KARACHI, Feb 23: The National Trade Union Federation (NTUF) has demanded that if 17 sacked officials of the Karachi Shipyard Labour Union (CBA) were not reinstated and victimization of other workers was not stopped , it would launch a protest movement after Ashura.

Speaking at a press conference at the press club here on Monday, the NTUF leaders, Saleem Raza, Ghani Zaman and Mohammad Rafiq, alleged that the Shipyard management had misappropriated hundreds of millions of rupees from the employees' provident fund and when CBA-nominated member of the fund committee raised some questions regarding the misappropriation, he had been sacked.

Mentioning some other anti-workers steps taken by the management, they said that the workers were not being paid their arrears, Haj scheme had been discontinued, medical facilities had been curtailed, and it had sacked many employees under the so-called golden handshake scheme by paying them their 60 basic salaries.

They said that the union had many a times urged the management to start negotiations on the charter of demand over the last one year, but it was not heeding the call.

The labour leaders recalled that the management had sacked 17 union officials when they tried to force it to disburse salaries for the months of December and January to the workers on the occasion of Eidul Azha.

On the one hand, the workers are being sacked, and on the other many employees are being hired through a contractor, who is paid in advance, they lamented.

They demanded that the senior Navy officials hired on huge perks be sent back and technically qualified people be recruited instead. They said that the union had approached different senior government officials to apprise them of the misappropriation and atrocities against the workers, but no action was being taken in this regard.

They demanded that an inquiry be instituted into the misappropriation and the culprits given exemplary punishment as per the relevant laws. The labour leaders alleged that the management was trying to create unrest among the workers of shipyard where more than 400 ships, vessels, etc. had been built for local and foreign clients.