President of the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union, (GAWU) Seepaul Narine has confirmed to News Source that the week-long protest which gripped the sugar-belt in Berbice is being called off following an agreement to not transfer workers from the Albion and Blairmont estates back to the Rose Hall estate.

The sugar workers who were protesting, were initially employed at the Rose Hall estate. However, when that estate was shut down in 2017, many of them were transferred to the Albion and Blairmont estates, while others opted for a severance payout.

With the re-opening of the Rose Hall estate, the workers said plans were being made to transfer them back to Rose Hall.

They were demanding that they be paid severance package before any new transfer.

The Union President said no transfer will take place.

“As it is right now, there has been an agreement not to transfer back the workers to the Rose Hall estate, so I expect that the strike will not be called off because there is now no issue. The workers were concerned that they were being sent back to Rose Hall (estate) and that they need severance. So now, there is no dispute between the workers and Guysuco, so I expect that the strike will be called off,” Mr. Narine.

Mr. Narine, who is currently seeking re-election as President of GAWU at its ongoing congress, also told News Source that the demand of the workers for severance will now be scrapped.

“Although they were talks about severance, severance was never on the table. As you know the Act states that for severance to be paid, workers must be terminated and those workers were not terminated. So it is not a case where they were entitled to something and was being denied of it,” Mr. Narine said.

He said GAWU and Guysuco have met and have decided on the way forward.

The week long protest in Berbice has set back the already poor production of Guysuco.

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