July 18, 2008	Friday	Rajab 14, 1429

ISLAMABAD, July 17: The management of the Pakistan Telecommunication Company (PTCL) agreed on Thursday to withdraw the ‘unified pay scale’ (UPS).

Negotiations between officials and trade union representatives of the PTCL started on Wednesday night on the orders of Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani who asked the interior ministry to approach the PTCL management and leaders of the New Compensation Pay Grade (NCPG) Association. Officials of the capital’s administration and the ministry and former MNA Chaudhry Manzoor participated in the talks.

The officials announced withdrawal of the UPS and payment of withheld salary of 260 employees.

The trade union representatives agreed to end the strike and unlock the gates of the PTCL buildings, including its headquarters, the sources said.

The city administration and police claimed that a majority of the leaders and representative of the association left the headquarters and unlocked the gates.

However, about three dozen workers remained seated outside the headquarters and refused to end the strike, complaining that “they have been treated unjustly”.And in the evening, NCPG association’s secretary general Malik Habeeb said: “The workers have not called off their strike because their demands have not been met.”

He demanded that the service of the employees on the NCPG should be regularised on the Basic Pay Scale announced by the prime minister.

“The workers are demanding that regular PTCL employees should be given the pay scale, including increased house rent and transport allowance, applicable in 2005 which was announced by the then prime minister Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain,” he said. He said the workers had rejected the UPS.

Another leader of the association, Shahid Mehmood, expressed the fear that the agreement offered during the negotiations was temporary and a ploy aimed at getting the employees back to work.

“Etesalat’s policy is more about cutting down the staff than workers’ welfare,” he said about the owners of the company.

Also on Thursday, Islamabad High Court’s Justice Mohammad Munir Paracha ordered the district administration and federal police to take strict action against those involved in locking up the PTCL headquarters by force.

PTCL’s counsel Naeem Bukhari argued that disruption of the company’s service posed a threat to national security.

Prime Minster Gilani will preside over a meeting on Friday on the workers’ problems and the situation emerging out of the protest.