Guyana sugar workers get jobs back

The Guyana Sugar Corporation (Guysuco) intends to re-hire more than 400 dismissed workers by December as it prepares to re-open several sugar estates. The sugar industry is huge in Guyana but has been in decline in recent years, exacerbated by the global pandemic.

Acting Chief Executive Office, Sasenarine Singh said some of the workers who were laid off in 2017 have already been rehired and that former sugar workers will be given priority consideration going forward.

He said the work plan is to have 442 people re-hired by Christmas. They have already hired about 200 of those already but as the work expands, they will continue to hire.

Singh said that taking this into consideration, the plan for reopening will employ a holistic approach the company looks to modernise and re-employ workers.

The former David Granger government closed down the factories because “sugar cannot be sold on the world market at the cost that it is being produced”.

Last month Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha said the government intends to open three sugar estates closed by the former Granger administration, but is waiting a report on a survey being done by the ministry.