FORMER sugar workers from Caroni, who have already collected their Voluntary Separation of Employment Package (VSEP) and a two-acre plot for agriculture, claim they have been told to pay $80,000 for the additional residential lot.

This is the result of a change in the management of Caroni land distribution.

It is being claimed by one ex-sugar worker that the Sugar Industry Labour Welfare Committee has now given the Estate Management Business Development Company (EMBDC) the right to distribute the land promised to separated Caroni workers earlier this year.

He claimed that the handing over is “rife with corruption” as it is being said that ex-workers have to pay for the extra lot they were supposed to obtain free of charge.

Lots were distributed in August in a lottery system.

One man, who lives in Central Trinidad, asked, “Where will we get that money from?

“We are sugar workers.

“We view this as a rip off.”

Another person said his entire VSEP money was spent on utility bills, rent, food, debt and sending his offspring to school.

“It is blackmail.

“ We are forced into taking the money and promised acres of land but now we are hearing we have to pay a large amount of money.”

A representative from All Trinidad Sugar and General Workers’ Trade Union said: “We are calling on all sugar workers to mobilise against this oppression.”

He said workers should not pay until the alleged issue is settled.

Another worker expressed his dissatisfaction saying, “We are already poor and not employed.

“We cannot work in CEPEP and the URP because we fear discrimination. So now what is our position?”

EMBDC chairman Uthara Rao’s secretary said that they do not deal with former Caroni Limited problems and referred TnT Mirror to Jerry Hospidales of the Ministry of Finance, who said that the process is being done by priority.

The idea is that the ex-sugar workers have been given a two-acre plot of land with the choice of either obtaining plots for residential or bungalow building he said.

“Priority would be given to those workers who did not own a house before January 1, this year.

“We passed the information through our financial services to see who would qualify.

The government is giving out 6,755 residential lots on 22 estates and 7,247 agricultural plots on 17 estates,” he said.

Hospidales advised that since the workers are getting an opportunity in life they should get financial advice, since they will now receive a 5,000 square foot plots on which they can build.

He said irrigation repairs are currently being done on the land and as soon it is ready the ex-sugar workers would get letters to show it has been leased.

The lottery system, he said, would again be used and the first set of names drawn by next January.