Crisis in Sugar Industry: Unions and MSPA Remain Entrenched in Their Positions

The dispute between the Joint Negotiating Panel (JNP), including the four major unions in the sugar industry, the MSPA is entering its decisive phase this week. Indeed, the statutory period of one month for the Conciliation and Mediation (CCM) is trying to find common ground between employees and employers sugar expires this Wednesday, June 11 With the refusal of the MSPA to participate in negotiations on behalf of its members, the outcome seems to be known in advance.

The association of some 22 sugar companies had from the outset, informed the Committee that it had no mandate to represent all the sugar industry and that negotiations should now be done at each sugar company. As for the trade unionists, they reject this position by stating that this is an illegal "Procedural Agreement" which is in effect for several decades.

Thus, according to the provisions of Employement Relations Act 2008, the President of the CCM, Prof. Ved Prakash Torul, will submit its report a week after the deadline, on July 18. From there, the JNP may be to use the Employment Relations Tribunal or directly trigger the procedures for a general strike in the sugar industry.

Seem to favor an option that employees of the sugar companies. Several hundred employees in this sector special general meeting on June 10 had passed a resolution for a strike from 1 August. For unionists, the outcome of this conflict is definitely in a major trade union action.