The Ministry of Agriculture said it is surprised by the protest action taken by some Wales sugar workers on Monday demanding severance pay instead of working at the Uivlugt Estate.The protest action took place outside of the Ministry of the Presidency.

Over 40 workers with placards stood outside the Vlissengen Road entrance of the Ministry and chanted, “We need we severance and no work at Uitvlugt Estate.”
Some of the placards read: “Sugar Production at Wales ended – Our jobs are redundant;” “Severance Pay, legal Right;” “No to coercion and bullyism by GuySuCo;” “Wales is close, we deserve our pay.”

The workers believe that the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) is “forcing” them to transfer their service to Uitvlugt Estate on the West Coast of Demerara, some 22 miles from their hometown. They do not want to travel the distance and are demanding that they be paid severance, in keeping with the relevant laws.

Following GuySuCo’s meeting with the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) recently, the sugar company disclosed that there is a demand for labour at the Uitvlugt Estate. According to the workers, they were subsequently informed that the Union had agreed for employees to be transferred to Uitvlugt, but GAWU denied that it ever made any such agreement.

But the sugar corporation maintains that the Uitvlugt Estate is being upgraded to increase its production from 20,000 to 40,000 tonnes of sugar annually and it is for this reason there is a demand for labour.

One of the employees who worked at the Wales Estate for over 25 years, Jordon Thomas, said the closure of the estate occurred since December last and GuySuCo is bullying workers to work at Uitvlugt. “We will protest until something is done, we are asking for what is right and what belongs to workers,” Thomas said. In a recent press statement GuySuCo expressed its frustration over the moves undertaken by the union and described it as “anti-business, anti-management, anti-discipline and anti-GuySuCo tactics”.

Meanwhile, in a statement Monday evening the Ministry of Agriculture made it clear that GuySuCo has advised that all workers who had been declared redundant had accepted severance following the merging of the Wales and Uitvlugt operations and have been paid their severance in full.

No severance pay outstanding

According to the ministry this new and sudden demand for severance is most unreasonable and appears to be politically-instigated. “Extensive efforts were made to ensure continued employment of the Wales workers at Uitvlugt and this was successfully achieved. Further, transportation is being fully provided to Uitvlugt from the West Bank of Demerara and back. GuySuCo has stated that no worker is responsible for providing their own transportation.”

According to the statement as a pertinent example, workers who have been previously assigned to work at the Skeldon Estate are now working at Albion, a much farther distance to travel, and have been doing so without any issue. “This purported issue of not wanting to work at Uitvlugt is disingenuous. The issue previously was being unemployed following the merger of the Wales and Uitvlugt factory operations. GuySuCo made every effort to ensure that the effect would be minimised only to now have a complete turnaround by some of the workers, who are being politically instigated to campaign for their employment to be terminated and for severance to be paid.”

“The Ministry of Agriculture wishes to reiterate that GuySuCo has advised that ALL the workers whose jobs had become redundant had been paid their severance in full. The Ministry of Agriculture calls on the union leaders and their political handlers to act responsibly and not to instigate and misguide workers into manufacturing unrealistic and unreasonable demands. There is no option for workers who were offered alternative employment to now make demands for severance when no such offer is on the table and there is full and secure employment for them at Uitvlugt,”the statement ended.