Government to pay former private sugar cane farmers

THE government has agreed to pay long-promised compensation to former private sugar cane farmers, ending a decade-long dispute over payments after the shutdown of Caroni (1975) Ltd under the Manning administration.

The settlement follows a High Court hearing in which the Office of the Attorney General consented to an order resolving 256 claims brought by former farmers seeking enforcement of a compensation package approved by Cabinet in December 2014.

The original Cabinet decision authorised a $130 million compensation package as a final settlement arising from the 2007 transition out of the sugar industry. The payments were structured in three tranches: an initial $27 million from the European Union under the Accompanying Measures of the Sugar Protocol Programme under the Multi-Annual Indicative Programme 2011-2013; a second tranche of $75 million upon receipt of 8 million euros from the European Union in 2015; and a final tranche of $28 million in 2016.

Although the 8 million euros were received by the government in 2015, payments to former private sugar cane farmers were not made. The funds were instead transferred into the Consolidated Fund and used to offset general government expenditure, the sugar cane farmers’ contended in their lawsuit.

The farmers had filed claims against the state to enforce the Cabinet-approved arrangement. Over the past eight years, the state unsuccessfully challenged those claims through multiple court applications.

Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, who led the administration that approved the compensation package in 2014, pledged during the most recent general election campaign that a UNC government would honour the commitment.

When the matters came before Justice Gobin on January 16, the state agreed to an order giving effect to the outstanding payments.

Gerald Ramdeen, attorney for the former private sugar cane farmers, welcomed the resolution.

“I wish to thank the honorable prime minister and the attorney general for doing what should have been done ten years ago,” Ramdeen said. “The actions of the present attorney general have brought ten years of discrimination to an end.

“The actions of the present Attorney General have brought ten years of discrimination by the PNM to an end. The government has ensured that the promise made ten years ago by the honourable Prime Minister has been kept.

“The State was prepared to spend millions to fund lawyers to defend these claims instead of paying what was promised to these persons. Justice has finally been done.”

The claimants were represented by Ramdeen and Dayadai Harripaul. The State was represented by Fyard Hosein, SC and Vanessa Gopaul, instructed by Savi Ramhit and Vincent Jardine.

In 2016, then-Planning and Development minister Camille Robinson-Regis told journalists while the sugar workers were free to make use of the courts if they wished, the government could only pay former cane farmers $84 million of the $130 million promised to them.

At the time, Robinson-Regis said the former cane farmers had already received $24 million, “and we will pay an additional $57 million, so in all they will get $84 million (sic), as opposed to $130 million. The $130 million figure came out of a Cabinet decision on January 8, 2015 to pay $130 million as a final settlement to the 2007 transition payment out of the sugar industry, and the money was to be distributed to the cane farming associations, with the first tranche to be based on TT$27 million which had already been paid to the Trinidad and Tobago government. It was agreed that when the government received the final payment of eight million Euros from the EU, which was due in 2015, a second tranche of $75 million and a third tranche of $28 million would be paid in 2016.”

On April 23, 2015 Cabinet agreed that the Ministry of Planning and Sustainable Development in and the Ministry of Agriculture, Land and Marine Affairs, would be responsible for handling the distribution of the final compensation to the eligible cane farmers.

In 2019, the Court of Appeal dismissed three appeals of the state in favour of six former sugar cane farmers.

The six belonged to a group of 2,323 private cane farmers who were promised payment of $130 million by the former People’s Partnership administration in three tranches which were to be the last transitional payments to them from the closure of Caroni (1975) Ltd.

The farmers, in 2015, received a first payment of $27 million. The farmers claimed when the PNM administration entered office, they were offered only $57.9 million as full and final settlement instead of the $103 million they said was owed to them in two tranches.

They rejected the government’s offer and instead sued the State for the entire sum they said was owed to them.