Court spokesman Midas Marquez said Tuesday the court ordered the Department of Agrarian Reform to conduct a referendum among more than 6,000 workers on the 11,115-acre (4,500-hectare) sugar cane plantation and give stock in the company that operates the? hacienda to those who opt for shareholdings and parcels of the estate to those who want land.

The decision upholds a 2005 resolution by the government’s agrarian reform council to terminate a stock distribution scheme because it allegedly did not improve the lives of the plantation workers.