Ok Tedi miners strike over pay
By ANTON HUAFOLO
THE Ok Tedi mine, which last year recorded a massive K2 billion profit, was shut down yesterday as mine workers walked off their jobs to protest a wage increase.
The Ok Tedi Mining Ltd management confirmed in a press statement yesterday, that there was stop-work action by most OTML employees who are members of the Ok Tedi Mining and Allied Workers Union.
Mining and milling operations at Ok Tedi and concentrate handling and shipping at Kiunga came to a complete halt as a result of the employees staying away from work.
The strike action was a reaction to a decision by the management to implement a 100% pay increase for OTML’s PNG engineers in a bid to retain them after losing a good number to better-paid overseas employment.
The union and its non-engineering staff members have seen the pay increase as unfair, and have called on the OTML management to ensure an all-across-the board “significant” pay increases for all its local employees.
“The recent pay increase, mainly to engineers, is not fair. After all, we are all contributing to the company’s operations and its success and we should be getting pay increases too,” one of the union members, who was part of the strike, told The National.
OTML management in the statement, called the stop-work illegal, “bypassing the legal processes and industrial agreement provisions that are in place to resolve industrial disputes”.
OTML managing director Allan Breen and his senior management closed the door on the union after they were shouted down by union members when they tried to address them yesterday.
OTML management requested the Department of Labour and Industrial Relations (DLIR) to intervene to resolve the dispute.
In a letter to union executives yesterday, Mr Breen said two officers from the department are expected to fly in to Ok Tedi today “to begin the process of resolution and settlement”.
“The DLIR has already strongly urged the union to follow proper processes in order to resolve the issues and had advised the union executive(s) that employees must return to work as soon as possible,” Mr Breen said.
“I am confident that, with good sense prevailing, we can sort out our issues and allow the process to play itself out,” he said.
A senior national staff contacted yesterday said the wage issue had been brewing for a while, because the workers felt they were poorly paid than workers in other mines.
He said because of the massive profits made in recent times due to high commodity prices, workers had expected a significant pay increase, and not just a CPI adjustment.
Production and profit projections for 2008 will be affected if the protest continues indefinitely.
The mine made K2 billion in profits last year, of which K1.2 billion went to PNG interests. The PNG government received K45 million in royalties. A similar amount was paid to landowners.
The mine was previously owned by BHP. It shareholders now are PNG Sustainable Development Program Limited (PNGSDPL) which holds 52%, Inmet Mining Ltd (18%) and the National Government (30%). The PNG Government holds equity directly (15%), and on behalf of the Western province (12.5%) and landowners from the mine area (2.5%).
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