Sugar workers at all levels are being promised that all efforts will be made to save their jobs as the Government transitions out of the industry.They will also be given the opportunity to own shares in privately-run sugar estates, Minister of Agriculture Indar Weir said.He gave those assurances in an interview with Barbados TODAY amid concerns that with the Government preparing to lease state-run plantations and the private sector taking over ownership of the island’s only operating sugar factory, Portvale, jobs will be lost.“Really and truly, jobs are the first thing you try to preserve. Labour is definitely going to be protected and that is why I encouraged the team at the BAMC [Barbados Agricultural Management Company] to make sure they engage the unions. I am not signing off on anything until we get the unions’ support so they are currently preparing to engage the unions and I will follow up myself,” Weir said.“A lot of the vacant lands that we have will be going over to the BADMC [Barbados Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation]. That would mean we will still need people to work the land.”
