KUCHING: The Sesco Workers’ Union has suggested that the joint-council meeting between the union and the management of Sarawak Energy Berhad (SEB) in Sibu next month be the right avenue to resolve the various outstanding issues concerning workers welfare.
“The joint council is scheduled to meet in Sibu on June 23 and we really hope that the long outstanding issues not only will be discussed this time around but also be resolved once and for all,” the union’s former secretary general Presley Bulai said yesterday.
He said that the union, Kesatuan Pekerja-Pekerja Syarikat Sesco Bhd Sarawak (KPPSSBS), had tried its best highlight the plight of the workers to the company but there had been no positive result to date.
It was said that the company’s refusal to entertain their requests had placed the 1,080 union members in a dilemma.
On Thursday, KPPSSBS outgoing president Mondari Manjat said the union on numerous occasions had met with the management over a number of issues such as increasing the retirement age to 60, salary revision, payment of annual bonus, collective bargaining (CB) and medical benefits.
“Following the privatisation of Sesco in 2005 we had written officially, apart from meeting the management on various occasions, on the CB issue but until today it has yet to become a collective agreement (CA),” Mondari said after officially handing over duty to his successor Ting Tien Ngo.
He thus hoped that the new office bearers for the 2011/2013 term would continue voicing out the concerns of the workers.
Among the requests by the union was that the retirement age be extended to 60 instead of 56 presently.
They also proposed that the employees be paid contractual bonus which should not based on the performance of individual staff.
“This is to ensure that every employee is treated fairly.
“The annual increment can be based on individual performance but not the bonus,” said Mondari.
Meanwhile, it was also revealed that the same issues had been raised by the delegates during the union’s Triennial Delegates Conference (TDC) in Miri last year and their Extraordinary Delegates Conference (EDC) in Sibu last weekend. They are appealing to the management to seriously look into the issues as they are long overdue.