Sugar workers to get 50% severance by end of month – President

David Granger

President David Granger yesterday said that thousands of retrenched sugar workers will get 50% of their severance pay by the end of this month and the remainder in the second half of the year.

His address to the nation which was also read by Prime Minister Moses Nagamoootoo in Parliament  came amid growing calls and protests by workers, particularly in the Berbice sugar belt, for the payment of their severance considering that they had been terminated at the end of last year.

Cries of `shame’ from the opposition benches greeted  the PM’s announcement yesterday that the severance would be paid in two instalments.

By law, the severance should