March 17, 2008	Monday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 8, 1429

NAUSHAHRO FEROZE, March 16: Hundreds of workers of Al-Noor Sugar Mills and their colleagues from other sugar mills in the province staged a demonstration in Doulatpur on Sunday in protest the anti-labour attitude of the mills administration.

The participants of the rally marched on different roads of the town before terminating at the press club. Raising slogans against the general manager of Al-Noor Sugar Mills, they demanded his removal, restoration of 20 sacked workers and payment of bonus.

The leaders said that a handful of families who had monopolised the sugar industry were depriving the workers of their rights. The owners of Al-Noor Mills appointed a retired brigadier as general manager about eight years ago who discontinued delivery allowance, uniform allowance, house rent, fixed leave, Hajj policy, staff loan and medical allowance and brought down salaries, they said.

They alleged that the general manager had terminated employees who had been working in the mills for last 20 years and replaced them with daily wagers.

They said that the general manager’s agents were recovering Rs100 from each grower in return for issuance of indents and accused the GM, the cane commissioner and labour officer of being involved in the scam.

They warned they would not allow anybody to take away even a single bag of sugar from the mills if their demands for the restoration of bonus, Hajj policy, medical allowance, staff loan, delivery allowance and leave policy were not met.

Comrade Aziz Abbasi and other labour leaders led the workers’ rally.