9 Oct 2003

Threat of telecom strike in PNG

4:44 pm on 9 October 2003

Telecommunications workers in Papua New Guinea are threatening to resume strike action unless they get some answers from government officials by next week.

Members of the Communications Workers Union returned to work last week while they discussed their concerns with officials over the planned partial privatisation of Telikom PNG.

However nothing has been resolved and the national president of the union, Bob Magaru, says he has issued an ultimatum to the Prime Minister and the Independent Public Business Corporation - the government arm responsible for the sale.

"My members resolved that we would give the government until next Wednesday and we expect to get a formal response from those two authorities to our demands."

Mr Magaru says members have still not had an adequate response from the IPBC over how the partial sale will affect their entitlements and benefits.

Meanwhile, the Telikom Southern Regional Manager, Wency Noruka, says services have been running normally for the past week.