KESC employees reinstated: ‘Weeding out black sheep is our right, our responsibility’

CEO hints at phased termination of the workers services.

KARACHI:

Karachi Electric Supply Company’s CEO Tabish Gauhar has said while they have “temporarily bowed to pressure from the state” and held back plans to rationalise its workforce, “weeding out black sheep is both our right and our responsibility”.

Speaking at a press conference at the company’s headquarters on Wednesday, Gauhar expressed disappointment over the government’s response to the protests by the retrenched employees. He said that even though the employees had been reinstated, they will outsource the areas that have been deemed ‘non-core functions’ or departments that are not directly involved in the running of the company and are “redundant”. He announced that the voluntary separation scheme will be re-launched for employees in these jobs.

In an attempt to tighten its belt, KESC had laid off 4,300 employees on January 19, after first offering them a golden handshake, which many refused. Violent protests ensued and after government pressure built, KESC was forced to take the staff back this week.

“There is no legal ground for this reinstatement and government representatives did not quote any laws when ordering KESC to reinstate these workers,” asserted Gauhar. “We did not expect law enforcers to be complicit with the ransacking of our offices and we did not expect the government to override the writ of a privatised company’s management.”

Challenging political parties to take the company to court over the retrenchment plan, Gauhar said that political parties were making speeches in front of protestors within an hour of the sit-in.

Many employees who were in favour of taking the golden handshake offer were forced and threatened by miscreants, he said.

“Our basic priority is providing electricity efficiently, not creating jobs,” the CEO maintained.

KESC told the government that we would give 100 per cent of the voluntary separation scheme compensation and also facilitate the employees in looking for alternate jobs, he said, giving details of the negotiations. He also highlighted that company officials had offered the government the responsibility of creating a conducive environment for economic growth and job creation. “I offered them the keys and said, ‘you run it’.”

However, he warned that if the company continues to face resistance to its plans for increasing productivity and efficiency, “stakeholders will be forced to rethink about their investment plans”. “This episode has set a bad precedent for others. Now issues of Pakistan Steel Mills, Pakistan Railways and other institutions will also be solved on the streets.”

Nonetheless, Gauhar ruled out any chance of confrontation, saying, “We have guaranteed that we will not challenge the government’s decision in court.” But officials revealed that the utility will again push ahead with plans to trim its workforce in non-core slots.

When asked why the company had given assurances while maintaining reservations over the legality of the government’s decision, Gauhar replied, “We want to keep living in this city too”.

Plans

KESC will sign a memorandum of understanding next week with a US-based company for the import of liquefied natural gas to augment local supplies, the CEO announced. “Engro Vopak will provide the terminal for imports,” he revealed.

The company is in the final stages of completing an agreement with a Chinese company to retrofit KESC’s power plant at Bin Qasim to run on coal. “Initially, the coal will be imported and then in time we will shift to supplies from Thar coal fields.”

Labour union speaks out

KESC Labour Union collective bargaining agent chairman Akhlaque Ahmed said the utility’s management does not want to solve the issue of sacked workers but they want to aggravate the situation for the employees.

Addressing a press conference at the Karachi Press Club along with other trade union leaders on Wednesday, he said the management has transferred security guards who previously were posted at the headquarters to substations in remote areas.

About the attack on the KESC headquarters, he denied allegations and said the ransacking was done by KESC officials to defame the workers and to register FIRs against trade union leaders. “We peacefully sat at the headquarters for 85 hours to protest and in those 85 hours, we did not pelt even a single stone at the building.”

He said that KESC has 2.3 million consumers for which there is a need of 37,000 employees, but the utility has only 11,000 in which more than 6,000 are third-party contract workers.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 27th, 2011.