The Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) nor the private contractor it hired to oversee the operations of its Demerara Gold Packaging Plant at Blairmont are accepting responsibility for increasing the salaries of workers at the facility.
About 16 workers attached to the packaging plant, all women, have been on strike since Sunday, demanding a wage increase, saying they are being paid at a rate below the national minimum wage.
The workers also alleged that deductions are being made from their salaries for the National Insurance Scheme (NIS), however, no monies are being remitted to the Scheme.
GuySuCo says those workers are not their employees. The workers, according to GuySuCo, are under the employ of a private contractor – which it had hired to oversee the operations of the packaging facility.
The workers are paid at a rate of $330 per hour. The minimum wages order stipulates $347 per hour or $2,776 per day. Those workers are receiving $2,640 per day.
Chief Executive Officer of GuySuCo Paul Cheong told this publication that the welfare of those employees has to be dealt with by the contractor, Rion Peters.
However, Rion Peters said the wage rate was set by GuySuCo. Nevertheless, he committed to addressing the issue with the workers’ NIS. This, he said, should be resolved by Thursday.
Meanwhile, the workers say they will not be returning to work unit the issue of their wage increase is addressed.
In their absence, workers as well as retirees from the Blairmont Estate have been running the packaging plant.
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