Minister of Labour, Dr Esther Byer-Suckoo, will meet soon with officials of the Arawak Cement Company Limited to see what can be done to stop employees of the St Lucy plant from being laid off.
The minister told the SUNDAY SUN on Friday that the discussions with the member company of the TCL Group would be held “early next week”.
She was commenting on Press reports that as many as 133 of the company’s estimated 250 employees could be laid off.
“We have heard of the challenges facing the company and the implications for continued employment and at this meeting we intend to look at all the possibilities for keeping workers employed,” she said.
Last week the company announced that it would have to close some sections of its plant for approximately 90 days, effective October, because of reduced business.
The quarry, crusher, raw mill and kiln circuits will be closed, but the cement mill, packing plant and jetty circuits will remain operational to meet the day-to-day demands of the local and export markets.
The statement quoted general manager Rupert Greene as saying: “We have seen major declines in the local (cement) market since 2008, with a 20-21 per cent decline in 2009 and a further 20 per cent decline this year.
“If we were to continue perate as we have for the past several months, it would paralyse the organisation in the long run.
“We are doing all we can to minimise the effect of this closure on our employees. As a result, the majority will take any accumulated vacation leave during the period.
We will also introduce reduced work weeks and temporary lay-offs. So for the most part, affected employees will still be paid during this time.”
The Minister of Labour said Government was worried about any development that constituted a threat to employment.
She admitted that the information on the cement plant’s problems and its outlook was limited and said the first step was for Government to get a detailed briefing from the company.
Chief executive officer of the TCL Group, Dr Rollin Bertrand, reported that among the factors affecting Arawak was the decision by some CARICOM markets to waive the Common External Tariff (CET) on extra-regional cement, a factor that would weaken the company’s competitive edge against cement imported from outside CARICOM.
Bertrand also spoke about the failure of the Venezuelan authorities to repay rebates of more than US$3.4 million to the company, despite continuous lobbying.
He also complained of trouble in making cement sales to European Union (EU) markets, even against the backdrop of the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) between CARICOM and the EU.
“ . . . We have been trying to get access to the EU markets,” he said.
“The French islands are a part of that market. This was to be facilitated by the EPA, but we have been back and forth for some time now.” (TY)