Gov’t to honour promise to complete severance payments to sugar workers

In keeping with the government’s commitment to complete severance payments to all retrenched sugar workers, Minister of State Joseph Harmon yesterday said the final amounts will be paid off in the second half of the year.

“Cabinet discussed payment of the second tranche of severance to the sugar workers and iterated its commitment to honouring the agreement to make the remaining severance payment within the time it promised,” he said during a post-Cabinet press briefing.

Government had said that the severance to over 4,000 retrench workers would be paid out in two tranches, with 50% being released by the end of January and the remainder to be paid out before the end of the year. However, workers who were entitled to a severance payment of $500,000 or less were to have received their full payment by the end of January this year.