November 02, 2007	Friday	Shawwal 20, 1428

ISLAMABAD, Nov 1: PTCL shareholders have strongly opposed the Voluntary Separation Scheme (VSS) fearing the collapse of the company after the technical and trained staff is relieved through the newly introduced system.

The concern was conveyed to the government in the annual general meeting of the PTCL Board of Directors held at the telephone company headquarters. Secretary information technology Hafeezur Rehman, who is also chairman of the telecommunication company, chaired the meeting. PTCL high officials, members of the BoD and shareholders attended the yearly meeting.

It is pertinent to mention here that about 62.5 per cent shares of the PTCL are owned by the government, 26 per cent by Etisalat and 11.5 per cent are with the shareholders.

Shareholders through a joint resolution presented in the meeting showed the concern that if the technical field staff was removed through the VSS without proper replacement the company would suffer. The government has no contingency plan to make up for the wide gap which will be created after the VSS is imposed, the resolution said.

The system has created awe, apprehension and a wave of concern amongst the employees, they noted. It has left all the workers demoralised, dejected and shaken with the VSS hanging over their heads like a Sword of Damocles, said the resolution submitted to the management. They said that the PTCL human resources department had been made to solely focus on the VSS at the cost of their other responsibilities, which, they feared, has created great problems in other sectors.

They also blasted at the senior vice president human resources is not from amongst the PTCL employees and cannot function as an effective member.

The newly introduced VSS is likely to be introduced from November 15, 2007 and it is feared it would affect about 40,000 employees especially the lower ones — grade 16 and below.

PTCL union leaders said that different allowances, the employees are entitled to, have already been slashed in order to pressurize them to accept the VSS. Employees who will suffer the most as a result of this scheme are the low-scale employees like line men, operators, UDCs, LDCs, assisting and supervisory staff. Their medical allowances, group insurance, house building advance facilities, leave entitlement, etc., have already been reduced, they said.

Unlike this, some people are hired for high posts with huge salary packages, they said. They termed it great discrimination and said the PTCL working would be greatly affected.

Shareholders have also levelled serious allegations of nepotism, mismanagement against the PTCL administration. They alleged that the income of the company had come down by 50 per cent. In 2004, the PTCL earned a profit of Rs29,170 million which, according to the shareholders, came down to Rs15,639 million in 2007. Large amounts are being spent on the purchase of vehicles for the high officials.

They said that the subsidiaries of PTCL like the Ufone have also been suffering as a result of wrong policies of the administration. Among other problems is the issue of poor service, growing complaints about accessibility, connectivity and call dropping.