Workers at Enmore Sugar Estate yesterday began a planned three-day strike to sound their dissatisfaction over the terms of an agreement for salary increases for years they were underpaid by GuySuCo.
The agreement signed between GuySuCo and the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU), based on a Job Evaluation, stipulates that every worker will be paid a 2% increase in their salaries for every year they were underpaid over the past 20 years.
But sugar worker Bejaimal Sukram told Stabroek News yesterday that he and other workers strongly oppose the terms of the agreement, which does not benefit them if they had been promoted during those years.
“The agreement does not benefit the workers because it states that the workers will only be paid the 2% for the present position they hold and many of them have been promoted,” Sukram stated.
“Some people been for 20 to 25 years in the job and only recently they have been upgraded. Now those people are not entitled for that [increase] because the present job would be a different designation,” he noted, while suggesting that the increase should have been determined by the years of service to the company in lieu of the present position they hold.
The strike came a day after GuySuCo appealed for the support of the workers’ unions to arrest labour problems that it blamed in part for the 30,000-tonnes shortfall in its first crop production.
The evaluation, Sukram explained, compared the workers’ salaries to those with similar qualifications in different companies and concluded that GuySuCo had been underpaying their workers for over 20 years.
The evaluation began in June, 2010 and concluded during the month of July, 2011.
Sukram added that they had queried the situation with former Personnel Manager Dexter Williams, who was transferred to Skeldon Estate, and he had explained that the process is lengthy for them to have the terms of the agreement reversed.
Williams further told them that the Personnel Department cannot find records to show that they have worked for the number of years.
This, Williams blamed on the factory, explaining that when the workers were promoted the Personnel Department was not informed and the records were not properly updated.
After Williams’ transfer, the workers tried to meet with the Assistant Personnel Manager, Stuart (only name given), but several efforts to meet with him proved futile, Sukram related.
He added that only after they indicated their intention to strike to their Factory Manager, Akbar Ali, did they manage to get a meeting with Stuart, who reiterated the position laid out by Williams. As a result, the decision was taken to strike.
Sukram also said the workers spoke to GAWU General Secretary Seepaul Narine about the issue and they were advised to submit their queries to GuySuCo’s head office but were told that the process may be a lengthy one.
When contacted yesterday, Narine said that there is not much to say at this time and that the union cannot say what is the position of GuySuCo on the queries but he noted that those were submitted and will be addressed.
The workers are also using the strike to protest the delay in their customary Holiday-With-Pay payout. GuySuCo said as a result of its shortfall for the first crop, it has been financially handicapped and cannot afford to pay the workers on time.
