THE Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) has turned to the highest judicial body in the Region, the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), to stop the Government of Guyana from closing sugar estates in a few days.

GAWU resorted to the CCJ after the local Supreme Court adjourned an appeal filed by the union and the National Association of Agricultural, Commercial and Industrial Employees (NAACIE) against a ruling of Chief Justice (ag), Roxanne George-Wiltshire, to deny its application to stop the decision to close the Rose Hall and East Demerara Estates.

“Ours lawyers, one in Guyana and one in Trinidad, hurriedly approached the CCJ in Trinidad…I cannot confirm this, we are reliably informed that the CCJ will immediately organise a panel of judges to hear the arguments of NAACIE and GAWU through our lawyers why this must be granted,” said President of GAWU, Komal Chand, during the union’s end-of-year press conference on Friday.

Although the matter came up before the local Court of Appeal on December 21, 2017, it was adjourned to January 15, 2018, which means that the year would end and the estates would be closed. He explained that, with that in mind, their lawyers decided to approach the CCJ in order to find an alternative way of addressing the matter before the year ends.
“If the closure takes place and the matter is heard afterwards, then it might not be a fruitful exercise,” Chand said. The Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) is expected to lay off over 4000 workers by the end of the year as part of the restructuring of the sugar industry.

In addition, the Wales, Skeldon, Enmore and Rose Hall sugar estates are expected to be closed by the end of the year. Minister of State Joseph Harmon had said at a cabinet press briefing in November, that the scheduled year-end closure of the Rose Hall and Enmore estates would be delayed until 2018, since no system had been put in place for the sugar workers following the closure. Harmon said his administration is committed to ensuring that the best interest of the sugar workers is taken into consideration before decisions are made regarding the sector.

The National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL), Special Purpose Unit (SPU) processes, which involve valuation, surveys, inventorying and other assessments of the sugar industry are still to be completed, the state minister disclosed.