Oil Company Total E&P Staff Declare Sit-down Strike

Ugandan Staffers at oil and gas exploration company, Total E&P have declared industrial action against the management who they claim have ignored their grievances that have been raised since 2013.

In a letter sent amongst national staff members of the company, which ChimpReports has seen, the disgruntled staffers have organized a demonstration where they will “turn off workstations” and ‘excuse’ themselves from any company related work at exactly 10:00am on Wednesday, February 1^st.

Among the grievances they claim have been ignored include review of salaries and benefits for Ugandan nationals, Training and career development for Ugandan nationals and company leadership.

In the letter, staffers noted that a 14 member review committee was constituted to look into the issues raised in the 2015 survey, and that the committee submitted the actions to the company director in June 2016.

“As minuted in the meeting, management promised to discuss these actions and get back to the committee and the staff,” reads part of the letter.

“Subsequent to that, the committee actions were again presented by the HR during the staff retreat on September 2^nd, 2016. The General Manager committed himself to own the actions and execute them. The General Manager further committed to have the actions implemented by January 2017.”

According to the letter, the deadlines set have passed and no effort has been made to follow up or execute any of the committee’s actions.

“Management is unwilling, dishonest, disrespectful and have shown no interest to honour their promises and deadlines. Management has taken national staff for a ride with lip service and no action,” the letter further reads.

They say that they will assemble at the fire assembly point until Management comes up with signed papers stipulating the dates when all their issues will be handled.

“We shall be there until a signed declaration for immediate review of salaries and benefits for nationals with clearly stated timelines that will be reflected on national staff bank accounts by February 2017; a signed declaration stating the deadline by which national staff should know their training and career development path and a signed declaration adopting all recommended actions concerning communication and leadership in the affiliate.”

ChimpReports was unable to get a response from Total E&P management about the matter by publication time.