Vice President Jagdeo held meeting with GAWU, GuySuCo

Vice President, Hon. Bharrat Jagdeo, today (April 23, 2021) engaged the General Council of the Guyana Agricultural Workers Union (GAWU), the Chairman of Board of Directors of GuySuCo, Pravinchandra Dave, and GuySuCo’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Sasenarine Singh.

The meeting addressed the way forward for the sector and ensuring that the interests of all stakeholders are served.

GAWU’s concerns about increases to workers for 2019 were settled. A six-month increase for workers, totalling $200M, was approved for 2019 and is expected to be paid soon. With increases having been paid to workers for 2020, negotiations for 2021 will be addressed at a later date.

At the meeting it was disclosed that GuySuCo’s management has been working with its new Board of Directors on a turnaround plan for the industry.

Further, Vice President Jagdeo assured of government’s support for the sugar industry, given its role in the local economy and other social considerations. “We are working daily to change the trajectory of the sugar sector,” he said. According to him, work is also continuing on returning assets to GuySuCo that were disposed of in a less than transparent manner by the former administration and not done in the best interest of the company and workers.

All parties committed to continued engagement.