ISLAMABAD, Nov 8: The People’s Rights Movement (PRM) and the Trade Union Rights Campaign (TURC) have criticized the Pakistan Telecommunication Company (PTCL) authorities for not giving workers bonuses and, in some cases, expected wages in advance before Eid holidays.

The two bodies said the collapse of the PTCL sale to a UAE company, Etisalat, confirmed the suspicions of the PTCL workers that private capital could never be relied upon to cater to the needs of the working class.

Zahoor Khan of PRM and Azam Janjua of TURC said PTCL workers were promised bonuses in advance of the Eid holidays besides other incentives such as company scales and leave encashment.

All of these commitments were originally made in the so- called agreement signed between the management and the PTCL union leaders at the time of the bidding in June, but nothing has materialized so far.

They said it was because of the attitude of the management and the fear that the new owners would sacrifice workers at the altar of profit that workers went on strike against privatization. Now with the sale’s collapse, workers have been left in a lurch, and there is every chance that the government will offer the company to the next in line bidder without any consideration for the needs and rights of the workers.

Etisalat’s pullout reflects that the company did not feel it could guarantee the levels of profit it had originally envisioned. Therefore, it pulled out without any concern for the impact on the workers or the fact that the PTCL was Pakistan’s primary telecommunications service provider.

PRM and TURC will work together with unions committed to standing up to the privatization of PTCL to prevent the government from once again attempting to sell the company to a capitalist firm that was not concerned with the larger welfare needs of the workers and the people of Pakistan.

The two organizations demanded that the government should realize the growing anger and resentment among working people at its ‘pro-capital’ policies.

In the aftermath of the earthquake, people’s patience is wearing thin and it is high time that comprehensive overhauls of anti-people policies took place.

The first step will be to divert a significant chunk of defence budget to earthquake relief efforts rather than reducing the development budget, they said.