It seems that the developer and sub-contractors of the PNG Liquefied Natural Gas project are having a hard time with local workers at the plant site.
While impacted villages have raised concerns over huge numbers of foreign workers on site, project developer revealed that local workers have high rates of non-commitment and absenteeism.
These issues were raised during discussion time at the Portion 152 Project area landowners’ awareness on the LNG processing plant.
The issue of training and employment of locals from the 4 impacted villages rang loud at the forum. Leaders from Rearea, Boera, Papa & Porebada all expressed alarm over the unequal distribution of workforce on the PNGLNG EPC3 project site.
The numbers 6370 outside workers to just 2539 PNG nationals. There were also concerns also that skills training that were supposed to have been taken by locals, turned out to be safety trainings.
Training manager for CJJV Andrew O’Connor admitted they were indeed safety trainings. And he explained why the safety trainings were taken.
One leader asked the question about the imbalance in employment numbers and got his answer.
Developers expressed challenges from local workers in the form of poor attendance to work, non-attendance, and lateness, lack of dedication to learning and poor discipline. There was also an appeal to locate 350 graduates from the Port Moresby Training Facility.
Chief Executive Officer of Laba Holdings, Raho Kevau says many times the umbrella company cops the blame for industrial issues faced by local workers. He says concerns have been raised to the stakeholders but many of the issues remain unresolved.
