Dear Editor
WORKERS/CITIZENS have to hold the politicians accountable for lying to them, taking them for granted, and treating their business with contempt. Bharrat Jagdeo’s statement that should the PPP/C win office in 2020, laid-off sugar workers will be paid a stipend, must be questioned. When the workers of Diamond Estate were laid off during his presidency, they did not receive one cent in stipend.

In fact, for the laid-off Diamond workers to receive their redundancy benefit, they had to go to the court. It was only after this matter was before the court that the Jagdeo government sat with the sugar unions and settled the issue of redundancy pay.

If redundancy benefits, which are supposed to be paid under the Termination of Employment and Severance Pay Act, the Jagdeo government initially refused to respect, how in heavens a Jagdeo/PPP government of 2020 will ever pay a stipend when no law prescribes such.
In all the talks about the state of the industry, its future and that of the workers, Jagdeo has failed to come up with a plan and put it in the public domain that would cause the APNU+AFC government, sugar workers, their unions, other stakeholders and society to examine. Instead, sugar workers are being told pie-in-the-sky stories not to improve their lot, but Jagdeo/PPP’s chances at the next elections.

Sugar workers must demand from Jagdeo a plan to resuscitate the industry, making it viable, in order that their jobs can be protected. It is time the trade union and society hold him accountable for his statements on the industry and promises being made to sugar workers. Equally, the APNU+AFC government must be held accountable for their actions in the industry, whether or not they are feasible. The focus on this industry must not only be driven by profit and loss, but the socio-economic welfare of the workers and their communities must be given equal consideration.

Regards
Lincoln Lewis