HYDERABAD:
Against the backdrop of a nationwide energy crisis, the Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL) was faced with a third consecutive day of employee protests on Sunday, leaving a daily supply of 17,000 barrels of oil to refineries suspended.
The protesters, employed under a ‘third party’ contract system, are demanding regular jobs and have laid siege to the oilfields of Kunar, Tando Alam, Pasakhi, Bobi and Daru.
Hundreds of oil tankers scheduled to transport crude oil to refineries in Karachi and Attock were seen lined up in and around various oilfields. “A supply of up to 9,000 barrels per day remained suspended for the third consecutive day from the Tando Alam oilfield,” said the field’s manager, Abdul Rashid Wattoo.
The Kunar oilfield’s supplies were also blocked, which contributes around 5,000 barrels a day, said its manager Shahid Pathan. Daru and Pasakhi fields, however, continued to supply gas.
OGDCL chief ‘besieged’
The protests started when OGDCL chief, Basharat Mirza, visited the Kunar field on Wednesday. According to reports, Mirza remained ‘besieged’ for over a day as a result of the demonstrations, managing an exit on Friday.
“He was taken out in a police mobile van around six in the morning,” said an official. Mirza had arrived at Kunar to inspect preparations for the inauguration of the Kunar-Pasakhi gas project in Tandojam by Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani on Thursday.
However, the OGDCL chief denied these reports. “Nobody held me captive,” he told The Express Tribune. On the other hand, he was unable to clarify why he did not attend the inauguration ceremony.
Referring to the demonstrations, Mirza rejected the protesters’ demands, saying they were not the company’s employees. “We can’t be blackmailed this way,” he added.
Seeking regularisation
The fact that they’re not the company’s employees, however, is exactly what the workers are protesting against. They have formed an action committee and are holding simultaneous protests at various other oil and gas fields across Sindh. “We will not budge unless the government regularises our jobs,” said Naseer Nahiyon, who was leading the protesters.
Around 5,500 to 6,000 people are working under a third party contract and have been denied the facilities and benefits enjoyed by permanent employees working in the same positions, according to the aggrieved demonstrators.
The Kunar oil field alone has around 76 third party contract employees in addition to around 130 permanent ones.
Raheel Jokhio, the contractor who employs them, told The Express Tribune that he received two to four per cent commission. “These people also get an annual bonus, which varies between Rs50,000 to Rs90,000 directly from the company, besides the salary which I pay,” he said.
No benefits
Contract employees, however, feel that essential benefits are missing.
“We have no employment letter, no duty card, no electronic attendance, no annual increment, no health cover and no accident or retirement benefit,” said contract employee Amir Ali Khoso.
Labour Ittehad Union leader, Hassan Baksh Khoso, added that the company could always afford the cost of regularisation.
“If the Sui Southern Gas Company can restore 12,500 sacked workers along with providing payment for decade-long arrears, why can’t the OGDCL?” he asked.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 15th, 2012.
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do not write sind it is sindh and alos this thing solved in 18th amendment after 64 yeras