Mr. Emmanuel Kairu

The general secretary of the Papua New Guinea Communications Workers Union, Emmanuel Kairu, said industrial action would continue until Telekom officially confirmed the payment would be made.

General secretary Emmanuel Kairu said his members were not in the business of causing telecommunication disruptions which would cause a loss of revenue in the yearly returns."Union is not sponsoring the disruptions," Mr Kairu said.He said since the stop work started this month, union members had not touched any Telikom facilities to cause the breakdown in telecommunication.Mr Kairu said Telikom workers were not the only people who were responsible for rehabilitating Telikom lines, adding contractors were also tasked with the same job.He said the network breakdown could be linked to natural causes or vandalism.

At the outset of the industrial action, PNG Communication Workers Union secretary Emmanuel Kairu threatened that postal services would be closed until the salaries were paid.