The labourers were staging simultaneous sit-ins outside all the oilfields in Sindh. The supply of around 17,000 barrels of oil to the refineries in Karachi and Rawalpindi was stopped from Kunar, Tando Alam and Bobi oilfields. Pasakhi, Qadirpur and Daru oilfields were also besieged.
The negotiations began late on Monday night and went for seven hours. The joint secretary of the ministry of petroleum, Khalif Asghar, the executive director of OGDCL, Riaz Khan, provincial minister, Zahid Bhurgari, the deputy commissioner, Asif Memon, and the leaders of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) met the labourers at Kunar Oilfield in Tandojam.
The labourers, employed under a “third-party” contract system, demanded to be given permanent jobs and be provided other incentives.
The employees were hired through contractors and were thus denied all the perks and benefits enjoyed by regular employees, such as health case, retirement and regular pay increments, and membership of the Employees Old Age Benefit Institutions and Sindh Employees Social Security Institution.
According to Naseer Nahiyon, the workers’ representative, the company promised to hire those men who had been working for at least five to seven years on contract and provide them with other facilities as well. He said that the management told the workers that they would be hired directly by the company on contract and would get permanent jobs after two years. They will receive all the fringe benefits on contract as well, except a pension. The OGDCL management gave the deadline of January 31, for contracts to be awarded to all the workers.
However, the workers also demanded that people who had recently joined the company be given permanent jobs as well. Nahiyon said that between 5,500 to 6,000 workers in Sindh were employed under the third-party system.
However, Raheel Jokhio, a workers contractor at the Kunar oilfield, said that still were no clear directives whether the whole system will be done away with or only the employees who have been working for a long time will be accommodated.
Jokhio also handled contracts for Sui Southern Gas Company. But he believes that the prospects of ending third-party contracts are grim.
However, according to Sindh Fisheries Minister Zahid Bhurgari, all the demands could not be accepted at once. “The PPP government supports labourers’ rights,” he said. “We will ensure that the workers of OGDCL get their rights too.”
Published in The Express Tribune, January 19th, 2012.
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