KARACHI, June 13: The EOBI officials are harassing the employers by sending the demand notices of exorbitant amounts on the pretext of outstanding dues against the employers for registered and non-registered workers with EOBI to meet the target fixed by the EOBI before June 31, 2003.

Chairman Council of Karachi’s Industrial Associations (CKIA), Zakaria Usman in a statement said that the irritants created by the EOBI and such institutions negate the government’s efforts being made to improve the investment environment, more particularly investment in industry. Thus, the priority of our country should be jobs for the “zero wage earners” rather than welfare.

The officials of EOBI and such other institutions in the name of labour welfare harass the employers for their own benefit. The amounts collected from private sector are mismanaged with the result that instead of passing on the benefits of such schemes to workers, the benefit is being enjoyed by the officials of such institutions or the fund is consumed for other purposes, CKIA chief said.

He said the EOBI officials were after the employers to meet the target fixed by EOBI before June 31, 2003 and were pressurizing them hard to pay the demanded amount which is always on higher side, under all circumstances. “This has resulted in fear and unrest among the employers in all the industrial sectors of the city”, he added.

Zakaria said that the department itself did not have any data of individual workers till date although it was established in 1976. The EOBI directorates in the city had issued notices to industrial units in organized sector.

The text of the notices is: “To ascertain that the provisions of EOBI Act 1976 have correctly been followed/complied with, you are requested to furnish the following information on or before 20th March 2003- 1. Pay Roll/Wages Register 2. Wages Payment Vouchers, 3. Attendance Register, 4. General Ledger — up to July 1 to June 2”.

He said that he failed to understand that while the cess was of voluntary nature and the management was cooperating with the EOBI then why this intimidation and why the department had not been able to complete its data base? This has created irritation among the employers and in some cases they refused to comply with the demands of the EOBI and the end result was that the department issued a fictitious demand note of exorbitant amount and the field staff pressurized the management to pay the demanded amount otherwise they would be issued court notices under penal clause of the Act.

Terming it unjustifiable Zakaria urged upon President Gen. Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali to take serious notice of the situation and issue directive to EOBI Karachi Office to stop this practice with immediate effect.