Current sugar layoffs different from Diamond case – Jagdeo

Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo yesterday said that government’s retrenchment of thousands of sugar workers differs greatly from the 2010 termination of the workers attached to the estate at Diamond, East Bank Demerera.

“Two situations are very, very different. The scale, the ability to absorb workers elsewhere all of this…This is seven thousand people …from Wales and the other places. Eventually they are gonna say no”, Jagdeo said while responding to questions during a press conference held at his Church Street office.

Jagdeo told Canje sugar workers on December 16 that if the PPP/C is re-elected in 2020 the workers will benefit from the budget by way of a monthly payment until they are re-employed.  Trade unionist Lincoln Lewis recently said that this statement should be questioned given that the Diamond sugar workers only got severance after they filed an action in the court.