January 8th 2020 (Nyamilepedia) – Employees of the Greater Pioneer Operating Company (GPOC) have called of a three-day strike after the management of the oil consortium agreed to fulfill their demands, a representative for the employees said on Wednesday.
Gabriel Matut Maliah, a spokesman for the GPOC employees told the Nyamilepedia this evening that the strike which began early this week have been called off after the GPOC management agreed – during a meeting conducted at Unity Oilfields in Rubkona county – agreed to a 12-points letter demanding improvement of their health and financial systems.
“The strike has been lifted from 7th January, 2020 – 31 January, 2020 after GPOC employees and GPOC management had fruitful 4-hour meeting in Unity oilfields under the leadership of vice president of GPOC, Engineer Majok Arop.
Maliah said the GPOC management have accepted and promised to put into effect all the demands raised by the employees saying only two of the issues raised will be addressed at a later date with the involvement of the ministry of petroleum.
“The GPOC management acknowledged and accepted all the 12 points demands of employees as genuine and must be addressed once and for all for smooth operations of the production. Ten points out of the 12 points [raised] will be resolved by the GPOC management as they fall within unified human resource manual. The remaining two points which are market adjustment allowances – as part of gross salaries as of 2 May 2013 – and the payment of all outstanding bonuses from 2013 – 2017 will be sent to GPOC partners and ministry of petroleum for consultation for final approval,” he said.
He said the GPOC has been given one week to produce the implementation timeframe on the ten points and a 3-week ultimatum to meet its partners to addressing the remaining two.
“The ten points that will be resolved by GPOC management are given one week to come up with implementation timeframe with workers trade union of petroleum and mining GPOC sub-office. GPOC employees have given GPOC management three weeks to consult with ministry of petroleum and partners (CNPC, PETRONAS & ONGC) for final approval on the unconditional immediate payment of all outstanding bonuses from 2013 – 2017 and the implementation of market adjustment allowances as part of gross salaries,” he said.
He further said that the employees “acknowledge the efforts exerted by GPOC vice president to resolve our demands and we wish him success in his new assignment. We urge the government of South Sudan through the ministry of petroleum to negotiate in good faith with GPOC partners to solve all the outstanding issues as presented by GPOC employees.”
They also urged the “GPOC management and the ministry of petroleum to resolve all the outstanding issues once and for all and any failure to resolve them on the given timeframe will lead to another strike on 1 February 2020 for 72 hours.”
The Greater Pioneer Operating Company (GPOC), is the operator of the unity oilfields, and is owned by China’s National Petroleum Corporation, Malaysia’s Petronas and India’s ONGC Videsh.
