The Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Cooperative Credit Union Society Ltd and members from four sugar estates staged a peaceful picket on Monday, demanding that the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) pay over savings deducted from workers' wages. The credit union says GuySuCo has taken the deductions from weekly pay since March this year and has not transferred the money to the society. Thousands of sugar workers hold savings with the institution.

According to the credit union, the corporation's management has repeatedly promised to settle the debt. The most recent commitment was a written undertaking dated 27 August 2026 to pay 50 per cent of the outstanding amount. Union officials say not a single dollar of that payment has been made. They also allege that GuySuCo continues to use the withheld savings to cover its operational shortfalls, an accusation the corporation had not answered publicly at the time of writing. The statements issued by the union and the credit union do not give the total owed.

The union's position rests on a plain distinction. The money was earned by the workers, deducted from their pay for a stated purpose and meant to be passed to the credit union that holds it for them. The union stressed that the funds do not belong to the corporation. On that reading, a delay in remitting them is a failure to hand over another party's property and cannot be treated as a late payment of a corporate debt in the ordinary sense. GuySuCo has not set out its own account of how the deductions have been handled.

The effect on the credit union is described as severe. It says it faces a liquidity crisis because of the withheld funds, and that the shortage threatens its ability to provide financial support to thousands of workers and their families. A credit union lends from members' deposits, so a long gap in receipts reduces what it can pay out when savers ask for withdrawals. Union officials say members who rely on their savings to pay medical and school costs are among those affected. The individual cases have not been detailed.

The dispute follows an earlier one. In 2015 the same credit union said GuySuCo had failed to remit about $154 million, representing five months of workers' savings. It suspended its activities with the corporation and said it could no longer meet savers' withdrawals in full. The sums and circumstances differ, and the corporation's finances have changed since then, but the pattern of deductions taken from pay and not passed on is the same.

The pickets took place outside corporation facilities, and the demands were directed at two levels. The credit union and the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers' Union (GAWU) called on GuySuCo's management and its Board of Directors to release the funds at once. They also asked the Minister of Agriculture and the Government of Guyana to intervene urgently so that the corporation meets its obligation and remits the savings promptly. The Government owns GuySuCo, which gives ministers a direct route to act on the request, although neither the ministry nor the corporation had announced any step in response.

The demands are specific. The union wants the March deductions paid in full, and it has treated the 27 August undertaking as a minimum that GuySuCo has already failed to meet. It has not published a deadline, and it has not said what action it would take if the funds are not forthcoming.

Several points remain unclear. The size of the arrears, the date on which the corporation expects to pay and the reason payment was not made under the August commitment have not been given. The number of workers who have been unable to withdraw savings has also not been stated, beyond the description of thousands. Each of these would show how far the credit union's position has deteriorated and how quickly it can recover once money is received.

For now, the sugar workers who contribute to the society continue to have deductions taken from their weekly pay, according to the union. Until the corporation pays, the credit union is holding fewer funds than its members believe they have saved.

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