PESHAWAR: Token strike by PTCL employees continues
By Our Correspondent
PESHAWAR, Oct 6: Employees of the Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) observed a two-hour token strike on the fourth consecutive day on Wednesday across the Frontier province.
There were claims and counter-claims about the effect of the strike with some sources in the PTCL saying that only on the first day of the strike some 6,000 calls to the 17 inquiry remained unattended - a claim rejected by the company's spokesman in Peshawar.
"We accept that the services were marginally affected, but the impact is minimal," said the spokesman. Talking to Dawn the PTCL employees said they would make the telecommunication system dysfunctional throughout the country if their demands were not met by October 14.
They said the PTCL had earned a profit of 30 billion rupees in the financial year 2003-2004, but the employees were still not given the benefits the company owed them.
Muqqadam Khan adds from Swabi: The leaders of Pakistan Telecommunication Employees Union told journalists that a token strike was continuing for the last few days. All complaint offices, inquiry, national and international booking offices and all customer service centres observed strike from 10am to 12 noon.
They said no one was allowed to work in the strike hours and all employees stayed away from work. They claimed that the token strike would continue till Oct 14 following which the jamming of the whole communication system would be started. In case of jamming, they said, the government would face losses in billions.
The PTCL employees said that salaries of all other government employees had been increased in June but the promise of a package award to PTCL employees was yet to be fulfilled.
They said that despite the token strike and repeated demands the officials concerned were employing dodging tactics. They said the government would be to blame if the jamming of system started because its delaying tactics had forced them to take this line.
They are demanding restoration of son's quota and inclusion of medical allowance in basic salaries. They said the government would not be able to dupe them through hollow promises, and they would not sit still until practical steps were taken to meet their demands.
