BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – JUST six weeks into governance and the tri-party alliance Team Unity has fulfilled two of its pre-election promises of economic relief to nationals, citizens and residents of St. Kitts and Nevis, with the first being the removal of Value Added Tax (VAT) from all food, medicine and funeral expenses.
Yesterday (Mar. 30) however, the Government’s public announcement can be equated to the one made on VAT as many former sugar workers, as far as Guyana in the South and Jamaica in the North, are expressing joy and relief on receipt of news that the EC$16M shortfall of their 2005 compensation package would be paid shortly.
The EC$16M was acquired by the Team Unity Government from the Government of Venezuela under the Petro Caribe and ALBA initiatives.
On receipt of the cheque from Petro Caribe’s President Bernardo Alverez Herrera, Prime Minister Dr. the Hon. Timothy Harris informed the media what his Administration intends to pursue over the coming months in collaboration with the Venezuelan Government.
“In 2014, St. Kitts, like Grenada, formally committed to the ALBA arrangement which is a higher order of cooperation and broader levels. We will over the course of the months be pursuing with the Government of Venezuela a number of projects that we think will form part of the expectations of support under these particular programmes. For now, we have readily accepted to provide for us $16M to cover what we have described as the shortfall in the compensation package to the former sugar workers.”
After some 365 years, the sugar industry in St. Kitts was closed o July 30, 2005 due to huge losses and threats to the market by the European Union to cut sugar prices.
In speaking with this publication, a number of former sugar workers, most on the condition of anonymity, had voiced their opinion on the EC$16M that will be available to them as part of their compensation package.
“I feel very good to hear that we will be getting what we are entitled to after waiting since 2005. I can remember that we were told by the Labour Government that $44 million was to be given to us, but we only received $28 million. I would therefore like to know where the other $16 million is,” one former sugar worker said.
Another former sugar worker reminded that “during the 2004 election campaign, Dr. Douglas said that the sugar industry will be closed over his dead body and that he ain’t so heartless to close it. But lo and behold, we got the shock of our lives in 2005. Now, seeing that the payout was $28 million and $14 million remained, don’t you think that we the former sugar workers should get more than $16 million? I ask that question and believe that we are entitled to more than that because, if the $16 million was in the bank at an interest of three percent for 10 years, then the amount to be paid out should be $20,800.000.00”.
One caller from Guyana, who only gave his name as Paddy, claimed that he and many other Guyanese had never received any money since the industry was closed.
“I felt elated on reading on your website that the Government had secured money to pay ex-sugar workers. Since 2005 when the industry was closed, we were promised that we will receive compensation. But up to now that promise has not been fulfilled. We had even hired a lawyer in Guyana to look after our interest, but that had also failed. Now, as I said before, I am elated on hearing such news and regardless of how small the amount is we will yet be thankful after all these years.”
A press release from the Communications Unit of the Office of the Prime Minister, dated 27th July 2005, stated that on Friday, July 29 of that year the National Assembly would have sat to “debate a Resolution to officially close the Federation’s 300-year-old Sugar Industry”.
“The Resolution to be tabled by St. Kitts and Nevis Minister of Agriculture, the Hon. Cedric Liburd calls for the lifting of the ceiling or cap on bus and taxi operations to allow those in the former sugar workers, who are drivers to be absorbed into the taxi or bus industry,” it stated.
The release also stated: “It will call on the Banks and other financial institutions be encouraged to create special packages for sugar workers with an interest in farming, fishing, and small business and that duty-free concessions be given on the importation of farming tools, equipment, and materials for former sugar workers who take up occupation in the areas of farming and small business related to farming.
“The Resolution will also call for relief to be granted from corporation tax and traders tax for a period of five years for small businesses established by former sugar workers.”
The release further stated that “the Resolution will also declare that the artifacts of the Sugar Industry become part of the protected heritage of St. Christopher and Nevis and it shall be an offence to remover without a licence from the Minister, any of these artifacts or to otherwise alienate them from their use as part of the national heritage”.
On Friday, May 4, 2007, then People’s Action Movement’s candidate for Constituency Two, Roy Fleming issued a speech on the closure of the Sugar Manufacturing Corporation (SSMC).
An excerpt of that speech is as follow: “During the campaign leading up to the 2004 General Election, the political leader of The People's Action Movement, Mr. Lindsay Grant made a decisive statement to close the Sugar Industry should his party be elected to government, so as to prevent the annual SSMC debt of 35 million dollars, being added to our already high, two billion dollar National Debt. As a compensatory Package, ex-sugar workers would have receive additionally, three to five acres of land. Mr. Grant was accused of being a crazy man and wanting to put sugar workers out of work. At a public meeting the Prime Minister said that the Sugar Industry would close over his dead body. The Labour Government closed the Industry only months after the 2004 Elections were over and as a result some 1,470 workers were made redundant.
“On the issue of Severance pay, the government initially stated that all SSMC workers would be paid according to the Labour laws of our country specifically the 1986 Protection of Employment Act. It was not until The People's Action Movement candidate for Constituency #8, Mr. Eugene Hamilton, uncovered a redundancy payment plan which was agreed to in 1961, did the government disclosed that there was indeed such a plan. This 1961 agreement provided for a superior severance package than what the Law provided for. The Prime Minister eventually stated that his St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Party Administration has accepted the 1961 Agreement, which calls for long service workers in the field and factory, to be paid severance of 104 weeks instead of the 52 weeks stipulated by the 1986 Protection of Employment Act. This was the government s first attempt at trying to withhold monies which were due to ex-sugar workers.
“Based on the 1961 Agreement sugar workers who would have been severed when the Industry closed were to share a total payout of some EC$44 million. The Prime Minister disclosed that a line of credit of approximately EC$40 million was obtained for the St. Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla National Bank. Ex-SSMC workers were to be paid in three installments beginning in September of 2005. During this month, some EC $18.5 million was paid. The second payment of EC$4.5 million was paid in December 2005 and the third payment of EC$4.9 million was paid in March of 2006. These payments amounted to approximately EC$28 million some$16 million short of the $44 million which was owed to the SSMC workers as per the 1961 agreement. Many sugar workers have complained that they were cheated out of their own monies and contend that they are still owed by the Labour Party government. Many are looking to the People's Action Movement for redress which can only occur with the change of government come the next General Elections."
Today (Mar. 31), on Freedom FM’ ‘Issues’ programme, host Clement ‘Junie’ Liburd noted that the EC$16M given to the Government is a loan from the Venezuelan Government which has to be repaid.
He also stated that former Prime Minister Dr. Douglas said there was EC$650 million in the Treasury and alleged that the Sugar Industry Diversification Foundation has EC$700 million.
Liburd therefore asked why it is that the Team Unity Government had to borrow from the Venezuelan Government when so much money is available to it, and declared that is one of the questions the Government has to answer at its scheduled conference later this week.
At the handing over ceremony yesterday, Prime Minister Harris declared that a special conference would be held at 10:00 a.m. on Thursday (Apr. 2) to “provide greater details to the press regarding how we will be pursuing this and other initiatives”.
