Salary raises : ‘Clerks will march to Islamabad on June 3 if demands not met’

APCA general secy says govt has not planned raises for workers in the new budget.

FAISALABAD: Scores of workers of various government departments led by All Pakistan Clerks Association (APCA) on Wednesday staged a demonstration, demanding that salaries be doubled by June 3.

They said they would stage a sit-in in front of the parliament on June 3 if their demand was not fulfilled. Carrying banners and placards, the protesters marched to Red Crescent Hospital Chowk and then moved to Zila Council Chowk where they staged a sit-in.

The protesters also blocked University Road for traffic.

Speaking on the occasion, APCA Punjab general secretary Fakharur Rehman Azhar said that the federal budget for 2015-16 would be announced on June 8.



He said the government had not announced salary raises. “Class-IV employees have been calling for raises for so long. Though they form the backbone of government departments, they are always marginalised,” he said.

He said the price hike had aggravated miseries of low income workers. He said privatisation of the government departments would be the same as economic murder of Class-IV workers.

“The government should take steps to control inflation and double salaries of workers,” he said.

The APCA general secretary said if the government did not revise pay scales, enhance their salaries and regularise services of daily wage and contractual workers, the APCA would launch a country-wide protest.

He said workers would also lock out government offices on pen-down strikes march to Islamabad for a sit-in on June 3, if their charter of demands were not accepted.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 28^th, 2015.