Rescuers lose ‘raise’, pay back last month’s allowance

LAHORE: The government has withdrawn the 50 per cent ad hoc pay raise given to the Rescue 1122 employees in August and deducted the amount from their September salaries.

The Rescue employees salaries paid out on August 1 included a Rs2,800 (50 per cent) ad hoc allowance and a Rs500 medical allowance. This month, though, their salary has been reverted to the earlier amount and the allowances have been deducted from it.

In the wake of the move, Dr Rizwan Naseer, the director general of the Rescue 1122, has issued letters to every station of the department. It reads:

“Your pays were raised but some saboteurs spoiled your case. The Punjab government also does not have enough funds as it is busy rehabilitating the flood victims. I would pursue your case and will hopefully get your salaries increased soon. You should keep working with devotion.”

Dr Rizwan Naseer told The Express Tribune that the Rescue 1122 was not included in the list of departments for which a 50 per cent pay raise had been approved in this year’s provincial budget.

He said that some districts, acting on their own, had started paying salaries but after the provincial finance minister’s clarification they have withdrawn the raise.

He added that the provincial government was going through a financial crunch and also required funds for the flood relief and rehabilitation work.

Talking to The Express Tribune, several Rescue 1122 staff members blamed the move on incumbent provincial government’s bias against the department.

A staff member said that the government had been snubbing the department from day one just because it was established by the PML-Q government.

A Rescue official requesting anonymity said that a Rescue 1122 employee in scale 11 was getting Rs14,800 per month while a police constable in scale 5 was getting Rs15,000 per month. Some suggested that if the government had to withdraw the raise, it should not have given it in the first place.  “It has only increased our difficulties.

They are deducting it this month leaving us half our salaries to spend the whole month,” a worker said.

“If the federal and provincial notifications, about the 50 per cent pay raise, had no mention of the Rescue 1122 then why did the government pay the allowances,” asked another.

He held that the employees of the police and the judiciary were already getting better salaries, but had still been accommodated in this year’s budget.

The Rescue workers, in protest against the provincial government’s decision to not include them among those getting the pay raise, had observed a strike all over the province on July 22. They had suspended emergency services in several districts including Lahore, Dera Ghazi Khan, Sargodha, Faisalabd, Rawalpindi and Multan.

Following the protest, the provincial government announced the raise. The difference was paid in the third week of August.

People from various walks of life have exprerssed sympathies for the department on account of their satisfactory performance. Masood Ahmed Malik, a lawyer, said that the departments that provide emergency services should be among the top priorities of the government.

He said that the successive governments had never paid attention to the civic needs of the people and hence did not appreciate such services.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 8^th, 2010.