15 May 2004	Saturday	24 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1425

KARACHI, May 14: Habib Bank Employees Federation of Pakistan says 10 per cent of HBL shares should be allotted on face value to its employees. It says this will eliminate unrest among employees of privatized HBL.

"We have made this request in writing to President Gen. Pervez Musharraf/Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz and Privatization Minister Hafeez Sheikh," Secretary General of the Federation Muhammad Ali Memon told Dawn. He said the authorities are yet to respond.

He said the allotment of 10 per cent HBL shares to employees will go a long way in restoring their sense of belonging to the bank and enable them to perform better under the new management.

The government has sold 51 per cent stakes of HBL to the Aga Khan Economic Development Fund and the new management has taken over. HBL employees demand seeking 10 per cent of the bank shares means acquisition of more than 20 per cent of the government-held shares in the bank. When Mr Memon was asked whether Habibians have enough fund to buy 20 per cent of the government-held shares he replied in the affirmative. "If these shares are offered to us on face value they will cost less than a billion rupee and we have Rs1.2 billion in our workers welfare fund that can easily be used to buy these shares," he said.

"Besides we are demanding allotment of 10 per cent of overall HBL shares to all of its employees - around 18,000 in number. They can make own contributions also (towards pooling up resources to buy shares)."

PAY PACKAGE: In the mean time HBL Employees Federation has won a new pay package after a series of discussions with the new management.

The agreement signed between the Federation and HBL management (a copy of which was provided to Dawn by Mr Memon) shows that clerical and non-clerical staff of the bank will get a 6 per cent increase in their basic pay with retrospective effect from January 1, 2004.

It shows that they will also get another 6 per cent increase in their basic pay from January 1, 2005.

"All related allowances which are indexed on the basic pay will also be increased accordingly from the date of increase in the basic pay," says the agreement. Any increase in the rates of allowances index on basic pay is allowed "across the board to officers/executives during the years 2004 and 2005 the same will also be made applicable to clerical and non-clerical staff in addition to the benefits granted" under the said agreement.

Mr Memon said that the new package means the paybill of clerical and non-clerical staff of HBL will rise by Rs150 million in 2004 and by another Rs150 million in 2005.

He said currently the bank was spending more than Rs1.3 billion on around 8,000 clerical and non-clerical staff of the bank. The total paybill of 17,900 HBL employees is more than Rs4.6 billion.