GUYANA Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) Industrial Relations Head, Jairam Pitam said yesterday that contrary to reports, only nine workers from Blarimont Estate are on strike.

He maintained that the factory operations continue unhindered.“There is no shutdown. The nine people are from the Processing Department and we have replacements to man those work stations. The factory continues its grinding,” Pitam told the Guyana Chronicle.
The GuySuCo official added that the demands of the nine strikers, who belong to the National Association of Agricultural, Commercial and Industrial Employees (NAACIE) cannot be met.
He explained that an arbitration tribunal, chaired by retired Major General Norman McLean, in May 2013, pronounced clearly on the actions needed to be taken by GuySuCo and these pronouncements have been acted on.

‘There is no shutdown. The nine people are from the Processing Department and we have replacements to man those work stations. The factory continues its grinding’

Pitam said:“NAACIE’s demands are outside of the award of the tribunal, which were made with respect to anomalies of the Corporation’s pay scale.”
Fully complied
“GuySuCo has fully complied with the tribunal’s award and we are not prepared to concede to NAACIE’s demands, as they are outside of the award.”
The arbitration tribunal, chaired by Mr. McLean, was set up to inquire into the request for the review of the job evaluation agreement between GuySuCo and the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU).
It was also tasked with inquiring into the request for revision of the job evaluation agreement between the union and the corporation dated July 2011 and to correct the anomalies, if any, that existed, based on the findings.
Further, it was mandated to inquire into the across-the-board offer of one percent increase for all categories of workers represented by NACCIE for 2012, and to make an award as the tribunal sees fit.
GuySuCo had reviewed 17 anomalies in eight categories, six of which it felt were not worthy of addressing but were, nevertheless, considered. It dealt extensively with 11 of the job categories, which included junior bookkeeper, junior sugar boiler, junior laboratory technicians, senior sugar boiler, senior lab technician, electrical workshop foreman and chemical workshop foreman, field supervisor, head lab technician, process house foreman, and plant maintenance supervisor.
The corporation, reviewing these job categories, volunteered the following increases:
* junior bookkeeper, junior sugar boiler and junior laboratory technicians, a total of 349 employees, an increase of 10 percent;
* senior sugar boiler and senior lab technician, 32 employees, an increase of 8.4 percent;
* workshop foreman, head laboratory technician, process house foreman and plant maintenance supervisor, 11 employees, an increase of between 10 and 12 percent and
* field supervisor, 65 employees, varying increases, from 5.1 to 10 percent.

Those anomalies
In summary, those anomalies affected a total of 457 employees which cost GuySuCo $2.74M.
With regard to the issue of an across-the-board offer after a one percent increase for all categories of workers represented by NAACIE for 2012, GuySuCo reported that it is paying 63 percent of its earnings in wages and salaries, which is considered unsustainable.
Prior to the offer of a one-per-cent increase, GuySuCo, in an earlier agreement, had awarded two percent for every year of service up to 10 years and an across-the-board payment of five percent in 2011. This contributed to the overall increase in workers’ earnings of between 30 to 38 per cent.

(By Vanessa Narine)