To: Hon. James HothÂ
The Ministry of Labour
Republic of South Sudan – JubaÂ
Country Manager, – Charles Dekori SLB
HR Representative – Charles Jurgo SLB
Facility mamager – Nichola Mayen SLB
Taga Management – Musa Makh-Kur TAGA
Dear Sir,
May 13, 2022 — We are writing to your respective office to address a few points and events that happened last year when we were Schlumberger employees and even after our termination as a group of 15 employees contracted by Schlumberger, which we believe are not in line with business ethics and good conduct that we have in South Sudan or anywhere else.
During our employment we felt that we always being targeted by Schlumberger Country Manager due to our opinions regarding to some work related issues which fall under our direct responsibilities as field base facilities management.
We were always requesting that the cleaners and general help in Schlumberger Paloch and Adar base-camps should be employed from local community where we operate, since the job does not require any qualifications and at the same time creates job opportunities for local people, but what was happening is the cleaners and general services personnel are hired in Juba and sent to the field.
In 2020 we resumed Wireline operation in DPOC fields and all the crew brought from outside the country because there was no competent South Sudanese to operate and run the operations, that was for lead personnel, but the operators we had qualified personnel whom had experience in Wireline operations and working for other segments who’s operations was slowing or non-operational, the logic says we should exhaust our own capacities first from local experienced operators and support them by expert leads from other countries where there is no oil & gas activities. First to keep the local employed, second the cost of operators from other countries is high compared to local.
Addition to that, last year in December 2020, we were called for interview for the position of Risk Analyst for Tharjath base by Schlumberger country manager me and the former Schlumberger Risk Advisor for Higlige and Unity, eventually the interview was promised in quarter one in 2021, we found that a report against us. His intention was to get the position for Simon Chol that’s why he formulated the report against the people from that area (Unity State) particularly Mayom, Rubkona and Rweung people however, they brought a new policy that targeted the former staffs who were supposed to be called back but the planned was replaced by the country manager, HR personnel and facility manager  to employ only local people on non-essential positions from Greater Upper Nile, Unity,Tharjath Paloch and Adar fields. However, Schlumberger is an international company which always give priorities to people who have been exposed to the system of the company.
Therefore, we served for more than 7 years in Schlumberger and our basic identity was diversity of different people. from Schlumberger employees represent more than 140 nationalities working in more than 120 countries. Schlumberger has four principal executive’s offices located in Paris, Huston, London, and Hague. Schlumberger is the world ‘s largest offshore drilling company.
Schlumberger SSD country manager, HR representative and Managing Director of Taga for Human Resource, therefore, we all know that corruption has been practiced by SSD Country Manager, HR Manager and Facility manager as directives given to Taga Management since the leadership of the location given to South Sudanese and Surb Sahara in Africa (SSA) as began practicing tribalism in recruiting, promotion, and termination, even for those who are moving from contractors to direct hire by Schlumberger management practice Ethic not based on seniority spent in company.
 All key positions are held by a group from certain area, region as we all know Tribalism is not Schlumberger Identity as we believe in Diversity our career experiences culture and Norms.
There are so many senior and qualified operators and engineers laid off last year because of covid19 where they could easily cross train to other segments rather than bringing people from outside. As South Sudan oil field is from Greater Upper Nile and Greater Bahr AL Ghazel in which Schlumberger country manager practicing, Tribalism on them. For instance, one of the lecturer in university of juba, the local management taken advantage on his situation that employed as the Operator under Contractor company, other holder of Honor Degree of Geology from Makerere University also employed as Operator all this happened because of Tribalism.
We are not against people from outside and other region, as we had several colleagues whose contributions to the business and local employees’ development was remarkable during their time, but our point is if we have capacities why we go and look from outside. We can utilize South Sudanese fairly and equally without surpassing to each other base on tribal background.
Our requests as follow:
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- Six (6) months’ salary as termination was aggressive as stated in South Sudan labor law, as the company jumped to terminate employees to reduce head count while South Sudan presidency and minister of labor sent notification to all employers not to terminate or down-size because of COVID19.
- End of Service benefits calculation was not calculated based on seniority and serving years. Schlumberger and TAGA agreed to pay our gratuities from 2017 onwards, while most of us were employed from 2012 and 2013 as stated in our contracts.
- All field population rotation was six (6) weeks on duties and three (3) weeks off duty, not equal rotation as missing vocation = (25 days’ x No. of serving years’ x coefficient x gloss salary ÷ by 30 days)Â
- Social insurance was deducted twice, before and after services. Base on South Sudan labor law nobody should be taxed after services.            Â
- To re-instate back all South Sudanese engineers and contractors recently terminated and try to find a place for them in other segments.
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SLB Terminated Employees’ Calculation
SincerelyÂ
SLB Terminated EmployeesÂ
Appendix A
Appendix B
Appendix C
