Fighting for survival: TIP workers block Khanpur-Taxila Road, demand regularisation

Union says over 800 staff members affected by government circular.


Our Correspondent August 12, 2014

HARIPUR: Rendered jobless after their services were not regularised, contractual employees of Telephone Industries Pakistan (TIP) protested against the PML-Nawaz-led central government by blocking Khanpur-Taxila Road.

Led by their union leaders, hundreds of workers staged a sit-in outside the main gate of the TIP office, suspending the flow of traffic for over half an hour.

The PML-N government, through a circular issued in March, barred new appointments and the renewal of contracts. As a result, 836 contractual workers of TIP, including teaching, paramedic and security staff, were rendered jobless.

In contrast, the previous PPP government issued a circular before the last general elections, ordering the regularisation of the services of all TIP workers.

The workers protested against the failure to regularise their services and said they were attending office without pay as their salaries had been stopped after the prime minister’s circular.

The workers took to the streets and chanted slogans against TIP’s management and the PML-N government. They demanded the payment of salaries that had been halted since April.

Speaking at the demonstration, the general secretary of the workers’ union, Usman Shah Sherazi, condemned the ‘sacking’ of 836 workers. He said the union had moved the Peshawar High Court and managed to obtain a stay order against the PML-N government’s circular.

PTI leader and former provincial minister, Yousuf Ayub Khan, also spoke to the protesters and accused the TIP management of being inept and corrupt. He said the telecommunication company had been brought to the verge of collapse by its officers.

The next date of hearing the TIP employees’ case at the Peshawar High Court has been fixed for August 18.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 13th,2014.

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