SANGAM

NOC staff on warpath over bonus stop

SANGAM PRASAIN
KATHMANDU, AUG 03 -
Agitating employees’ unions of the Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) have decided to close petroleum depots across the country on Wednesday after the management withdrew its plans to distribute bonus.

The unions have also decided to close the depots for half a day on Thursday and Friday, a National Employees’ Union member at the NOC told the Post.

The unions have formed a struggle committee that has submitted a 13-point charter of demands to the management that includes distribution of bonus.

The trade unions have come up strongly against the NOC management objecting to the Board’s decision to withdraw its previous decision to distribute bonus for the fiscal year 2008-09.

“The NOC should implement its decision passed by the Board,” said Babu Ram Rai, president of Nepal National Employees’ Union.

According to him, other issues the unions have demanded are maintenance of depots, recruitment of capable technicians, formulating a petroleum and explosives Act, among others. The NOC had earned a profit of Rs 3.31 billion during the year and had provisioned over Rs 19 million for bonus to employees. However, the NOC board was forced to scrap the distribution of the bonus after the government, the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) and consumer rights activists criticised the move. The government has 98 percent stake in NOC.

After the CIAA directed the NOC not to distribute bonus, the NOC board had reversed its decision to distribute Rs 198.8 million as bonus to its staffs for the fiscal year 2008/09.

“We are ready to address all the demands of the unions but we cannot distribute the bonus that has been stopped by the government,” said Digambar Jha, general manager of NOC.

However, Rai said the unions were organising protests since a long time demanding improvement of the NOC. “We are not focusing on bonus only in our protest programmes, but the management decision to provide bonus and again withdrawing it has made the employees feel uncomfortable,” Rai said.

Rai added that the agitation would continue until the NOC withdraws its decision. The management had called the unions for talks on Tuesday. However, union members refused to sit for the talks. On the other hand, Jha said the management would call the unions for talks on Wednesday.