ISLAMABAD, Nov 6: Tension is mounting at Federal Directorate of Education (FDE), as the management moves ahead with plans to merge the seniority of the ministerial staff of the directorate and federal government educational institutions (FGEIs).

The FDE clerical staff union leaders have vowed to defy all moves by the administration in this direction.

The FDE officials said provisional combined seniority lists of all the ministerial staff of FDE and FGEI had been prepared in pursuance of the directives of FDE director-general Brig Maqsoodul Hassan.

These lists are based on the particulars of the employees available with them and in the light of the recommendations of committee constituted for developing combined seniority list.

The step, the union leaders said, is likely to affect the promotion prospects and the seniority of over 100 employees working at the directorate.

This move is in violation of the Establishment Divisions’ orders. Moreover, the matter is subjudice and the next date set by the court for hearing is November 13.

According to an Establishment Division letter, seniority of the ministerial staff of the attached department (FDE) cannot be merged with that of a subordinate office (FGEI) due to the difference in the status of the department/office.

The FDE is an attached department of ministry of education, and FGEI are subordinate offices of FDE as defined in Part-A (General) read with Rule 4(4) (Schedule-III) of the Rules of Business, 1973, they said.

Leaders said, besides the difference in the status, both have separate rules for recruitment, appointment and promotion. This difference in the status and rules has existed since the establishment of FDE and FGEI.

Therefore, they believed that any change contrary to the approved rules would not only jeopardise the smooth functioning of the FDE but also set a bad precedent for other departments besides leading to unnecessary litigation.

Dragging low paid employees into litigation would be in contravention of a Supreme Court ruling given in Civil Appeal 678 of 1994, which barred the government machinery from dragging low wage employees into unnecessary litigation.

Union leaders talking to this scribe said, directorate charged the management of being biased and anti-worker and of harbouring malafide intentions.

They contended that the malafide intentions of the administration were obvious from the fact that ministerial staff of model schools and colleges has not been included in the combined list though they have been functioning under the administrative control of the FDE since 1993, when they were declared civil servants. —Zahra Syed