Unhappy workers: Services suspended for hours at Gymkhana
‘400 members turned away’.
LAHORE:
Gymkhana Club members who visited the club on Friday afternoon had to go without snacks, beverages and lunch after the club staff went on a strike.
According to the employees, they were protesting the “laying off” of 15 gardeners, non-payment of overtime allowance and not being given the salary raise that the management had promised.
Gymkhana has more than 4,000 members and more than 800 employees.
A member, who visited the club on Friday, told The Express Tribune that “all services had been suspended for three hours” after the employees refused to perform their regular duties. Speaking on condition of anonymity, he said that he had seen about 400 people being turned away during the lunch hours. An admin officer, who requested not to be named, described the estimate as “pretty accurate”, saying that afternoons were the busiest time of the day at the club.
One of the protesting employees, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the gardeners had been laid off last week.
He complained that the management had given the employees “only a 15 per cent raise” in March. He claimed that a “much higher raise” had been promised but did not specify how much. It was unjust, he said, adding that they were protesting the “atrocities” of the management. Other protesters accused the management of denying them overtime payments. One of them said around 200 employees had joined the protest.
Some of the members were seen trying to persuade the employees to return to their duties by assuring them that they would ask the management to accept their demands.
Khawar Khursheed Butt, the club secretary, said that services had been suspended for two hours as a result of the protest by “a small number of employees”. The secretary said that the gardeners’ services had not been terminated.
“They have been handed over to the administration wing to be reassigned different duties,” said Butt. He said that reassignment would not entail a “substantial” pay cut. He denied the employee’s claim that more than a 15 per cent raise had been promised. Asked if employees were not paid for overtime, he said that there were a few cases pending, which would be looked into “on priority basis, now”.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 28th, 2012.
Gymkhana Club members who visited the club on Friday afternoon had to go without snacks, beverages and lunch after the club staff went on a strike.
According to the employees, they were protesting the “laying off” of 15 gardeners, non-payment of overtime allowance and not being given the salary raise that the management had promised.
Gymkhana has more than 4,000 members and more than 800 employees.
A member, who visited the club on Friday, told The Express Tribune that “all services had been suspended for three hours” after the employees refused to perform their regular duties. Speaking on condition of anonymity, he said that he had seen about 400 people being turned away during the lunch hours. An admin officer, who requested not to be named, described the estimate as “pretty accurate”, saying that afternoons were the busiest time of the day at the club.
One of the protesting employees, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the gardeners had been laid off last week.
He complained that the management had given the employees “only a 15 per cent raise” in March. He claimed that a “much higher raise” had been promised but did not specify how much. It was unjust, he said, adding that they were protesting the “atrocities” of the management. Other protesters accused the management of denying them overtime payments. One of them said around 200 employees had joined the protest.
Some of the members were seen trying to persuade the employees to return to their duties by assuring them that they would ask the management to accept their demands.
Khawar Khursheed Butt, the club secretary, said that services had been suspended for two hours as a result of the protest by “a small number of employees”. The secretary said that the gardeners’ services had not been terminated.
“They have been handed over to the administration wing to be reassigned different duties,” said Butt. He said that reassignment would not entail a “substantial” pay cut. He denied the employee’s claim that more than a 15 per cent raise had been promised. Asked if employees were not paid for overtime, he said that there were a few cases pending, which would be looked into “on priority basis, now”.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 28th, 2012.