Initially, dozens of contractual workers of TIP took out a procession from TIP barrier and blocked Khanpur-Taxila Road outside the main gate of the company office. For nearly 30 minutes, the disgruntled workers chanted slogans against the federal government led by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).
Shahbaz Khan Tareen, Malik Iftikhar, Saima Sadiq were prominent among those who addressed the protesters.
Following this, the demonstrators moved their protest to the office of PML-N MNA Omer Ayub on Haripur-Abbottabad road. They held a sit-in outside the MNA’s office and blocked the road.
However, Ayub arrived at the site and assured the protesters he would take up their grievances with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. Upon his request, the former TIP employees cleared the road and shifted to his office.
They urged the MNA to play a role in getting the pending salaries of over 800 workers of TIP and its subsidiary units released. They said these workers have not been paid since May.
Through a circular issued in February, the PML-N government had banned new appointments and the renewal of contracts of contractual workers in all ministries, state-owned enterprises and government departments. This was done even though the previous Pakistan Peoples Party government had ordered regularisation of services of all contract workers before the 2013 general elections.
Some 836 contract workers, including teachers, paramedics and security staff of TIP and its subsidiary organisations, were left jobless after the TIP management stopped the salaries of contract staff in May following the government’s orders.
Since then, the workers have been protesting against the termination of their services, but have still been coming to their offices to work.
According to TIP Workers and Employees Union General Secretary Usman Shah Sherazi, the government has no legal standing for terminating the services of 836 workers as it cannot sack a single worker without giving a reason and the relevant benefits under the law.
Sherazi explained the union had obtained a stay from Labour Appellate Tribunal of Peshawar High Court’s Abbottabad bench against the sacking order by the TIP management. The next hearing is fixed for September 22, he added.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 16th, 2014.
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