LG employees to go on strike against unpaid salaries

PESHAWAR:

Local government employees have announced a protest against the non-payment of salaries.

The City Metropolitan Government of Peshawar has been struggling to achieve financial stability as a result of which its employees have not been paid their salaries for the month of December despite the passage of 15 days.

After two weeks of waiting, employees have threatened to start a protest and go on strike over the non-payment of their wages and dues. Official sources told The Express Tribune that the City Metropolitan Government's financial condition had deteriorated further, making the payment of salaries very difficult.

The situation is dire for local government employees of Peshawar, as they are facing severe financial hardship due to non-payment of salaries and pensions.

As a result, many employees are struggling to make both ends meet and pay even electricity and gas bills. Many have complained that their power connections had been disconnected due to non-payment. To make matters worse, local shopkeepers have stopped providing goods on credit, they said. Employees said that the root cause of the crisis lay in the wrong policies of the provincial government, including the mayor's office and officers of the Local Government, which had led to severe financial hardship.

Unfortunately, despite the gravity of the situation, no serious attempt has been made to find a solution, and the Local Government Department and the Minister for Local Government have failed to address the issue, leaving local government employees to bear the brunt of the situation.

United Municipal Workers Union Chairman Malik Muhammad Naveed Awan has expressed deep concern over the fact that LG employees across the province, not just in the Capital Metropolitan Government Peshawar, were receiving their salaries only after staging protest strikes every month, thus making the recurring issue a major worry for the provincial government.