Rahael assures VSEP payout

Contrary to their expectations, thousands of Caroni workers were angry yesterday when they did not receive their VSEP money. But Agriculture Minister John Rahael assured that Government would be paying out hundreds of millions in severance benefits to all 9,000 workers over the weekend. He was speaking at a post-Cabinet news conference at Whitehall. As operations closed at the 28-year-old company yesterday, Rahael said he anticipated no serious social fall-out. Government had done enough to provide an adequate social safety net for the workers, he said.

On the problems involving the Caroni pensions, Rahael said the matter was being resolved. He said Government got involved in the pension fund of the daily paid workers because it was underfunded (to the tune of $300 million) but the pension of the monthly paid workers was another issue. He said that while there would be no further operations at Caroni (1975) Ltd, the company would continue to exist until such time as all the administrative matters are completely tied up. Overseeing this process would be Board chairman Jerry Hospedales. Other members are Jagdanath Soong, Lloyd Walters, Joy Donaldson, Trevor Murray. Rahael said that while Government “had some numbers” in mind, he was not prepared to pre-empt the Board of the new company — the Sugar Manufacturing Company Limited (SMCL) — in deciding how many persons would be hired.

Rahael said the SMCL would be responsible for the purchasing of cane from private farmers, the testing, grinding, refining and marketing of the cane. Rahael assured that the Board of this company — which will be chaired by Prem Nandial — would act in a transparent matter in the hiring of persons. All the Board members —  Govine Maharaj (Deputy Chairman), Umar Khan, Anthony Radhay, Vernon Douglas, Ken Dalip, Owen Hinds Jr, Michael Harrilal, Paula Rajkumarsingh, Clive Scott, Nicole De Coteau and Nandial — would take up duties next week, Rahael said. The other new company — Rum Distillers Limited — would run the distillery. This board would include Anthony Phillip (Chairman), Juwan Singh, William Benjamin, Dawn Callender, Henry Rajkunanan and Deo Maharaj.

Manning, in response to a comment that the restructuring of Caroni (1975) Limited was a serious political blow to the UNC and  Panday, whose base was the All Trinidad and General Workers Trade Union, stressed  that the restructuring of the sugar industry had nothing to do with any political objective to strike at the base of the UNC support.  “Whatever effect it would have...we are quite capable as you can see of pursuing our politics otherwise. We have restructured Caroni Limited because the circumstances warrant it. And we are making every attempt to ensure that those who have been displaced by the move get as soft a landing as possible,” he said. He said considerable effort had gone into the programmes that had been put in place to ensure that people can be retrained and redeployed elsewhere in the public and private sector. He added that counselling services were being provided.

On Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj’s threat to take the issue of the Caroni pensions to court,  Manning said he saw it as another move by Maharaj to regain political supremacy. Expanding on the issue of the safety net, Rahael said Government had set up an enterpeneurial business office for former employees to get information on what agricultural lands were available and what crops were likely to yield financial gains. Rahael said $25 million was also set aside for training and retooling for those who did not want to continue in agriculture. Former Caroni workers would also get priority in receiving Government housing, the Minister stated. Rahael said many companies such as Peake’s was interested in getting lands at Caroni and within a short space of time, these lands would be leased to interested companies.