Holding fort: Contract employees take over SSGC’s HQ for a day

The management says it will meet with the protesters on Friday.

KARACHI:

On Monday, the Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) headquarters were surrounded by over a hundred contract-based employees from Sindh and Balochistan. They had travelled over night in an attempt to take over the building.

The employees blocked the main entrance of the state-run organisation at Hasan Square before the sun rose and did not let anyone enter the premises throughout the day.

“We are the people who lay the gas pipeline,” said Rao Asif, a welder who has been working on contract basis for the last 15 years. “When a pipeline is blown up in Dera Bugti, we are forced to go there and fix it.”

The protest was in the making for months, nearly 4,000 SSGC employees are hired on a daily wage system to install and fix gas pipes.

The gates were opened later in the evening, when the management assured the workers that they would sit down to discuss the issue with them on Friday. However, the protestors said that they would continue to protest till they were on the company’s regular payroll.

Many welders, drivers, technicians and clerks complained that although they had been working for the company for years, they had not become permanent employees and did not have access to medical or retirement benefits.

Muhammad Faisal, a technician in the pipeline and construction department said that they had to lay out a 24-inch diameter pipeline in Jamshoro because the prime minister was supposed to inaugurate it. He added that they worked very hard and expected some sort of reward but only got an extra Rs2,000.

Although the SSGC headquarters were shut, there was no major disruption in the gas supply.

The official version

According to Inayatullah Ismail, SSGC’s spokesperson, the protestors were not company employees. He said that they were hired by a third party for specific projects. The management remains undecided if it will hire them as permanent employees. A meeting will be held on Friday to resolve the issue.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 6^th, 2012.