Sugar workers in the boiler department of the Enmore Estate yesterday protested outside the estate’s compound after three of their co-workers received letters informing them that they should stay home until investigations into the recent bursting of a gear box were completed.
On Thursday three employees of the boiler department were served with letters stating that they should remain at home, while being paid, until December 3, but workers put down their tools and started a strike on Friday against the decision. The move is seen as a tactic by management to fire the workers, whom they claimed sabotaged the gearbox.
The protesters stated that during the period management has asked the three employees to stay home, they could also serve them with a letter of dismissal, a move the workers fear. Workers who did not receive letters and a few others from the other departments stood in solidarity with the three men whose jobs are in jeopardy.
The recipients of the letters are supervisor of the department, Feizool Ahamad, Rafeek Bacchus who is the assistant boiler feeder and Sumdat Kumran. The protesters said that they will continue to strike until Monday when they will meet with representatives from the General Agricultural Workers Union (GAWU).
The protesters also stated that all they are asking for is for management to withdraw the letter they sent to the three members of the department and allow them to return to their jobs as per normal.
The workers said that the gearbox has been malfunctioning for a very long time and that nothing was done to address the problem. The recent breaking down of the gearbox is nothing new and workers are concerned as to why their superiors are accusing them of sabotaging the equipment.
Ahmad told this newspaper yesterday that he has been working at the estate for 33 years and this was the first time something like this had happened.
He also said that the equipment in the boiler department is not functioning well and is constantly breaking down.
Meanwhile, Bacchus said that he was at home when he received the letter. “They drop off de letter and seh we must stay home,” he said, adding, “Me nah no why dem tell we stay home and we ask, them nah answer… me nah know wah really dem get we pun.”
Earlier in the year workers at the estate held protest actions against payments as well as lashing out at GAWU.
