Jobs safe, staff assured

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EDA Ranu workers have been assured that their jobs will not be affected by the merger with Water PNG, according to the officer in charge of the merger Parkop Kurua.
Both companies are State-owned entities.
Kurua, who is overseeing the operations of Water PNG, said Eda Ranu workers would not be laid off work after they stand down last week.
Kurua said he appreciated that the workers had concerns for their job security but stressed that the National Government had made it clear that no jobs would be lost as a result of the merger which was approved by the National Executive Council (NEC).
He said in his capacity as the manager for the transition, he would ensure that all aspects of the merger were successful including retaining all jobs.
“I apologised to the workers because they had some concerns which is not uncommon in a merger in situation like this that you would probably expect employees to express their concern on their job security,” he said.
The workers gathered at the Eda Ranu Depot at 4-Mile last Thursday calling on the Eda Ranu management to address them regarding their entitlements.
PNG Energy Workers Association general-secretary Santee Margis told The National that employees had been asking Eda Ranu management to provide a written assurance of their calculated service entitlements.
“We met here last May 22 and the assurance was given that letters would be delivered to the workers,” he said.
“With the experience of PNG Power employees, they were transferred from PNG Electricity Commission into PNG Power but nobody knew how much money they had been transferred with in terms of entitlements.
“PPL management came up with a formula for entitlements regardless of the number of years they (employees) worked which meant that the employees had been robbed of their right entitlements and we don’t want this same issue happening with Eda Ranu.
“We want Eda Ranu management to be open and transparent, open and honest with the employees by providing them with the correct or exact amount of service entitlements.”