THE management of the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) is calling on the Albion community and surrounding areas to fill the vacancies for 600-plus sugar workers ahead of the 2nd crop for the year 2018. The call comes as GuySuCo’s management unveiled their projections on Tuesday evening at a community outreach meeting.

The meeting held at the Albion Sports Complex saw several stakeholders and members of the community in attendance, as the upper echelons of the Albion Estate and GuySuCo set a target of 38,106 tons of sugar for the second crop at the East Berbice- Corentyne estate.
Albion Estate, which has over G$9 Billion turnover annually, is the highest-producing estate in the country with over 3400 employees and as the government and GuySuCo seek a new approach, those figures are expected to increase significantly. In his address, the manager (ag) Vemen Walter highlighted that the lack of consistent attendance coupled with nine strikes accounted for 442.1 tonnes lost as the estate came 1,466 tons shy of the first crop target of 19,698 tons.

Walter explained that while strikes played a major role in the deficit, other factors such as low yield per hectare, climatic conditions, etc also contributed to the estate falling short. In spite of this, he is optimistic that the estate can hit the targets for the second crop as attendance for the first crop was promising.

Based on statistics provided to this publication, the estate recorded an overall 75% attendance for the first crop, the highest since the year 2016. The strikes accounted for over 1,903 man days lost or $5,230,963 in revenue that would have gone to the workers had they worked.

Albion estate plans to start the harvest for the second crop on the 3rd of August and expects to achieve the target by harvesting some 6,813 hectares of cane. The estate is also seeking to lower its tonnes of cane/tons of sugar conversion to 10.85. These targets according to the manager are achievable with cooperation from all stakeholders. “As stakeholders it is our responsibility to give our best to the Albion/ Port Mourant estate, so that the estate can continue to make its sterling contribution to the community, the county of Berbice and Guyana as a whole.”

Addressing the vacancies, Walter urged the community to help get those interested to go to the estate and get registered, noting that the bulk of vacancies needed to be filled are in the areas of planting, harvesting and spray hands, while a smaller percentage are required in the factory and other areas.

Region Six Chairman David Armogan, who was also present, expressed surprise at the high number of vacancies despite the closure of the Skeldon and Rose Hall Estates as the government seeks to put GuySuCo into a new, profitable direction. Armogan in his address highlighted the need for productivity at every level in order to achieve the set goals and also called on management to work closer with workers. He said the time has come to work a different system of management and employee relations, whereby workers would have more say in the management of the industry, in the setting of targets and become an integral part of the entity.

“We have to look at the history of what has happened before, if we stick to the old ways then we will get the old targets. New practices in the field , crop husbandry method, the time has come for us to appeal to the conscience of the workers to up their productivity and that is what is lacking in Guysuco… It’s a question of productivity… if each person can up his or her productivity, then at the end of the day your expenses will be less…so the cost of unit will also be less… unless your cost per unit comes down, we will continue to be in a state of uncertainty.”