At the request of their union UFA, a group of some 30 GEBE workers led by UFA President, Francis Olivacci, converged on the GEBE parking lot on Monday morning, March 30, 2009 to address the issue of the impasse on the negotiations concerning the financial package for the period 2008. GEBE Managing Director, ir. William Brooks was in attendance to directly address the workers and the union representatives and give additional clarification where the bottleneck is in the financial package that is holding back the payment to the employees. The proposed increase of 5% has been approved by the GEBE supervisory board of directors. GEBE management is ready to sign the agreement and the union has been notified accordingly in writing. The union wants time to go back to their members and the UFA board to ratify and formally sign on the proposed financial package.
The discussions which took place in the GEBE parking lot were informative for both sides and narrowed the gap between management and the employees. The union has agreed to reconvene and study the proposal. A response from the union is expected within short. GEBE management has committed to payout the 5% increase as soon as the union signs the formal agreement.
After the explanations on both sides were given, the workers who had converged at the main office returned to their workstations. GEBE daily operations were not seriously affected by this short convergence and at no point was electricity nor water supply affected. GEBE looks forward to a quick resolution to this issue in the interest of the customers, the employees and the company.