Employment privileges: Secretariat employees get 'prompt consideration' pledge

18 requests presented to the additional chief secretary.

LAHORE:

All legitimate demands of the Punjab Civil Secretariat Employees’ Association (PCSEA), regarding the promotion and welfare of employees, will be addressed without delay, Additional Chief Secretary (ACS) Sohail Amer said at the oath taking ceremony of the newly elected office bearers at the Darbar Hall, of the Civil Secretariat, on Friday.

“The government wants to improve governance in the province. This will not be possible without constructive feedback from its employees,” he said.

Amer was the chief guest at the ceremony.

PCSEA Vice President Raja Sohail Ahmed presented 18 requests at the ceremony.



He said that the association had requested that private secretaries and superintendents in BS-16 should be allowd to work in BS-17 as section officers against posts falling vacant because of deputation, training and leaves. He requested that 21 per cent of assistants in BS-14 should be promoted to the position of superintendents in BS-16.

He said that 33 per cent of the assistants should be promoted to deputy superintendents and the promotion quota for senior clerks in BS-9 to the post of assistant should be increased from 67 per cent to 75 per cent.

Time-scale promotion of class four employees should be ensured. They should be promoted to the next scale no later than 10 years in service. They should also be paid a Rs1,000 overtime allowance each month.

He said that class four employees should also be provided uniforms and washing allowance.

Ahmed said that retired employees should continue to be covered by group insurance on attaining age of superannuation, the same way the families of employees dying in service were covered.

Secretariat employees should be given a 15 per cent utilities allowance in view of the high cost of living. Ahmed said that employees in Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa, Balochistan and Sindh had already been granted this allowance.

The quota for the recruitment of employees’ kin should be increased from 20 per cent to 40 per cent. Recruitment to the secretariat on the technical quota should be reduced from 20 per cent to 10 per cent, to allow the promotion of more employees.

He requested the resumption of the house-purchase-advance grants and said the amount should be fixed at Rs100,000. House rent and a five per cent maintenance allowance is deducted from the salaries of employees residing in government residences. Ahmad said that the deduction of maintenance allowance should stop.

He requested the addition of four new buses to the existing fleet. “The quota for direct recruitment to posts at BS-17 should be reduced from 50 per cent to 45 per cent, so that more existing employees can be promoted to those positions,” he said.

Workers should also be provided 20 per cent Secretariat Allowance the same way as workers at the Governor’s House were given. A welfare grant should be established so that employees may be allotted funds in case of an emergency, Ahmad said.

Amer said that the government wanted to upgrade the skill sets of its employees. Timely promotion would be a step in this regard, he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 28^th, 2013.