HYDERABAD: Retrenchment of sugar industry workers decried
Bureau Report
HYDERABAD, July 5: The Sindh Sugar Mills Trade Unions Federation (SSMTUF) has expressed concern over the large scale unemployment in the Sindh sugar industry and withdrawal of facilities to its employees.
In a statement issued here on Thursday, the federation president, Abdul Majeed Leghari, and secretary general Bashir Ahmed deplored that a process of retrenchment had begun in the industry.
They said that the factory owners had also introduced the contract system to undermine trade union activities and deprived the workers from their legal rights.
They said that due to mushroom growth of the sugar industry without any planning coupled with the abolition of zoning system, the mill owners used to purchase sugarcane at the rates higher than the government ones, to increase their production. However, they added that the workers were being blamed for the increased cost of production.
The labour leaders pointed out that with the abolition of the zoning system, middlemen had taken over the supply of sugarcane to mills and they exploited the growers by purchasing sugarcane for Rs25 to Rs30 per 40kg even before the crop was harvested. Later at the beginning of the crushing season, the middlemen supplied sugarcane to factories at double the price of the government rate,they said.
In this way, they said, both the growers and the factory owners were being exploited by the middlemen and the workers were the worse sufferers who were being axed.
They said that this vicious circle had created resentment among the workers and called upon the government to take corrective measures, warning otherwise there would be a strong reaction from the workers.
The SSMTUF leaders demanded that the zoning system be reintroduced, role of the middleman be eliminated and retrenchment of the workers should be stopped.
They also demanded that in order to stabilise the sugar industry, strict action should be taken against those who purchased or sold sugarcane at the rates below or above those fixed by the government.
RAILWAY EMPLOYEES: The Naib Nazim of Hyderabad city taluka, Abdul Qadeer Naghar, has criticized the attitude of the railway workshop administration towards the workers and added that any resentment among the workers could prove counter productive for the organization.
He was talking to a delegation of the Railway Workers Union (CBA) which called on him at his office here on Thursday.
Mubarik Noor, Salahuddin and other union leaders complained that the concerned authorities had resorted to discriminatory attitude against some workers by sending 350 employees to Lahore in the surplus pool.
They said that when the CBA union protested against the discrimination, the office-bearers of the union were issued threats that their services would be terminated. Naghar assured the union leaders that he would send a letter to the railway ministry and apprise the railway authorities of the prevailing situation.
