Govt. tells Uitvlugt sugar workers to look for other jobs

May 25, 2022 News

…promises cash grants, training opportunities
By Allyiah Allicock

Uitvlugt Estate sugar workers at the meeting with the Vice President.

Kaieteur News -Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo has told struggling workers at the Uivlugt Sugar Estate to seek employment in other sectors, and said that his government is willing to provide training to those who wish to transition out of the industry.
Jagdeo made the comments on Monday when he met with the workers who have been home since March after the factory closed due to a mechanical problem. With new parts slated to arrive in the country before this month end, the government is hoping to have the factory back up and running by July month end.
This is according to Minister of Agriculture, Zulfikar Mustapha who also met with the workers on Monday. As reported on, the Uitvlugt Sugar Estate has been closed since March this year due to mechanical issues of its #1Mill turbine gearbox. In a statement, the Guyana Sugar Corporation said then that after the factory went down, immediately the mechanical problem was detected and the technical team kicked into action and had the necessary repairs commenced at a fabrication workshop. “The promised delivery date from the workshop is March 8th, 2022. If this plan is fulfilled, grinding operations will recommence on the evening of March 9th, 2022 where some 600 punts of cane are scheduled to be crushed,” GuySuCo said then.
Since then, there has been no breakthrough in fixing the problem and recently reports surfaced that the sugar company was seeking to source the parts overseas. These parts Mustapha said on Monday have been ordered and are expected to arrive before the month finishes. Mustapha explained that at the factory there have been many attempts to have the broken parts repaired. “We tried on a number of occasions as a matter of fact, a lot of engineers in GUYSUCO including those at Albion came to Uitvlugt. We took the parts to the best mechanical workshop in the country, it was repaired and it

Vice President, Bharrat Jagdeo engaging the sugar workers on Monday. (Photo: Office of the Vice President.

came back to Uitvlugt. It worked for 12 hours and it had issues again, and after an assessment was done by the main mechanical engineer it was decided that we have to have new parts,” he stated.
Following that discussion, the Minister said that they had agreed to give the funds to purchase the parts for the factory. He added that the parts are coming from Texas. “So I’m hoping by the end of July we can get this factory running and we can get back operations back into speed at Uitvlugt Estate, because this is one of the estates in the West Demerara area that are important to the people and the livelihood of people living in this part of the region,” he told the sugar workers. In addition to Jagdeo and Mustapha the meeting was also attended by Senior Minister within the Office of the President with responsibility for Finance, Dr. Ashni Singh; Minister of Local Government and Regional Development, Nigel Dharamlall; and Minister within the Ministry of Public Works, Deodat Indar.
Meanwhile, at the meeting Jagdeo told the workers that the government is willing to provide training for them in other sectors of work. Jagdeo noted that with the current labour shortages they are encouraged to take up the training opportunities that are available now. He added that with the transition to get into higher paying jobs, the government is willing to work with them every step of the way. He also called for workers to get involved in the government online GOAL scholarship programme. In addition, the Vice President proposed small grants to workers who would like to start a small business, this way he highlighted they can have a supplemental income.
According to him persons would receive a grant of $250,000 to start a business. “So we are going to put two options to people, one is that if you are interested in a business development, small business, you will get $250,000 grant and if you are not interested in that you will get $200,000 flat each worker will get that,” he told the gathering.