Workers of the country’s only Electricity company PNG Power have gone on strike to protest over the lack of consultation and awareness rollout and recent changes happening within the company.
The workers in a petition presented to the Management and Board of PPL stated ‘changes without consultation have been affecting workers’ welfares and operations of the company.
The petition read it part;
“The management has implemented a structure that is very costly to the organization.”
The Management of PPL created a total of 15x Executive General Managers with lucrative employment contracts. They said the company lacks business models that could support the restructuring exercise.
They said the 2019 Enterprise Agreement has been overlooked or breached by the current Management.
“We were forced to accept forced to accept and go for early retirement through a circular with suspicious motives.”
The normal process would be for the employee to elect in writing to take early retirement NOT the company forcing the employee for early retirement.
The workers also added many of them learnt through social media about the announcement of the unbundling of PPL. They were never informed of the future of PNG Power.
Among the issues raised in the petition include non-compliance of procedural processes by the Managing Director and Management. They also want outstanding issues to be addressed.
They have called for the termination of the Managing Director and EXCOM to be investigated for mismanagement and corruption.
They also call to put a stop to the unbundling and restructure exercise until awareness and consultation is carried out.
They want all outstanding issues to be addressed and business plans for all sectors to be drawn up.
The workers have now stopped worked and said will only go back to work once all their demands are met.
