready. The rest will be paid by the second half of the year.

The disclosures were made yesterday by President David Granger in a message read to the National Assembly by Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo.

The message pertained to the payment of workers of the state-owned Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo).
President Granger’s statement followed Tuesday’s protests in East Berbice by laid-off workers of Rose Hall estate.

According to the Head of State, it is estimated that at least $2B will be needed to make the first half of the severance this month-end.

In the statement, the President said that GuySuCo has been in a state of crisis for over 25 years.

“The Government has acted resolutely and responsibly to protect the livelihood of workers, to preserve the viability of rural communities and prevent the further financial depletion of the country’s treasury,” he insisted.

Granger pointed out that the Government, including the previous administrations, struggled to maintain the industry’s viability.

Some of the actions included engaging international advisory, technical and managerial corporations including Booker-Tate Ltd., Bosch Projects (PTY) and Global Cane Sugar between 1992 and 2015.

The Bharrat Jagdeo administration even erected a new factory at Skeldon in the East Berbice-Corentyne region at a cost of US$121M.

Since 2011, some $48.02B in financial support was expended to the industry with $32B paid over the past 30 months. This translated to about $1B per month.

Difficult Choices

“This government cannot sustain the sugar industry in its current state. It had to make difficult choices in order to ensure the industry’s viability,” the official explained.

The statement also pointed to the actions of the administration in its early days in office.

Those early measures included convening a Commission of Inquiry into the state of the industry and the publishing of a state paper on the future.

The administration has also created a ‘Special Purpose Unit’ to manage the reform of the industry. This was done in June 2017.

“I iterated – in my address to the 71^st sitting of the National Assembly on 2^nd November 2017 – that “The sugar industry is being consolidated; it is not being closed. We will explore all options…to ensure a viable industry, mindful of its impact on the nation’s rural economy and its residents.”

The President made it clear that his government is committed to making the industry efficient and competitive by consolidating cultivation in East Berbice at Albion, in West Berbice at Blairmont and West Demerara at Uitvlugt.

“The corporation will aim at producing 147,000 tonnes annually, preserving three enlarged estates and protecting the jobs of over 11,000 workers.”

With regards to the operations, Granger disclosed that the company has embarked on an extensive review of expenditure in every sector to the extent of reducing ministerial budgets in order to find funds to enable sugar workers to receive their severance pay.

To assist workers, $100M will be released to provide small loans for entrepreneurial activities which could open opportunities for employment after leaving the sugar industry, the president said in the statement.

Not being dismantled

“The Guyana Sugar Corporation is not being dismantled. It is working actively to ameliorate the impact of retrenchment on workers livelihood.”

Some of the amelioration programmes include the establishment of an “Alternative Livelihood Programme (ALP)”, aimed at providing support by enabling displaced employees to access available opportunities to function in other fields.

Granger also pointed to the current ongoing training of employees to work in new operational fields across the industry in places such as the field workshop and providing services.

Some 500 employees from the West and East Demerara Estates have been engaged with over 100 of them signalling their willingness to be retrained–in fields including carpentry, masonry, plumbing, mechanical and electrical works and in small business enterprises.

“The Government will continue to engage stakeholders, the Guyana Sugar Corporation, Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union and the National Association of Agricultural, Commercial and Industrial Employees and the workers.”

Granger stressed that the Government is cognizant of the invaluable contribution of the sugar industry to the development of Guyana.

“The Government will continue to work towards returning the reformed sugar industry to profitability and improving the personal income of sugar workers while seeking to provide a good life for current and future generations.”

The decision to close the four estates- Wales, Enmore, Rose Hall and the new under-performing Skeldon- has heavily divided the National Assembly with the Opposition and unions deeply worried over the changes.

Workers have been clamouring for the severance pay.

Almost 4,000 in the last two months were given letters sending them home.

The four estates have been transferred to Government with assessments currently being done to move them to privatisation and divestment.

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