‘Crackers’ over long hours and less pay

By FRANK ASAELI
FRUSTRATED workers of Lae Biscuit Company in Port Moresby went on strike yesterday to demand pay rise and overtime benefits.
Over 60 of the company’s factory staff walked off their jobs as early as 7am over the pay rise issue and demanded the company’s management increase staff wages for long hours of work.
Staff representative Lauks Lokoloko, a packer in the factory, said they were disappointed over delays to their request for a rise since last year.
She said that individual staff members had over the past year, requested for an increase in their wages but to date, nothing had been done.
She said the situation had prompted them to walk off their jobs for an indefinite period in protest until their request is granted.
She said if the situation was not resolved among themselves and the management, they would seek the PNG trade unions to press their claim.
She said that staff worked long hours but were underpaid.
“The factory is producing and packing up to 163 cartons of biscuits a day. What we do daily in the factory is really heavy work so we demanded a pay rise and had submitted a letter to the factory manager about this,” Ms Lokoloko said.
Factory manager Lino Ydel confirmed receiving a petition from the workers but said the problem had been resolved.
He also said that the strike action was illegal and appealed to striking staff to return to their respective duties.
“If the workers have a problem then they should approach us (management) so we would solve the problem and carry on with production,” Mr Ydel said.
He said that if staff did not resume work as soon as possible, the company would have no choice but to replace them.

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