LAHORE: Around 2,000 janitorial and security staff of the Punjab Masstransit Authority on Tuesday stopped working in protest against nonpayment of salaries for the last two months and held sit-ins.

The employees are working with the Metro Bus Service and Orange Line Metro Train (OLMT). The Punjab government had to release a Rs150m three months grant for the authority, which was not done.

Due to the protest, the staff stopped cleaning, resulting in heaps of garbage at different stations, buses and trains. The staff held sit-ins at the stations of the metrobus and Orange Line train in protest.

The security and janitorial employees are of the view that the masstransit authority is not releasing their salaries and they are suffering in the month of fasting to meet the needs of their families. They say that the authorities have not taken any measures to pay them for the last two months. The employees decided to go on strike until payment of pay.

Masstransit authority’s General Manager Operations Uzair Shah told the media the salaries of the employees would be paid as soon as the government released the three months grant. He said it was expected that the grants would be released before Eid and the staff would get the salaries.

Earlier last month, more than 1,000 workers of Lahore Waste Management Company (LWMC) and supervisors working with the Punjab Masstransit Authority were removed from service. The authority was having a contract with the LWMC for maintaining cleanliness of the OLMT and Metro Bus Service. Around 435 employees were working on the train and 590 on the bus. The metro bus service and the OLMT authorities hired a private company to maintain cleanliness in the bus and train and cancelled the contract with the LWMC.

Published in Dawn, April 27th, 2022