KARACHI, Oct 6: Fear and uncertainty prevail among the workers of the Sindh Industrial Trading Estates Limited, which is in the process of retrenching its employees and has already sacked hundreds in the last few days, it has been reliably learnt here on Saturday.
After relieving approximately 300 daily-wage earners — working for years — during the past couple of days, Site is now in the process of terminating more than 100 permanent employees, according to the sources.
They said the family members of a number of workers, whose services were terminated, had been visiting Site offices for the past few days to know the reason for their termination but failed to get a proper reply.
Sources said Site in its earlier exercise had sacked 130 permanent employees and 64 daily- wage earners in the first quarter of this year. Though the handicapped workers were not sacked previously, it has been reportedly decided that the disabled workers, too, will not be spared this time.
Financial impact
Responding to Dawn queries, a high official of Site on a request of anonymity said a few employees had been sacked. They were project employees. Though the projects had ended long time back, the employees had been retained. Now the financial impact, he said, was becoming so high that some decision had to be taken.
More cases
He said Site being an autonomous body could take its decisions though it had formed a high-level committee, comprising government officials not working in Site, to review the cases for retrenchment and give recommendations.
The committee’s report would be put up before the Site Board, comprising high government officials and industrialists, which would take final decision in the next few weeks, he added.
Unusual silence
When asked about their unnatural silence on the issue, they said whoever raised his voice against the victimisation would be transferred to Site offices in other cities.
The worried workers, including the handicapped, maintained that if the terminations continued it would spread unrest among the poor who were faced with rising inflation and rampant unemployment.
They urged the authorities concerned to ensure reinstatement of sacked employees and stop any further retrenchment.
