Headlines:
| Sugar workers to receive redundancy benefits |
|
|
| Tuesday, 16 June 2009 | |
 Thousands of former sugar workers are expected to start
converging on state-owned factories on Tuesday morning to begin collecting
their long-awaited redundancy benefits.
In keeping with an announcement last week by Agriculture Minister Dr. Christopher Tufton more than one billion dollars will be disbursed to workers who lost their jobs late last year. They were attached to sugar factories which are currently being divested by the Government. However, union officials say there are still outstanding issues regarding money due to several workers which have not been settled. While the redundancy benefits will be disbursed Tuesday, the unions say they are yet to hear word on outstanding amounts due following the miscalculation of notice pay in December. Vice President of the University and Allied Workers Union (UAWU), Clifton Grant, says a meeting held last week failed to settle the matter. "A number of the workers have been paid their notice and the average they come out with is below the national minimum wage and that is wrong, you can't pay workers below the national minimum wage, "As it relates to the calculation as to how they determine the years of service is a concern of the union and we had meetings with the management up to last Tuesday and we were hoping that by this time we would be able to resolve all the outstanding issues," Mr. Grant said. In December the Government paid $800 million in notice pay to the former workers. |