MONROVIA-Following a day after the publication in this paper that there was trouble at the Liberia Electricity Corporation(LEC), the Minister of Labor has ordered the management of that entity to restore the 30 percent salary deduction from the employees and placed a restriction order on Peter Egbodor.
The management of LEC has agreed to all the instructions from the Ministry saying they would cooperate to the fullest
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Labor Minister
It can be recalled that on Thursday, July 8, 2021, employees of LEC embarked on a strike in demand for restoration of the abrupt 30 present salary deduction without any prior notice.
Some of the demands made by the protesting workers were the employment of
all contractors who have been with the company for six months or more, plus conduct an investigation into altercation between one Jason Tuner and the late Jacob Dukuly.
After the altercation between Dukuly and Jason, Dukuly died. Since then, management has failed to carry out any investigation, a situation which angered the employees.
Additionally, the employees were demanding the removal of Peter Egbodor, Jason Tuner and Noel Walsh. These three expatriates insult employees, customers and demean them without following company’s policies. One of the situations which several customers have complained about over the past time
“For many times, we have asked management to send these three people back, but they have refused to do so,” one of the protestors said.
As a result of these, the minister of Labor, Cllr. Charles H. Gibson had a meeting with management on Thursday and issued the following instructions; management to restore the 30 percent salary deduction, Management not to take the employees by surprise on issues that are intended to affect their jobs and livelihood, management to adequately notify employees of upcoming issues of such nature.
In addition to this, Minister Gibson ordered the suspension of Mr. Jason Tuner, Executive Director, General Services and Compliance, and asked that he be subjected to further investigation into altercation between him and Dukuly(Manager, Capital Feeder, T & D of the entity.
To this, the Minister said they will hold consultations with the Ministry of Justice and the family of the deceased to establish if there is a need to conduct an autopsy on the body of the employee.
Seeing the sensitivity of the case, Minister Gibson advised the Management of the LEC not to allow Mr. Peter U. Egbodor, Meter Consultant, whose work permit has since expired on the compounds of the LEC in violation of the Labor Law of Liberia.
He said that Mr. Egbodor should not be seen in LEC uniforms, cars or premises until at such time a work permit is issued. No time was given for the issuance of his work permit.
But sources close to the discussions said, “peter’s action at the corporation will not qualify him to get work permit and his stay in Liberia will be useless without any work permit.
“The first thing is that he has violated the labor law by working without work permit. In addition to that, he is the main person who creates trouble at the entity,” one person at the meeting told this paper.
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