SANA’A, Aug. 8 — The Yemeni Cabinet’s decree regarding banning strikes in gas and oil sections raised controversy among employers.

Fadeem Al-Ariqi, official of Laborers Disputes Syndicate in Yemen Liquid National Gas (LNG) said the cabinet’s decision to ban strikes in oil and gas sections affects employers negatively because they could be subjected to abuse by the company they work for or dismissed without being given their rights.

Al-Ariqi, who participated in previous strikes to demand employers’ rights, said banning strikes will have a positive effect on Yemen’s economy and oil section.

In its weekly meeting, the cabinet decided to ban strikes in all its forms for employers in oil and gas sections, production operations, shipping and storage in the exporting ports, the central processing units, power plants and facilities and petroleum reservoirs comprehensive maintenance.

The cabinet tackled the report presented by the minister of oil and minerals regarding banning strikes in sections producing oil and gas, based on 1995’s Labor Law 5 for 1995, which bans strikes in vocations in which strikes cause stoppage of public services and losses for the national economy.

The cabinet assigned a committee to look into labor disputes and problems in oil and gas sections and to examine employer complaints to solve them.

The cabinet firmly opposed illegal strikes aiming to disrupt public life and essential services provided for residents in different sections, particularly these linked directly to people’s lives.

Tawfeeq Al-Budaiji, coordinator of Transparency and Strategic Industries Control Alliance, said the cabinet’s decision is illegal. He said it is strange for the government to ban strikes instead of working on improving employers’ living standards.

He said the government should provide more freedom for employers and not preventing them from holding strikes.

“We are living in the time of revolution in which the government is supposed to provide more freedom and space,” he concluded.