RAWALPINDI, Nov 23: The office-bearers of different unions of the United Bank (UBL) have asked the government to bring their salaries on a par with those offered by other public-sector banks.

The demand was made by the office-bearers of United Bank Employees Union, United Bank Council of Collective Bargaining Agent Trade Union and United Bank Progressive Employees Union in a press conference held at Rawalpindi Press Club on Sunday.

The office-bearers said employees of other public-sector banks were getting almost double salary.

They asked President Pervez Musharraf, Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali, Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz, Privatization Minister Hafeez Shaikh and State Bank governor Ishrat Hussain to take notice of the issue.

The office-bearers said consultants working on monthly salary of Rs1.2 million each should be removed from service as they were not doing any good to the bank.

They demanded that the government should fairly distribute powers among the bank’s central, provincial and regional branches. Billions of rupees were being spent by the UBL administration in the name of modernization and consultancy, they added.

They said the employees should get salary according to the standards set by International Labour Organization (ILO) and International Standard Organization (ISO).

The bank authorities have reduced the annual leave from 48 days to 36, while the 20 days annual emergency leave has also been terminated, they said. The terms and conditions of Umra, Haj and maternity leave had been changed against the interests of the employees, they added.

They said the period of Leave Preparatory Retirement (LPR) had also been cut from 365 days to 180 days.

The office-bearers said the employees were deprived of their rights despite the passage of one year after the bank’s privatization.