June 04, 2007	Monday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 18, 1428

ISLAMABAD, June 3: The management of the Pakistan Telecommunication Company (PTCL) has said that it is ‘pondering over’ a ‘voluntary separation scheme’ which will be offered to permanent employees of the company, but added that no one would be forced to accept it.

Referring to a report which appeared in Dawn on Saturday saying that the company planned to retrench over 22,000 employees, a PTCL spokesman said on Sunday that the company had no plan of any lay-off. Nevertheless, it was pondering over the voluntary separation scheme.

He said the PTCL employees union, the CBA, was already on board on the issue and an agreement in this regard had been signed a few days ago. He said that different packages would be offered in order to give multiple choices to the employees. The scheme had been sent to the government for final approval, he added.The spokesman said that some ambitious people wanted to create confusion by disseminating information that workers would be forced to retire under the voluntary separation scheme. The union leaders, on behalf of the employees, had supported the scheme and assured the management of their full cooperation, he added.

However, an internal circular of PTCL, a copy of which is available with Dawn, reveals that the management has categorised all its employees as Key Talent, Other Needed Employee, Surplus Needed, Surplus Not Needed and Redundant, and target more than 22,000 employees in the last two categories.

The circular has been issued with the approval of PTCL senior executive vice president Ismael S. Taha in which all the top brass of the company has been warned to keep the issue secret as it could lead to ‘embarrassment’.

When contacted, the Pakistan Telecommunication Lion’s Unity (PTLU) central deputy secretary-general Azad Qadri said that the PTCL management had categorised 33,000 workers as ‘Redundant’ and ‘Surplus Not Needed’. If looked into details of the scheme and the technical jargons the management had used in a recent circular issued to its top brass, it was evident that the voluntary separation scheme was nothing but a ‘lay-off’ and ‘forced retrenchment’ plan, he added.

“This is going to be the biggest lay-offs in history of Pakistan. The whole situation will be crystal clear in the next few weeks to all and sundry,” he observed.

Sources told Dawn that keeping in view the current judicial crisis and the forthcoming elections, the government would take some time in approving the PTCL’s plan.

They said the PTCL management had already secured the confidence of some of the country’s top policymakers on the issue. However, the plan would be approved at an ‘appropriate time’ so that it could not create any embarrassment for the government, he added.

Recently, the government had to force the management of the Zari Taraqiati Bank Ltd (ZTBL) to take back its decision of terminating the services of 1,800 low grade employees as a part of the bank’s restructuring plan being funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB).