Puipui: Union protest is illegal

By PATRICK SAKAL
THE strike by members of the PNG Forest Product Workers Union staged since last week at Bulolo in Morobe is illegal, deputy industrial registrar Ilikis Puipui says.
He told The National that industrial registrar Helen Saleu had addressed the issue with the union’s general secretary Albert Kaklep last Wednesday and declared  the strike as illegal, and to allow for proper dialogue, but there has been no response.
He said the sit-in protest was an unauthorised strike and was illegal as the union had not followed the process to address medical checks for all the employees and the training and localisation issue.
He warned Kaklep that the issues were non-industrial and the executives of the union would bear full responsibility of the actions taken by workers last week.
“Kaklep should therefore call the members back to work and allow for proper dialogue with the management for amicable resolution,” Puipui said.
He confirmed that a court injunction was now out to get the workers back to work.
The Employers Federation of PNG executive director Florence Willie said it was arranging with the Department of Labour to speak with the workers on the issue.
She said on the grounds of medical checks, the employer could not check all workers against their will.