Pay the sugar workers their severance immediately – Jagdeo

December 21, 2017 Politics, http://citizensreportgy.com/?p=52096

In regards to the closure of sugar estates across the country by the Government, the Leader of the Opposition, Mr. Bharrat Jagdeo at a press conference, today, highlighted the fact that several thousands of workers have already received their letter of termination. The Opposition Leader again underscored that the decision to close sugar estates is purely political and that the decision was made long before the Government made any attempts to solve the technical issues of the industry. 

Mr. Jagdeo stated, “Now recently we have heard about the Government being sympathetic to the sugar workers once again. So my point is that they love the sugar workers so much now that they had to send them home for their own good.” According to the Opposition Leader this is the new narrative of the Government while they are taking away bread from the workers and their families.

Notably, Mr. Jagdeo addressed the comments by the Prime Minister. He noted that the sentiments expressed by the Prime Minister have been debunked so many times it would be a waste of time to do it all over again. He was speaking specifically about the issue of GuySuCo being saddled with massive debt. However, Mr. Jagdeo again cleared the air that a significant part of those liabilities can be written off by Government and that the short-term debt is manageable.

The Opposition Leader stated that those workers do not know what will happen next year in light of the irreversible decision taken by the Government. “We are demanding that they pay the workers their severance immediately, urgently,” Mr. Jagdeo argued. He reminded that this is the law and expressed concerns that the calculations be accurate. He also pointed out that during his visit to Region 6, last week, many sugar workers complained that they were dissatisfied with the calculation of their severance.

The Leader of the Opposition also explained that he will also be meeting, again, with sugar workers in Wales and Enmore in the year 2018 to discuss the way forward.