Staff strike : PEF issues warnings to protesting staff

LAHORE:

A strike by the Punjab Education Foundation workers is set to enter its third day on Monday (today). The protesting staff are demanding that the management take notice of alleged irregularities in recruitment and financial wrong doing.

The PEF management has issued warning notices to around 20 PEF staff who went on strike on May 1. Employees at the PEF head office had boycotted work last week, went on strike Thursday morning, and continued their protest on Friday.

The strike was called last week after objections to the appointment of PEF Managing Director Aneela Salman surfaced. The staff demanded that the appointment decision be revisited along with irregular appointments of 60 other staff members by the HR department, an inquiry into a Rs6 million corruption case at the PEF cash office and a delay in the renewal of 132 employees’ contracts.

According to one of the protesting workers, as many as 20 people have been issued warning notices in relation to the strike. “Notices were put outside our offices informing us that we had violated PEF rules and tried to disrupt the Chief Minister’s Schools Reform roadmap”, he said. The warning notices were issued after the Thursday strike and sit-in outside the PEF managing director’s office. “We have been notified that this will not be tolerated and should be stopped at once”, he added.

The PEF management has maintained that there was no strike. PEF MD Aneela Salman’s office dismissed the protestors’ objections, claiming that the MD was appointed by the Punjab government. “The government is the competent authority and has made its decision…how can PEF workers challenge the decision?” the Communications Additional Director Qudrat Ullah asked. He said the incumbent MD was a grade 19 DMG officer and had been appointed on merit. “Any concerns in this regard are unwarranted”, he said.

Though the PEF management denied that any staff members were on strike, Qudrat Ullah added that any attempt to disrupt operations would be a violation of PEF rules.

PEF staff who have received the notice said it had been issued by the HR department.

“We plan to continue the strike unless our grievances are heard.

We have tried to route our concerns through the administration but they have fallen on deaf ears”, said a protesting Punjab Education Foundation official. He said internal reservations regarding irregular appointments had been raised last year at various platforms.

“Punjab Education Foundation interventions and projects are some of the most effective in the education sector. Maligning the integrity of these projects will cost us all” he added.

Earlier last week, the protestors had announced that they would take their demonstration outside the office on Monday.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 5^th, 2014.