KARACHI: The All Pakistan NIFT Employees Union (CBA) held a press conference at the Karachi Press Club on Tuesday to clear certain ‘misconceptions’ being associated with their institution.

Mohammad Fahim Khan, the general secretary of the All Pakistan NIFT Employees Union, said that the National Institutional Facilitation Technologies (Pvt) Ltd, or NIFT, was basically a monetary institution working under licence of the State Bank of Pakistan.

Cheques from some 42 commercial banks in Pakistan get clearance through NIFT amounting to transactions worth billions every day. “Understanding the sensitivity of their work, the employees of NIFT at their branches in some 25 cities of Pakistan work 24/7 to the best of their abilities to keep the countrywide monetary transactions going on,” he said.

“But these employees face several difficulties in their work which the All Pakistan NIFT Employees Union wants to resolve through dialogue, but the management has continuously been hurling allegations at them and the union. They say that the collective bargaining agents are troublemakers hindering work,” he said, adding that this was also the reason why they have had to come out and present their case before the media.

Enforcement of Essential Services Act criticised

He further explained that the All Pakistan NIFT Employees Union (CBA) had in February 2019 put before the management certain demands which were ignored.

The federal government decided to impose the Essential Services Act on NIFT due to which there was a restriction on union activities, he said. “We have challenged the step in the Sindh High Court so we are not going to discuss the details of that case here,” he said.

“But the employees of NIFT are suffering badly due to inflation and the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown. Despite the lockdown, they didn’t miss work.

“We want to tell our fellow countrymen that we understand the difficulties faced by the people of our country in these testing times. We will not take any wrong or unlawful step that may make NIFT look bad. But we also want to say that we are not with elements who are against workers. We are also against retrenchments and firing of employees,” he said.

“We want the management of NIFT to start talking to us and consider our charter of demands. We also want standard operating procedures at work so that employees can work keeping proper social distancing according to the standards of the World Health Organisation. We also want health insurance for them and the management to pay for their Covid-19 tests in case they need to be tested,” he demanded.

Other unions support demands

The All Pakistan NIFT Employees Union (CBA) was supported in their quest for their rights by various other trade unions.

Habibuddin Junaidi of the Employers Federation of Pakistan said that it was very sad that the government was ‘against’ trade unions. “This government should be looking at how it can increase employment in the country. Instead it is bent on making more and more people jobless like it is doing with the Pakistan Steel Mills workers and the polio workers,” he said.

Zulfiqar Shah of the Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research said that technically the Essential Services Act did not even apply to the NIFT.

He said that where the union was doing good work for employees they were seen by the management as villains who needed to be gotten rid of in some way or the other. “But they don’t understand that when you take away rights of workers, you also won’t be able to deal with crisis situations,” he said.

Nasir Mansoor of the National Trade Union Federation said that this was the first time in the history of this country that the Essential Services Act was being imposed on a private institution.

Zehra Khan of Home-Based Women Workers Federation criticised the Essential Services Act, which she said was created to cut off trade unions and the rights of workers. “So it is important that all of us trade unionists put up a united front. The government is doing whatever it can because of the hefty IMF loans. We are dealing with people who will do anything for money,” she said.

Liaquat Sahi of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Democratic Workers Union said that ‘selected’ governments like to go against the country’s Constitution to make bureaucracy and profiteers happy. “Does the government realise that throttling trade unions will also affect exports and imports?” he said.

Published in Dawn, June 10th, 2020