Yemeni FM staff go on strike

The Yemeni Foreign Ministry employees on Saturday went on an overall strike protesting the non-response by the concerned parties to their demands represented in improving their financial and administrative conditions. Chairman of the Personnel Union Council (PUC) at the Foreign Ministry samir khamis said that hundreds of the Foreign Ministry employees went on strike as of Saturday morning protesting the procrastination of the ministry to settle their job conditions . The open and overall strike would continue until all the staff’s financial conditions would be improved according to the ministry’s obligation it issued following the order of Yemeni President Abdo Rabu Mansour Hadi. The Foreign Ministry employees remained outside their offices and stopped rendering their missions despite the pledge made by the ministry’s senior officials to communicate with the finance and civil service ministries to carry out their demands as per orders of president Abdo Rabu Mansour Hadi. In a related development and earlier last week, the employee syndicate’s in Yemen Liquid National Gas (YLNG) threatened to go on strike after they issued red badges, the unofficial markers used by striking workers in Yemen, in protest against the company’s administration for not solving their problems. The syndicate’s called on President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi to intervene and end the company’s violation of employees rights. They asked the government to implement the agreement that was signed in April 2012 between the company’s administration and a committee representing the employees in which they agreed on compromises concerning bonuses, allowances, promotions and the reinstatement of fired workers. In a press conference earlier on Monday Saleh Al-Obaidi, the syndicate’s head, renewed demands for the company to implement the decisions stipulated in the April 2012 agreement and urgently compensate the employees for discrepancies in annual leave. They asked for YLNG to provide wages in-line with Yemen’s labor laws for employees in Sana’a, Belhaf and Safer. The syndicate demanded that the company provide promotion allowance for promoted employees and that the transportation allowance for senior and junior employees in Sana’a correspond. It also demanded that the company raise employee bonus’ and issue internal regulations that are accredited by a committee of employees and validated by government entities such as the Ministry of Oil.