…ministers tell Enmore workers
…Ramjattan says GuySuCo is a drag on economy

A TEAM of government ministers on Friday reassured sugar workers at the East Demerara estate that their severance package is sure and that the administration will do everything in its power to help them overcome the setbacks of their retrenchment and find new opportunities.

Since 2015, the government subsidies to the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) were estimated to be $32B and continued bailing out of the state-owned company would create a drag on all sectors and destroy Guyana’s economy. This is according to Minister of Public Security Khemraj Ramjattan during his remarks to the scores of workers who showed up at the East Demerara Estate at Enmore, East Coast Demerara.

Ramjattan led a ministerial delegation to the community which included Minister of Public Telecommunication Cathy Hughes, Minister of Citizenship, Winston Felix; Junior Minister of Natural Resources, Simona Broomes and Minister of Business, Dominic Gaskin. Outside of the estate compound, PPP protesters marched for a few minutes before quickly dispersing.

Thousands of sugar workers will benefit from a $2B payout as 50 per cent of their severance package will be paid out from Monday, while another 1600 will receive their full severance as government moves to right-size GuySuCo with the closure of Enmore, Wales, Rose Hall and Skeldon estates.

The Guyana Sugar Corporation intends to continue operations at Uitvlugt, Albion and Blairmont. An estimated 4, 000 workers were made redundant by GuySuCo on December 29, 2017. The National Assembly on January 19, 2018, approved $1.9 billion to pay the first tranche of severance.

Ramjattan in his address said hard decisions had to be made and government wants the impact to be minimal on sugar workers. Based on sugar substitutes and consumption patterns, Ramjattan said sugar use has drastically declined globally and Guyana should have taken note of the consequence even when the European Union’s subsidy and preferential treatment for sugar ended in 2003. “Since that time Guyana was being forewarned that the industry must become efficient; the EU from 2006 or thereabout to 2015 gave EU$70M to the Government of Guyana to restructure this industry — it went to balance of payments to Jagdeo and Donald Ramotar,” Ramjattan told the workers.

He said if GuySuCo had commenced its restructuring since then and met certain benchmarks, they would have gotten another EU$24M, but that was not the case. Ramjattan noted that when the APNU+AFC government took office in 2015, billions of dollars had to be found to save sugar workers because GuySuCo could not even find weekly wages for workers.

Reflecting that Guyana had about 22 sugar estates over the decades which now has boiled down to three, Ramjattan said workers must now be retrained in other skills in order to remain viable. He said when the estates in Trinidad closed down it took the government two years to pay all the severance, “and they had all the oil money, and we have not yet started benefitting from that, since GuySuCo’s bailout is placing a strain on all other sectors.”

Adding that the political opposition is spewing only hate and polarisation in the society, Ramjattan said this shows a selfish cause and not a nationalistic approach to developing Guyanese and the country in which they live. “We don’t want to cause a strain that will burst Guyana’s economy, it is important that we understand that, instead of facing a burst where all 17,000 workers will have to go home, we are right-sizing and in the process saving 9000 jobs,” Ramjattan said.

He noted it is difficult to pay a 100 per cent severance because the treasury cannot handle such a bailout, since over 3,000 cheques have already been written out and logged.
Meanwhile, Minister Hughes in her remarks said Guyana will always have some elements of the sugar industry, but the country has to move with the times to improve the profitability and efficiency of the cane industry. “We will always need sugar for our local consumption, we will always need sugar for the rum industry, everybody knows DDL makes the best rum in the world…we got to have sugar to get molasses, we are not going to throw that away, we also have to get sugar for our current markets,” Minister Hughes said.

Noting that focusing on the future is an important aspect of development, Minister Hughes said many good things are happening, but community leaders are not informing people of all those things that are happening. “Sometimes there are some people screaming and shouting and you don’t get to hear the good things that are happening. I am urging you to take the time to read what is in the newspapers, to inform yourself on your phone or while speaking with your family,” she said, while noting that on Monday all those with $500,000 and less in severance will be paid.

New markets
Minister Hughes explained that there are new, profitable markets in plantain, coconuts, flowers and all other agriculture that is in demand and as such workers can even lease GuySuCo’s lands and commence a new agriculture venture.

Broomes for her part told the gathering that she understands the plight and frustration faced by the sugar workers since in 2015 when she visited the Enmore Estate, there were innumerable complaints. “Men came to me in tears from the boiler section, they said the heat was so much and I have to go with a stick to fix it for it to work, and I asked what are you working in this department with, he said that clothes that he wears. This was the first time that I was told of human beings going before fire without wearing the proper safety clothes and gear,” Minister Broomes said.

No beggar
She explained that upon visiting the backlands the bridges were in a state of disrepair, while noting that most of the labour-related accidents that happen in Guyana occurred in the sugar industry. Minister Broomes related to the gathering that no sugar worker will become a beggar under the APNU+AFC government. She called on sugar workers not to be victims and pawns of the political opposition, since the facts, statistics and reality of the sugar industry were known but were never addressed under the previous administration.

Minister Felix said when APNU+AFC entered office it was known that the sugar industry had problems, but the reality was worse and immediately government had to find $18B in less than six months to plug a failing industry. “What we have found is that the cost of sugar on the world market is less than our cost of production,” Felix said. Noting that such a situation cannot be sustained, Felix said GuySuCo had to be consolidated to create an efficient industry to preserve some of the jobs instead of severing all jobs. “All of us have families in the sugar industry and it is painful to see a family without employment,” he said.

Shawn Persaud of the Special Purpose Unit (SPU) of the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited ( NICIL), told sugar workers that based on a White Paper, recommendations that were presented to Cabinet, it was suggested that Enmore and Rose Hall should be closed, while Skeldon Estates should be divested and Wales Estate was to be diversified.

Adding that UK auditing and financial services company, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), was selected to conduct a valuation of assets of GuySuCo, Persaud said this was done to ensure transparency while advertising for the sale of the Enmore, Rose Hall, Skeldon and Wales Estates. He said over 70 interested parties that include local and international firms have expressed interest. However, Persaud noted that SPU has taken over responsibility for the Enmore Estate and some workers would be retained based on the interest by an unnamed private investor.

“This is not going to happen overnight. We are trying and pushing for us to keep the estates as a going concern,” he said. Persaud added that authorities could not wait two years for the estates to be sold because there would be no cane and the factories would have to be dismantled. The SPU official assured that no cane lands would be sold, but would be leased by buyers of the sugar estates. It was noted that even privately owned Demerara Distillers Limited wants to invest in Enmore Estate for the production of molasses for its rum facility.