South Sudan’s petroleum ministry and the oil sector’s joint operating companies on Tuesday signed a deal to harmonize and implement a unified human resource policy manual.
Oil sector workers have in the last couple of years been intermittently laying down tools in protest what they termed unfair variances in pay between local and foreign workers yet they do the same work.
The joint operating companies in South Sudan’s oil sector comprise DAR Petroleum Operating Company (DPOC), Greater Pioneer Operating Company (GPOC), and Sudd Petroleum Operating Company (SPOC).
Speaking at the signing ceremony, Petroleum Minister Puot Kang Chol said it had taken a while to come up with an agreeable consensus and thanked the partners for signing the policy manual.
“I would like to say that we are grateful and we also congratulate the partners that have initialed the implementation of the unified human resource policy manual today together with the ministry of petroleum represented by the director-general of the petroleum authority,” Minister Kang said.
“It has been a very long walk but finally we are sitting together as partners. We are calling upon our people, particularly those working in the oil sector that this is a new chapter and we all need to move forward as a family,” he added.
The petroleum minister revealed that the implementation of the unified human resource policy manual had divided the partners in the sector since December 2020.
“But today we have agreed that it must be implemented and I believe there is no loser here. Since we are all gaining, we must now work towards increasing production so that it benefits the people of South Sudan and the partners,” Kang said. “Do not look at your foreign colleagues as enemies but as your friends and you need to normalize your working relations and work together, particularly for those who work in the (oil) fields.”