SILWFC 2015 Report to be laid in National Assembly

GUYANA, GINA, Thursday, March, 2, 2017

The 2015 Annual Report for the Sugar Industry Labour Welfare Fund Committee (SILWFC) is to be laid in the National Assembly. This was disclosed by Minister of State, Joseph Harmon today, at a weekly post-Cabinet media briefing.

Harmon said that the report was presented to Cabinet by Minister of Social Protection, Amna Ally at its Cabinet meeting on February 21, 2017. The report records the overall financial and administrative performance of the committee, as well as highlights issues that were faced by the committee before it was dissolved.

Harmon noted that the SILWFC was established by law in 1947 to provide for the improvement of social and public health conditions among workers in the sugar industry with special reference to housing, sanitation, potable water supply and recreational facilities.

The principal activities of the organisation are focused on the improvement of housing, roads and the social and public health conditions of sugar workers.

The organisation has also been significantly involved in house lot allocation, conveyance of titles, issuing interest free loans and giving water subsides to sugar workers who have met the qualifying requirements.

SILWFC signed a memorandum of agreement in December 2014, after  efforts by 14 employees to have their jobs evaluated by the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU). The memorandum encompassed the results of the job evaluation exercise and a salary increase for 2014, both accounting for an overall salary increase averaging 20 per cent to each employee.

GAWU and SILWFC also agreed to higher meals and shoe allowances and an enhanced end-of-year bonus to each employee.

SILWFC is a legal entity which provides sugar workers with interest-free house and house-repair loans within stipulated ceilings. It is also mandated to assist in the maintenance of proper internal roads and sanitation, in communities where sugar workers reside.

 

By: Gabreila Patram