- urges managers to build cohesive relationships with workers
During a recent meeting with several senior managers from the Albion, Rose Hall and Skeldon Estates, Agriculture Minister, Zulfikar Mustapha once again affirmed Government’s position to restructure the management style of the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo).
Minister Mustapha told those in attendance that the ‘top heavy’ attitudes of managers when dealing with lower level staff must be corrected.
“Over the years, some managers from several estates have developed an attitude that is not conducive to a proper functioning establishment and, as a result, workers have been complaining bitterly about the way the estates are functioning. Since taking office, several workers from a number of estates have been coming to my weekly open days to complain about the attitudes of some of you. One worker even informed me of an incident where they told a manager that there were damages to a structure and that repairs should be done and the manager said to wait until its broken. Those types of attitudes and behaviours will not be tolerated,” Minister Mustapha said.
Minister Mustapha went on to say that, if managers do not change their attitudes, GuySuCo will be left with no other alternative but to “part company” with them.
Chief Executive Officer of the Corporation, Sasenarine Singh said that the corporation also plans to conduct a review of management at the end of the second crop.
“We will be conducting a review to assess your management styles and skills at the end of the crop. We understand that some of you genuinely had challenges that affected the way you operated due to lack of funding in the past. Government has since injected large sums of money into GuySuCo in order to get the estates to a place where they can function and function effectively. You have no excuse now. Change your attitudes or be prepared to say goodbye to GuySuCo,” Mr. Singh said.
Minister Mustapha also took the time to listen to some of the issues and needs of the managers in order to ensure the estates function effectively.
Apart from much needed repairs to a number of factory and field machinery, the managers sighted the need for improvements in crop husbandry, better industrial relations and timely inputs of fertilizer to improve the quality of the canes and ultimately lower the factories’ TCTS (tons cane tons sugar).
Minister Mustapha assured the managers that, with the funding Government is investing in the Corporation, a lot of those issues would be resolved.
“Issues like mechanical downtime due to the lack of key spare parts, fertilizers for canes, infrastructure and other basic factory maintenance issues will be addressed. With the immediate allocations, a number of these issues have already been addressed and over time, we will work to ensure most, if not all the issues are corrected,” Minister Mustapha said.
