Expressing reservations: Executive clerical staff of PESCO boycotts CBA elections
Say they will not participate unless assured of solutions to their issues.
The participants decided thousands of executive clerks would not take part in the elections until given solid assurances that their issues will be addressed. PHOTO: www.pesco.gov.pk/
PESHAWAR:
The executive clerical staff (ECS) of Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco) on Tuesday announced they will boycott elections for the Collective Bargaining Agent (CBA) across the province.
The ECS claims its service structure issues have been pending since 1995, due to which employees’ promotions have been thwarted over the years.
In a meeting chaired by junior office superintendant Sagheer Ahmad, the ECS union constituted a five-member committee comprising Shah Zafar Noor, Sagheer Jan, Shafiq Khan, Fazal-e-Mula and Pir Qahirullah and decided to boycott CBA elections scheduled for May 29, 2013, until it was assured of solutions to its problems.
Employees Pegham Union (EPU) and Hydro Electric Central Labour Union (HECLU) are rivals in the elections for the CBA, which fights for favourable wages and other benefits on behalf of all Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) employees. Recently, Islamabad High Court (IHC) directed the National Industrial Relation Commission (NIRC) to arrange elections to determine which body will represent Wapda employees across the country.
The ECS meeting was attended by members from six Pesco circles across the province. The participants decided thousands of executive clerks would not take part in the elections until given solid assurances that their issues will be addressed.
“These elections mean nothing to us as our issues are not on the authority’s agenda [of things] to be taken up with the chief executive of Pesco and other high-ups,” said Qahirullah, who is the provincial convener of HECLU.
Qahirullah told The Express Tribune the union’s problems dated back to 1995, when Wapda awarded Grade-11 rank to audit, accounts and revenue clerks, but ignored executive clerks without any reason.
Audit, revenue and accounts assistants are directly promoted to grade-14 from grade-7 while executive clerks with the same type of job are deprived of promotions, alleged Qahirullah. “An executive clerk first has to become a junior clerk (grade-7), then a senior clerk (grade-9) and finally an assistant (grade-14), resulting in service structure issues wherein there are instances of a junior clerk working in the same position for the last 30 years,” he said.
“In the absence of a time scale for promotions, executive clerks – though inducted through similar tests and qualifications as other staffers in Pesco – remain without promotions for years,” complained Sagheer Ahmad.
It is the discretion of Pesco high-ups as to which category a staffer is inducted – either audit, accounts or executive clerk, said deputy provincial convener of HECLU Fazal Maghbood. “So someone who is inducted in the latter category is discriminated against throughout his career.”
Published in The Express Tribune, May 22nd, 2013.
The executive clerical staff (ECS) of Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco) on Tuesday announced they will boycott elections for the Collective Bargaining Agent (CBA) across the province.
The ECS claims its service structure issues have been pending since 1995, due to which employees’ promotions have been thwarted over the years.
In a meeting chaired by junior office superintendant Sagheer Ahmad, the ECS union constituted a five-member committee comprising Shah Zafar Noor, Sagheer Jan, Shafiq Khan, Fazal-e-Mula and Pir Qahirullah and decided to boycott CBA elections scheduled for May 29, 2013, until it was assured of solutions to its problems.
Employees Pegham Union (EPU) and Hydro Electric Central Labour Union (HECLU) are rivals in the elections for the CBA, which fights for favourable wages and other benefits on behalf of all Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) employees. Recently, Islamabad High Court (IHC) directed the National Industrial Relation Commission (NIRC) to arrange elections to determine which body will represent Wapda employees across the country.
The ECS meeting was attended by members from six Pesco circles across the province. The participants decided thousands of executive clerks would not take part in the elections until given solid assurances that their issues will be addressed.
“These elections mean nothing to us as our issues are not on the authority’s agenda [of things] to be taken up with the chief executive of Pesco and other high-ups,” said Qahirullah, who is the provincial convener of HECLU.
Qahirullah told The Express Tribune the union’s problems dated back to 1995, when Wapda awarded Grade-11 rank to audit, accounts and revenue clerks, but ignored executive clerks without any reason.
Audit, revenue and accounts assistants are directly promoted to grade-14 from grade-7 while executive clerks with the same type of job are deprived of promotions, alleged Qahirullah. “An executive clerk first has to become a junior clerk (grade-7), then a senior clerk (grade-9) and finally an assistant (grade-14), resulting in service structure issues wherein there are instances of a junior clerk working in the same position for the last 30 years,” he said.
“In the absence of a time scale for promotions, executive clerks – though inducted through similar tests and qualifications as other staffers in Pesco – remain without promotions for years,” complained Sagheer Ahmad.
It is the discretion of Pesco high-ups as to which category a staffer is inducted – either audit, accounts or executive clerk, said deputy provincial convener of HECLU Fazal Maghbood. “So someone who is inducted in the latter category is discriminated against throughout his career.”
Published in The Express Tribune, May 22nd, 2013.