BINTULU: Petronas yesterday expressed regret over the decision by the Sarawak members of its employees union, to stage a peaceful protest here on Monday over deadlocked collective agreement (CA) negotiations.

In a statement, the national oil and gas corporation said the move by Kesatuan Kakitangan Petronas (Kapenas) Sarawak comes after four of its five unions accepted the CA offer, which came into effect on Jan 1 this year.

It said four sessions of CA 2019-2021 negotiations were carried out by Petronas with Kapenas Sarawak, with the most recent session on April 16 where Kapenas Sarawak declared a deadlock.

“We are working closely with all relevant authorities and stakeholders to ensure that the matter is resolved soon in the interest of our employees,” read the statement.

On Monday afternoon, more than 500 non-executive members of Kapenas Sarawak staged a peaceful public protest in front of the Petronas office at Naim Bintulu Paragon.

Among those present were Kapenas Sarawak president Musa Bakri Ibrahim, Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC) Sarawak chairman Mohamad Ibrahim Hamid and its secretary Andrew Lo.

Musa, when met after the picket, said it was held to show their dissatisfaction to the management of Petronas who refused to entertain key proposals from Kapenas Sarawak.

“Most importantly, the management of Petronas has refused to include matters pertaining to job empowerment into the CA,” he said, adding another major issue was salary adjustment where Kapenas Sarawak proposed a sliding scale instead of a flat rate, to reduce the salary gap between younger and senior members.

Lo, meanwhile, said as far as job empowerment is concerned, MTUC fully supports Kapenas Sarawak, and called on the management of Petronas to be responsible.

“We have spoken to the management so many times. Every time the response is the same, they don’t want to discuss (job empowerment). This is not just a Petronas issue, but a Sarawak issue now. That is why MTUC Sarawak is fully behind them (Kapenas Sarawak),” said Lo.

The banners and placards held by Kapenas members during the demonstration contained wordings such as ‘No to discrimination’, ‘No to bullying’, ‘No to intimidation’ and ‘No to eroding our rights’.