Citing its “poor financial health”, the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) has threatened to halt reaping of the first crop if the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) goes ahead with planned strike action.
This, according to the corporation, will be the only alternative left to it if the union persists in its call to the Corporation’s workforce to strike every Tuesday over the planned closure of the Wales sugar estate.
In a statement, GuySuCo noted that “given the Corporation’s very poor financial health, if this call were to be answered by the workforce in the coming weeks, it will cause a major disruption of the current crop and would only deepen the financial woes of GuySuCo.”
Consistent strike action will mean the factories having to stop and start on a regular basis, a situation that would not be financially sustainable. The statement stressed that all the stakeholders, including GAWU, are fully aware of the negative implications of this action.
GuySuCo made this declaration on the same day it announced that a deadlock had been reached in its negotiations with GAWU on the Annual Production Incentive (API) at the Ministry of Social Protection.
This latest negotiations saw an attempt at conciliation under the auspices of the Chief Labour Officer (CLO) Charles Ogle. The entities had previously met with the CLO on December 11, 2015. At that meeting, both parties presented their submissions to the Conciliator, after which he informed the parties that he recognised they had reached an impasse and that before he declared a deadlock he would prefer to consult with his subject Minister.
Yesterday’s deadlock saw GuySuCo reluctantly agree to arbitration as the next step in established Grievance Procedure.
The Corporation reported that it implored that this matter should end at the level of conciliation with the Union accepting the 2.72 days’ pay, valued at approximately $223 M, which would allow the Corporation to go ahead and make the payment in keeping with its commitment to the employees. The proposed pay-out equates to 85,000 tonnes of sugar per day of API.
GAWU, however, held steadfast to its position.
Last December, GAWU had requested 32,500 tonnes for a day’s pay, later adjusting this to 37,125 tonnes, which the union said has been the average since 2011 for the API talks. In 2014, API was settled at 4.5 days’ pay, which was based on roughly 48,000 tonnes of sugar per each day’s pay. In 2013, the union and the corporation agreed to 5 days’ pay, which was based on over 37,000 tonnes of sugar per each day’s pay.
GuySuCo, in its statement, explained that the corporation was willing to pay incentives totalling $2.1B to workers—a sum which equals 10% of the company’s employment costs.
“The meeting was also advised that the Corporation was amenable to the payment of incentives. The seven estates’ in 2015 achieved 94.41 days, thereby, allowing the workers to earn $1.099B in Weekly Production Incentive [WPI]. In addition, a sum of $1.009B was also earned as Personal Performance Incentive (PPI) by cane harvesters. These incentives equates to $2.1 B of tax free earnings to our employees. This is approximately 10% of the Corporation’s employment cost,” the statement said. It also noted that GuySuCo’s total revenue for 2015 was $18. 4B with sugar sales contributing $17.2 B, a sum which by no means covered the employment cost which stood at $21.6 B for 2015.
