The Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) actively supported a picketing exercise by retired employees of the Guyana Sugar Corporation Inc (GuySuCo) outside of the LBI Community Centre today (April 27, 2018). The pensioners are extremely dismayed by attempts by the state-owned sugar company to demand that their pensions be sent to the commercial banks for payments. Currently, the pensioners would uplift their pensions weekly, and in some cases monthly, from a number of centres close to where they reside. This arrangement has been in place for decades now.
The pensioners are strongly contending that the arbitrary change in the payment mechanism places additional burdens on them. For instance, they would be required to travel to the nearest bank to collect their pension sums which for some of them is a very meagre amount to begin with. For those pensioners who do not have bank accounts, we need not explain the travails one has to go through now-a-days to open an account. Some pensioners have shared with us they lack certain essential pre-requisites like TIN certificates, which we should not forget one has to pay for to obtain; or they may reside with their children and, therefore, would not have a proof of address. Some even have the real difficulty of having sufficient sums to satisfy the minimum balance to open a bank account. This new arrangement is being imposed in circumstances of rising crime where the aged and pensioners are also vulnerable, a factor to consider and not to be easily dismissed.
It is indeed saddening that GuySuCo has chosen to overlook these realities that the pensioners, some in their 70’s, and 80’s face and encounter. The treatment of these former sugar workers whose energies and dedication helped to build the sugar industry and contributed to nation building is disheartening and disturbing to say the least. It is generally accepted that we treat persons at this stage of their life with respect and dignity and we need to be cognizant of the difficulties they face on several fronts. We urge GuySuCo, as an established state entity in our society, that it seeks to alleviate and not aggravate the challenges of its former workers on whose contributions we gratefully stand.
