‘Bleak Christmas’ expected for sugar workers

…as GuySuCo begins to lay off Rose Hall Estate workers

The Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) has started laying off workers from the Rose Hall Estate, Berbice despite Government’s announcement that the facility would no longer be closed at the end of this year.
In a letter seen by Guyana Times International on Wednesday, GuySuCo discontinued the services of Rose Hall Field Supervisor Ramnarine Subramanian, under the Junior Staff Redundancy Notification.

The letter dated November 26, 2017 stated that a meeting was held at the Rose Hall Estate Community Centre on November 22, in the presence of his union, the National Association of Agricultural, Commercial and Industrial Employees (NAACIE). It was observed in the document therein that the Corporation had no vacant post to alternatively retain Subramanian’s services.
“The Corporation has given consideration to the option of you continuing in another job within (the) organisation. However, there is no suitable vacancy to accommodate you,” the letter seen by this publication stated.
Moreover, it was stated that the notice would expire on December 29, 2017 which will be his last day with the Rose Hall Estate and GuySuCo, and it was further observed that the termination was in keeping with the Termination of Employment and Severance Pay Act 1997 (TESPA).
Meanwhile, Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) President Komal Chand related that many East Demerara (Enmore) Estate and Rose Hall Estate workers have already been terminated, and some of them have received their severance packages. He, however, said that payments to the majority of workers were still outstanding and expressed hope that the situation would not end up like Wales Estate’s case where after almost one year, workers are still to be paid termination benefits.
“Some have got their severance pay, but the bulk is yet to get their severance pay and they are hoping there will be no hitch like in the case of Wales,” he told this newspaper on Wednesday.
Chand added that GuySuCo’s redundancy measures have come as a departure to what Government, through Agriculture Minister Noel Holder, had officially told the National Assembly earlier this year regarding the future of the sugar industry.
“They said in their State paper, December 31 but they stopped planting canes the first part of this year and then they began to find some other jobs,” he pointed out.
The veteran trade unionist further contended that many workers would spend their holidays in uncertainty and their early removal would hinder their overall plans for yearend.
“For them (sugar workers), it will be a bleak Christmas because they would not be working and they are not too certain when they will all get their severance pay,” Chand pointed out.
In May 2017, that Government announced plans to close the Enmore and Rose Hall Sugar Estates, sell the Skeldon Sugar Factory, reduce the annual production of sugar, and take on the responsibility of managing the drainage and irrigation services offered by GuySuCo. Several protest actions followed this announcement.