Following a sit-in protest by Water PNG workers in Lae on Friday last week, outstanding payments to salaries, which were allegedly cut, have been paid.
The sit-in protest came after senior staff at the Lae branch of the water service provider claimed they were paid only K50 last fortnight.
All operations of the company’s Lae branch were put on hold except ensuring that treated water was supplied consistently and continuously to the residents of Lae city.
PNG Waterboard Workers Association secretary Andrew Waine has also called on the management of the now corporatized Water PNG to speed up the payment of the long awaited ex-gratia to all staff.
Mr Waine said that the sit-in protest last Friday followed a lack of adherence to the claims for ex-gratia payments due for employees.
“Despite assurances made by the management of the company, we are still waiting because they are delaying the payments,” Mr Waine said.
Under the provisions of an enterprise agreement, the management of Water PNG was put on notice by the employees via the Labour and Industrial Relations Department.
“The management has been put on notice since April this year but they are not complying,” Mr Waine said.
He said the company (Water PNG) should have paid the employees their ex-gratia before fully corporatizing the company.
Mr Waine has also made a call to the Water PNG management to backdate the new salary system to March through to this month to ensure all entitlements were paid accordingly.
Last week, the PNG Waterboard Workers Association said they were ready to take legal action against the company if their grievances were not properly addressed by the management.
“Our ex-gratia is long overdue so the management must make sure they sort it out as soon as possible,” Mr Waine said.
The ex-gratia payments were for services rendered to the company by employees of PNG Waterboard before it was fully corporatised and rebranded as Water PNG Limited.