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Two years later… Govt still to deliver on safety net promises to former sugar workers
Former sugar workers who suffered from the closure of the Wales, Enmore, Rose Hall and Skeldon estates have not only suffered from the late payments of their severance finances. The government has also failed to deliver on promises purported to be safety nets for persons who lost their jobs.
Komal Chand, GAWU President
The President of Guyana Agricultural and General Workers’ Union (GAWU), Komal Chand, lamented about the unfulfilled promises made by the APNU/AFC administration, pursuant to their intentions to close four sugar estates since they assumed governance in 2015.
Chand, who is a member of the PPP/C, said that the government had intimated to the people of Wales Estate that they should not be worried because alternative ventures would be pursued, to ensure that they would not suffer from the fallout of having lost their jobs.
The government had promised that in addition to the severance that laid-off sugar workers are legally owed, there would be measures to encourage the pursuits of rice cultivation, fish farming, livestock, dairy production, orchards and a host of other related agricultural activity for the purpose of wealth creation and employment generation.
The GUYSUCO financial report for 2017, Chand said, indicated that GUYSUCO invested $61M into the venture but realized only $10M in revenues. Chand said that this is “hardly a poster child for the touted initiatives.”
Chand said that the 774 cane farmers of Wales were also promised that their cane would be processed at Uitvlugt and that the transportation of that crop would be facilitated by the construction of a road specifically for that purpose. That promise has not been fulfilled.
In addition, the closure of the Skeldon, Rose Hall and East Demerara Estates saw more promises being doled out to sugar workers, including a report by the State Paper, that “employees are to be leased land by GUYSUCO to engage in crops.”
A statement by GAWU reads: “To date, not an inch of land was given to any worker,” even though the GAWU made efforts to share important considerations with the government concerning this matter.
GAWU recalled that Prime Minister Nagamootoo said, “We want you to have confidence in the government that we will not abandon you, we will not cut you loose and we will work on all fronts to bring about some benefits so you can start meaningful activities in your life and for your family.”
The GAWU expressed its disappointment in the government over its failure to keep its promises to thousands of persons who have lost their jobs with little recourse, as well as subjecting them to the inconvenience of waiting for long bouts of time to receive their severance payment.
GAWU, in its statement, reminded that two redundant sugar workers took their own lives because they could not provide for their families. Chand said that these occurrences, coupled with the recent protests by sugar workers in Georgetown, constitute “a stark manifestation of the troubles that had entered the minds of workers and their families as they contended with a jobless existence.”
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