By Jamal Adel.
Tripoli, 1 January 2014:
GECOL engineers in Sebha have gone on strike following the electrocution of two colleagues when the . . .[restrict]wrong circuits were turned off and the men began to work on live high voltage equipment.
Though neither of the workers died, one has been airlifted to Turkey with serious injuries.
GECOL employees in the south of the country have downed tools demanding that managers be fired and what they claim to be unsafe working practices should be brought to an end.
Adem Hammed Almabrouk, the local GECOL spokesman told the Libya Herald that the strikers were also demanding better healthcare and insurance.
It appears that the trigger for the industrial action may have been the apparent initial refusal of GECOL to pay for the transport and treatment of the injured men.
There have been claims that lax management and poor working practices have been putting employees at risk on a daily basis. One source at the company said that in his view, part of the problem was that there were no workers or managers from the south of the country in any representative positions at GECOL’s headquarters in Tripoli.
It is not immediately clear what impact the strike will have on power transmission. [/restrict]
