Last Monday’s strike action by workers of the Liberia Telecommunications Corporation (LIBTELCO) has been declared illegal by the Ministry of Labor, the Hot Pepper has learned.
According to report, the ministry has urged the workers to immediately abandon their action and return to normal duty at the corporation.
Some employees of LIBTELCO on Monday, February 1, 2021 staged a demonstration at the entrance of the corporation to compel management’s full compliance with the collective bargaining agreement.
The employees, chanting anti-management slogans, took control of the gate, preventing other workers from entering the premises of the building.
The situation would have paralyzed the company had it not been for the prompt intervention of the Liberian National Police (LNP).
In a meeting with the two sides shortly following the standoff, the Ministry of Labor said reasons provided by the workers for their impromptu action was not sufficient under the labor law for them to stage a strike action.
An insider who attended the meeting quoted Assistant Labor Minister for Trade Union Affairs, Zeo Mensah, as saying that the delay by management in signing the collective bargaining agreement, for which the workers went amok, cannot be a reason for the disturbances created during the strike action.
The Assistant Minister said collective bargaining agreement is a sensitive document that requires sufficient review by any management before it is signed. He therefore urged the leadership of the workers’ union to give ample time to the management of the company to properly review the document.
The Assistant Minister is also reported to have cautioned the workers against staging strike action without the prior knowledge of the management, which he said constitutes a major violation of the labor law.
He however called on management not to penalize any worker for the demonstration, but rather appealed to the Tobil administration to create an environment for peaceful co-existence between workers and management.
Earlier, in an interview with the Hot Pepper, LIBTELCO Managing Director, Richmond Tobil, outlined a series of difficulties faced by his administration in keeping the corporation running.
Tobil said his management is under pressure to pay back the huge debt inherited from previous administration, most of which were settled in court. He emphasized that, despite these problems, his administration has not relented in paying salaries and other benefits to their employees, noting that his management owes their employees for only the month of January 2021.
LIBTELCO Workers Union President, Johnson Massaquoi, who led the strike action, confirmed the meeting with Labor Ministry officials but declined to state the nature of the discussion at the meeting.