March 13, 2008	Thursday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 4, 1429

ISLAMABAD, March 12: A group of daily-wage employees of Pakistan Telecommunication Company (PTCL) has threatened to launch a protest campaign if the company failed to improve their pay package.

About 100 members of the All Pakistan PTCL (New Compensation Package Group) Employees Association visited newspaper offices here on Wednesday to deliver the threat.

They claimed that the PTCL management had promised several years back that the package would be increased in February 2008 but has not honoured it yet.

They said they had been working in the telephone company for many years but neither had they been regularised nor their salary increased.

“We are neither permanent nor on contract nor temporary employees. We have been put in a peculiar New Compensation Package Group with pay scales 1 to 7,” the association’s president, Shahid Mehmood, said.

Eight of their colleagues were issued show-cause notices whereas the president of the association was suspended when they protested against the management for its failure to fulfil the promises, they said. “Such intimidating tactics will not deter us from our demands,” pledged Malik Habibur Rehman, secretary of NCPG association. He said more than 8,000 members of this group had been denied their due rights.

The demands include regularisation of services, increase in salaries and provision of allowances like medical facilities, marriage and death allowances.

Ghulam Mustafa, Ijaz Khan, Chaudhry Mazhar Hussain, Wahid Iqbal and others also spoke on the occasion.

When contacted, a spokesman for PTCL said two weeks ago these daily-wage employees were given 15 per cent raise on gross salaries which came to about 40 per cent of their basic salaries. It may be noted here that these employees are not unionised but working on contract basis, he said.

About the action against some employees who protested for their rights, the spokesman said nobody had been fired. Only nine people had been served show-cause notices for what the spokesman said their obstructing official working, the spokesman added.

While the spokesman said only show-cause notices have been issued, the protesters claimed that one of their colleagues had been suspended.

They also distributed a copy of the suspension order of the employee which is available with this reporter.