Union versus management : ‘Threatened’ local workers want new recruits fired

Company says it advertised, tested and recruited staff on merit.

SUKKUR:

A classic conflict over local versus non-local hiring has emerged between some workers of the Liberty Power Plant in Mirpur Mathelo and the administration.

Some of the workers are under the strong impression that the company ignored local candidates while recruiting the new staff. For its part, however, the company says that it gave them the jobs purely on merit.

The employees who were upset stayed away from work on Tuesday. The union has pitched itself in the middle of the fray. Its president Ghulam Muhammad Jalbani and general-secretary Farman Ali Buriro spearheaded a protest outside the administration’s office and shouted slogans against the company, demanding promotions. Buriro argued that people who have been working for several years were not being promoted but the management hired five ‘outsiders’ as a plant operator and technician among others. He maintained that the locals were quite capable of filling these posts.

Liberty Power Plant administration manager Major (retired) Tahir Hussain brushed aside these allegations, however, and said that the company had advertised the posts in the newspaper. All candidates took a written test and an interview, after which the appointments were made on merit. “Our company is a multinational power producing company and we hunt talent to run our plant,” he said.

Other problems

It appears that the new recruitment opened up a Pandora’s box of complaints. Buriro said that the management was skimping on medical allowances, house rent allowances, utility allowances and other benefits. According to section-47 of the factory law, the management has to but doesn’t pay double the salary as overtime.

Staff in the canteen work for more than 14 hours every day instead of eight hours but are not given overtime, he maintained.

The government has fixed the minimum wage at Rs7,000 per month but the power plant management pays Rs5,000 per month to its daily-wage staff.

“We have complained to the labour department many times,” the union leader added.

For his part, Major (retd) Hussain said that the general manager and the human resource manager were in Islamabad but have been informed of the situation.

The management told Hussain that they want to meet the workers next week but they refused to listen to him.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 13^th,  2011.