KUCHING, June 25: Oil and gas multinational Petronas expresses regrets that Kesatuan Kakitangan Petronas Sarawak (Sarawak Kapenas) proceeded with the declaration to picket despite being presented with a ‘competitive offer’.
“Petronas has had four sessions of Collective Agreement (CA) 2019-2021 negotiations with Sarawak Kapenas, with the most recent one held on 16 April 2019, where Sarawak Kapenas declared a deadlock.
“We deeply regret to note that Sarawak Kapenas has decided to proceed with the declaration despite the competitive offer given to all the five unions of which the other four have accepted and came into effect on 1 January 2019.
“We are working closely with all relevant authorities and stakeholders to ensure that the matter is resolved soon in the interest of our employees.” said Petronas in a statement.
Petronas was referring to the picket held by Sarawak Kapenas in Bintulu yesterday afternoon from 5 to 6pm at Paragon, Bintulu.
Sarawak Kapenas claimed that 500 of them, many wearing yellow shirts, participated in the protest.
Holding placards with wordings such as “Petronas exploits Sarawakians”, “United we stand”, and “Allowance for Sarawak and Sabah”, Sarawak Kapenas members chanted and sung throughout the picket.
The demonstration lasted for more than an hour.
Sarawak Kapenas has been demanding firstly for employee job empowerment in the new Collective Agreement and secondly, implementation of a sliding scale in the salary adjustment for employees, instead of a flat rate.
Negotiations were ongoing for a period of time. However, in May 2019, it was reported that Petronas has refused to consider Sarawak Kapenas’ proposal, despite the latter’s agreement to management’s request to reconvene negotiations further.
Sarawak Kapenas, the employee union of Petronas’ non-executive staff had decided to carry out legal action to safeguard the interests and rights of Sarawakian employees. — DayakDaily
