The Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) and the Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC) have reached an agreement on payments to employees who were terminated by the GFC.
The agreement will see an undisclosed ex-gratia payment to the workers, a release yesterday from GAWU said.
Previously, GAWU held that the now former workers were entitled by virtue of their termination letters to receive entitlements consistent with the Termination of Employment and Severance Pay Act (TESPA). The GFC had disagreed with this.
The disagreement between the Union and the Commission saw the workers with the support of the GAWU protesting to press their demands. Following the protests, GAWU said that it resumed dialogue with the Commission on the matter. Given the protracted period, the union said that it felt it wise to continue discussions with a view to reaching an amicable settlement between the parties.
“Through those discussions, the GAWU and the workers agreed to certain proposals wherein the Commission agreed to certain ex-gratia payments to workers. The workers felt the proposal was adequate and took account of the long and several battles to reach to that point. As a result, the Commission has now made available the payments to the workers”, the release said.
GAWU said that it was heartened by the developments and recognised the importance of good faith, open and frank discussions to bring about a settlement.
