WORKERS of the Blairmont Sugar Estate, who, last week, took strike action over working conditions, have all returned to duty.

This was confirmed by Public Relations Officer of the Guyana Sugar Corporation, Audreyanna Thomas in an invited comment on Monday.

It was reported that workers had downed tools over a price dispute and “unfair” working conditions. “Both issues have been resolved and the workers returned to work,” said Thomas, adding that the management of the estate had a discussion with the workers who subsequently returned to work.

GuySuCo had also expressed its concern over the report carried by the Little Rock Television Station (LRTVS) Newswatch on the 26 March, 2019 with regards to workers being forced to work in burning cane fields. The Corporation stated that, at no time, was any instruction given to place workers in danger by asking them to work in a burning canefield. “The video that has been shown by the LRTVS Newswatch feature clearly shows only one worker working in the field while another was presumably videoing,” said GuySuCo.

Based on investigations carried out, the Corporation is of the view that it was an act of mischief by a few workers who are determined to cause discord at Blairmont Estate.
On 26 March, the estate management was aware of the decision to burn canes early that morning as was stated in the interview on Newswatch. However, such was at the request of the majority of the 36 workers who did not have sufficient burnt canes to cut and stack on that day.

The workers had chosen to wait while a field was burnt for them to cut, and they were paid for four (4) hours of waiting time, which was also admitted by the anonymous worker on the Newswatch feature.

The worker did not share with Newswatch that, when the majority of the workers entered the field after four hours, there was no fire in that field. “The Corporation would like to take this opportunity to encourage media agencies to seek clarification from its Communications Department before publication, on information about its business operations, in the interest of balanced reporting and for accuracy,” said the corporation. Blairmont Estate has 154 vacancies for the following: 136 Cane Harvesters, 10 Tractor Operators (Tillage), 4 Excavator Operators, 1 Diesel Mechanic, 2 Front-end Operators and 1 Staff Nurse.