EMPLOYEES of the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GUYSUCO) who are members of the National Association of Agricultural, Commercial and Industrial Employees (NAACIE) have gone on strike over what they view as significant anomalies with respect to their wages and salaries. According to General Secretary of NAACIE, Kenneth Joseph, the strike action which commenced last Thursday is a result of a recent Job Evaluation and Salary Survey Exercise.
All categories of workers from all GUYSUCO estates and the head office who are members of NAACIE are participating in the strike.
Joseph stated that he believes these workers have been forced into strike action since GUYSUCO has decided not to increase their salaries even though the corporation had agreed in principle that implementation of the Job Evaluation and Salary Survey will result in Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) members receiving increases.
A press statement from NAACIE stated that members of GAWU, some of them in very junior positions will receive significant increases compared to the NAACIE members who are actually in more senior categories than their GAWU counterparts.
Joseph stated that NAACIE believes that their members are being treated unfairly since they are sure that GUYSUCO can afford to pay the salary increases. However, they have no plans to make the industrial action long and drawn out and are hoping for an amicable settlement.
Meanwhile, Human Resources Director of GUYSUCO, Jai Petam is adamant that the corporation cannot afford to pay the proposed increase. This, he said, was made clear at a meeting last Wednesday with GUYSUCO and NAACIE.
According to Petam, GUYSUCO and NAACIE had entered into an agreement sometime last year for job evaluations, after which employees were granted a 30% increase retroactive from 2010. Subsequent to that, the same evaluations were done for GAWU members following which, they received a salary increase.
Some 750 out of approximately 1,000 workers who are members of NAACIE are on strike.  Petam stated that the NAACIE members are now seeking a further increase which will cost GUYSUCO approximately $204 million in pay.
Nevertheless, Petam said that GUYSUCO’s operations are unaffected by the strike action. They are, however,  encouraging the workers to come out back to work and to understand that their demands are unreasonable.
In an invited comment, General Secretary the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU), Seepaul Narine said that he believes that the chances of any salary increases coming out of the strike are very limited, since NAACIE members had already received an increase following their job evaluation prior to GAWU members’ evaluation.
He stated that the same criteria were used to evaluate NAACIE members as were used to evaluate GAWU members,it was just that both evaluations could not be carried out at the same time. He believes that it is therefore unlikely for them to receive a further increase when GAWU members did not get any salary increase at the time of NAACIE’s evaluation.