KINGSTON, Jamaica – Trade unions representing sugar workers at the Golden Grove sugar company in St Thomas have called their members to a workers’ meeting at the factory, this afternoon at 2:30.

According to assistant island supervisor for the Bustamante Industrial Trade Union (BITU), Hanif Brown, the three unions representing the workers – the BITU, University and Allied Workers Union (UAWU) and the National Workers Union (NWU) – are seeking a resolution to a dispute with the management over severance payments.

Over 550 weekly-paid employees of the company lost their jobs last month, when the company made their positions redundant. Seprod, which owns the company, says it is restructuring and cutting costs after accumulating losses of $2 billion, and facing a further dip in the price of sugar.

However, the unions are arguing that the initial severance payment made to the workers, on September 4, is one week less than they are owed, and are seeking payment by tomorrow (September 18) when the final payments are due.

The company has informed the unions that the workers claiming that they were short changed will not receive any additional payments.

OBSERVER ONLINE understands that the dispute is the result of the unions and the company using different formulas to calculate the payments.

Balford Henry