–GuySuCo reports measured success attracting former Wales harvesters to Uitvlugt

THE Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) has succeeded in convincing some 51 cane harvesters from the now defunct Wales Estate to take up similar positions at Uitvlugt.
This was told the media recently by GuySuCo’s Chief Industrial Relations Manager, Mr Deodat Sukhoo, who said that initially, many of the 300-odd former Wales workers had been skeptical about going to Uitvlugt because of the poor working conditions there in the past.
“When we concluded discussion at Wales late last year, we had identified all the harvesters and the support hands for the cane harvesters to be offered opportunity to work at Uitvlugt,” Sookhoo said.
“To date, 51 persons have turned out to work at this area, and we have in train a consultation plan to go within the community; an outreach programme to encourage those additional persons to turn out to work,” he told the media.
As part of GuySuCo’s divestment and diversification process, Uitvlugt is one of three sugar estates that have been selected to remain in production.
And according to Yudhisthira Mana, Manager of the Uitvlugt Estate, plans are in train to implement a $1.5B improvement programme there in the hope of upping sugar production to some 40,000 tonnes by 2020.
Under the said programme, Mana explained, close to half of the over 6,000 hectares of land owned by the estate will be leased to private cane farmers in an effort to boost sugar cane production and supply to the factory.
Mana said the estate’s Agriculture Department has need for some 406 cane harvesters, a void they hope harvesters from Wales Estate can fill. He said that without them, Uitvlugt will never be able to meet its target.
As to the concerns of some harvesters from Wales about the poor working conditions at Uitvlugt, Sukhoo said he’s hoping that the proposed improvement plan will do the trick, because, as it is, most of them are without a jobs right now.
And besides dispelling the fear among some about overstaffing, if over 300 employees from Wales are placed at Uitvlugt, Sukhoo also gave his word that GuySuCo will be providing transportation for all field hands throughout the country, including those from Wales.
He went on to explain that during the course of consultations on the transition from Wales to Uitvlugt, stakeholders had considered one of two options.
Said he: “We had two options: to transfer them completely from Wales as Uitvlugt employees, or to sustain them as Wales employees and provide the same conditions that they had at Wales. But we’ve decided that we’re gonna continue transporting them from Wales as Wales employees to Uitvlugt.”
Another decision that was taken was that the Wales workers will be paid to work at Uitvlugt, and given the same benefits they had received at Wales Estate.
Communications Officer, Ms Audreyanna Thomas ,said GuySuCo will do all it can to ensure the Uitvlugt Improvement plan works, and has started work on filling the human resources vacancies within the Agriculture Department.
“In the Agriculture Department,” Thomas said, “there are 406 vacancies, and we’ve already started to advertise for those vacancies to be filled.
“The Uitvlugt Estate programme will be a success, and in order for that to happen, GuySuCo, as a corporation, will explore all of the options available to it in order to have the vacancies filled and to ensure that Uitvlugt Estate Improvement Programme is a success.”
She said while it awaits the hundreds of new staff, the estate is working on maximizing sugar cane production to its fullest.
“The priority now is to maximise the entire acreage that’s available to Uitvlugt Estate. So hence the areas that have not been cultivated before, the priority is now to sort of improve those areas so that the estate can perform at its fullest capacity,” Thomas told the press.