55 employees from Albion Estate to benefit from retroactive payment

Fifty-five (55) employees from Albion Estate Central Workshop will soon benefit from retroactive payment now the Guyana Sugar Corporation Inc. (GuySuCo) and Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) have reached an agreement.

The revised agreement was signed on Thursday October 1, 2020. “The signing of this new agreement has effectively amended clause 6 of the CLA with reference to the Albion Estate Central Workshop and as a result, 55 employees will benefit from retroactive payment,” GuySuCo said in a statement.

Under the 2004 Comprehensive Collective Labour Agreement (CLA), employees of the Central Workshop at the Albion Estate were offered a flat rate on Saturdays, in lieu of when a holiday falls within the week due to the fact that many of the workers worked five days per week and are usually off on holidays.

However, with the advent of the ‘National Minimum Wage Order,’ the work week was fixed at 40 hours per week (five days) but the Collective Labour Agreement between the Corporation and GAWU, stated that the employees’ work week is from Mondays to Fridays. As such, Saturday’s earnings was treated as a premium day, if they worked all the days required through Mondays to Fridays.

“Following this positive engagement between GuySuCo and GAWU, a meeting was also held to explore enhancing the partnership between the two parties, in an effort to improve the production and the productivity of the Corporation. Both, management of the Corporation and the Union have agreed that it is in the best interest of all parties to ensure that the estate’s target for the Second Crop is achieved, so that market commitments can be met fully,” GuySuCo said.

Seepaul Narine, General Secretary of GAWU and the Union’s representatives have committed to intensify their drive to increase production and productivity, so that the economy in the local communities can be boosted. Also, attending the meeting, was the management from Albion Estate, Local Union representatives from Cane Harvesting and Factory on the estate and the Corporation’s Industrial Relations Team.