KESC standoff: Deadlines pass with no decision

Union leaders undecided on a future strategy, KESC claims sacked employees sabotaging power infrastructure.

KARACHI:

The deadline for the Karachi Electric Supply Company and sacked members of its union to reach an accord on the union’s protests came and went with no movement on the matter, despite hours of negotiations mediated by senior government officials in Karachi.

At 1 am on Monday morning, newly-appointed Karachi Commissioner Muhammad Hussein Syed invited members of the KESC union to the Commissioner House in Karachi for a meeting that lasted till 6 am. At the end of the meeting, it was decided that the union members would come back at noon to the same location, this time to meet with the KESC management in the same room.

The noon deadline came and went with no sign of the KESC management at the Commissioner’s House. Finally at around 4 pm, members of the KESC management came to the meeting, though it is not yet clear what was discussed. It appears, however, that no decision was reached.

Earlier in the afternoon, Senator Taj Haider of the Pakistan Peoples Party, who is negotiating on behalf of the KESC labour union, had expressed hopes that something might be agreed upon.

“The July 25 deadline has come, but it has not yet gone,” he had said. “The hope is always there that something will be decided soon.”

With the deadline now passing, it remains unclear what actions the union will take to press their demands.

The KESC union had surrounded the company’s headquarters in Karachi on July 19 and had prevented management employees from leaving the premises. After the intervention of Sindh Home Minister Manzoor Wassan, the siege was lifted. The sacked employees agreed to Sindh Governor Ishratul Ebad Khan’s proposal to call of their protests till July 25.

The protestors had confined their sit-in to the areas around the governor’s house. Labour Union (CBA) President Akhlaq Ahmed Khan told The Express Tribune that there was no breakthrough in the meeting so the workers would wait and see what the Sindh governor would do on Monday.

Meanwhile, the KESC complains that union members have begun sabotaging the city’s power infrastructure again.

“Several grid stations were temporarily affected because of the tripping. Dhabeji and Gharo grid stations were mainly affected. KESC teams found out evidence of planned sabotage during the course of repair,” said a KESC press release.

The union has been demanding the reinstatement of around 2,500 of the originally 4,500 sacked employees. It wants them paid for the past four months that they have not received salaries and it wants them to be accommodated back into the KESC workforce.

KESC management, meanwhile, are adamant that they will not allow redundant employees to return to work at the utility, the only privately-owned electricity company in the country.





Published in The Express Tribune, July 26^th, 2011.