APPROXIMATELY 380 workers on the East Demerara Estate downed tools yesterday morning in protest of the dismissal of 15 cane harvesters who, over the weekend and on Monday, were summarily dismissed for inadequate application of fertilizer, intended for 10 week-old cane plants, at Felicity Fields 49, 49A, 52 and 53, and a section of the LBI cultivation, on July 24 and 25, 2014. 

Prior to the dismissal of these 15 workers, three junior staff and one senior were earlier dismissed on September 26, 2014, September 19, 2014, respectively, for allowing these workers to have fertilizer inadequately applied to the cane plants. These 15 workers have adequate experience in the application of fertilizer, since it is routine for them to be assigned to this task during the out-of-crop periods.
Management, in their routine inspection, discovered that many cane plants were devoid of fertilizer, and as a consequence, a thorough examination was done, only to find that there was massive skipping in the application of the fertilizer. Subsequently, the Corporation’s agriculture audit team was deployed to make an assessment of the extent of fertilizer not being applied to the cane plants. Not only was it confirmed that there was indeed massive skipping, but that the supervisory staff made full payment to the 15 workers for the poor quality of work done.
226 CWT of fertilizer was intended to be applied on the fields that comprised 20.3 Ha, of which it’s estimated that almost half of the amount was applied. The rest could not be accounted for.
The Corporation annually expends approximately $2Bln to import fertilizer, and finds it totally unacceptable that fertilizer that is intended to nurture the cane plants could not be applied to them in the stipulated amount. This development could be the contributing factor for the East Demerara Estate experiencing low cane yields and stunted cane growth. The Corporation will continue to exercise a zero tolerance for this type of work behaviour, and in this sense wishes to advise those workers who are on strike to have an immediate end to their protest action and allow either the process of the grievance and/or disciplinary procedures to have their course.
The East Demerara Estate is expected to commence its 1st crop this year mid next week and the strike by the factory workers could only jeopardize the startup of this crop.