Hold protest: QAU staffers seek raise in salary

ISLAMABAD:

Employees of Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU) on Tuesday held an on-campus protest for fulfillment of multiple demands.

The Employees Welfare Association (EWA) of QAU organised the protest, with the demands including early wage increments, leave encashment and marriage grants. EWA President Haroon Butt said they had been demanding their rights for the past three years, but to no avail.

He said that their protest had been peaceful but warned, “If our demands are not met, we can resort to more”.

Butt said that the increment issue was pending since 2007. About leave encashment, the employees claimed that it was due since December 2010. They were also of the view that in the recent university budget, there was no allocation for hiring of new security guards and sanitary workers. They said that on the other hand, more gardeners were being hired than the requirement.

QAU Vice-Chancellor Eitizaz Ahmad told The Express Tribune that he had met the EWA officials and most of their demands were met, adding, “All wishes cannot be fulfilled.” He said that there was an audit objection on leave encashment, which is why the university could not proceed with the request.

About hiring more security guards and sanitary workers, the vice-chancellor said that creation of a “huge number” of posts could irk the university chancellor — President of Pakistan Mamnoon Hussain. “Moreover, we are overhauling sanitary and other matters in the university,” he remarked.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 25^th, 2014.