… says if severance is not fully paid, court action will follow
Hours after Opposition Leader, Dr Bharrat Jagdeo, put the Coalition Government on blast for their “illegal” actions, relative to withholding full severance payments to sugar workers terminated by the state-owned Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo), the government moved to the National Assembly and received approval for $1.93B – initially $1.75B – to pay some, not all, sugar workers the full sums of monies owed.
Finance Minister, Winston Jordan, today, told the National Assembly that the $1.93B will ensure that those workers whose severance packages are below $500,000 receive full payments. The remaining workers will have to wait until the second half of this year as originally announced to receive their full payments.
The Coalition Government, in the meantime, remains under fire over its plan to pay severance to over 4,763 sugar workers who have been terminated in two tranches.
The Termination of Employment and Severance Pay Act states that: “On termination of his employment, an employee who completed one year or more of continuous employment with an employer shall be entitled to be paid by such employer a severance or redundancy allowance….”
The terminated sugar workers were dismissed on December 29, 2017, without severance being paid “on termination” as required by the law.
At a news conference held at his Church Street office earlier today, the Opposition Leader stressed that, by law, severance payments must be made in full to the 4,000+ sugar workers who have been terminated by GuySuCo. He stated that the government has “gone into overdrive” with their public relations campaign to divert attention from its “total incompetence” in dealing with the issue of severance payments to sugar workers.
He said, “Severance is obligatory and not determined by the benevolence of the government…it is law…there is an Act that all employers must respect…that Act says once people are severed, once they qualify, and the sugar workers qualify, then severance must be paid.”
According to him, the government knew that over 4,000 severance letters were issued, even before the Budget 2018 was passed, and made no provision for severance, hence the move to approach the National Assembly today for additional funds.
Jagdeo stated that the Coalition government has also exposed the callousness with which it treats sugar workers, particularly since only 50 per cent of severance will be paid by the end of January and the sugar workers do not know when the next installment of their severance will be handed over.
“This is one way of control….this is one way to make the sugar workers beg. So the Unions must crawl to Granger and beg him for something they have to get according to law. The whole idea is control, humiliating the sugar workers. Now they have to beg and fight in court for their severance, which they have a right to….clearly this must be challenged. The union has challenged it. The sugar workers have spoken out against it. Even organisations that are not sympathetic to the PPP have spoken out about this,” Jagdeo said.
LEGAL ACTION
The Opposition Leader committed to ensuring that the legal bills of all sugar workers will be covered by the People’s Progressive Party/ Civic (PPP) – noting that lawyers with the Party offer their services pro-bono, but the Party may have to engage additional legal professionals.
He said, “It (the non-payment of severance) is illegal. This government treats the issue of severance as if, somehow, it is dependent on their goodwill.”
The Coalition government, he charged, can avoid court action if it moves to ensure that sugar workers are fully paid their severance and treat the workers with respect – having already disrespected them by not having consultations before the terminations and not offering alternatives for employment. If severance is not fully paid, court action, he added, will follow the payment of the first tranche of severance payments in an effort to avoid giving the Coalition government an excuse for not paying any monies at all.
According to the Opposition Leader, he expects a positive ruling from the judiciary once the matter is taken to court. “I don’t see how any judge could rule otherwise….if GuySuCo says it has no monies, then we will move to get a judgment that can be enforced against the assets of GuySuCo to ensure that the workers are fully paid,” he said.
Moving forward, Jagdeo said, “we will continue to battle for the sugar workers.” He added that since the Opposition’s call for no closure of sugar estates has been ignored, the political Opposition will be working to ensure that there are “decent private investments” moving forward – all in the interest of creating jobs for sugar workers. He stressed too that once the PPP/C resumes office any “underhand” dealings will not be legitimized, but dealt with accordingly.
