ISLAMABAD, Sept 10: The Pakistan Telecom Employees Union (PTEU) activists and representatives of regional Collective Bargaining Agents (CBAs) from all over the country staged a sit- in outside Pakistan Telecommunications Company (PTCL) headquarters on Tuesday.

The PTCL employees were protesting against, what they termed as, the indifferent attitude of the company’s management towards their problems.

The PTEU’s regional leaders, Raja Shahid and Rahat Butt, talking to this reporter, said the PTCL management had “illegally” inducted a retired army officer as general-manager (administration).

They said the management was creating hurdles in the union’s activities, and to divert employees’ attention from their constitutional rights, it had involved the union in litigations.

“Even the Supreme Court listened to our woes and had ordered the PTCL to give employees the permission to form a union and to accept their genuine demands”, the PTEU leaders said.

“The PTCL, on the other hand, is encouraging pocket-unions, which supported the management, and granted them Rs3.2 million as allowance — a prize for their betrayal of the workers who had already been suffering due to the unprecedented price hike and downsizing in the company.

“The management has paid Rs5.8 million to an advocate to plead the case against the PTCL workers and is trying to privatize the company without their consent and deprive them of their legal rights,” they added.

The PTEU leaders asked the PTCL management to hold the CBA referendum and implement the 1998 accord reached with the employees’ representative bodies.

Meanwhile, the PTCL chairman called the PTEU central chairman, Zulfiqar Ali Sanghi, central vice-president Ziauddin and general-secretary Rana M. Tahir for negotiations, that were going on till the filing of this report.

The PTCL employees said they were not hopeful about any positive outcome of the negotiations. They said the management would go ahead with the downsizing plan in the name of “rightsizing” and privatize the company, leaving thousands of workers unemployed.

“The poor will suffer in this country, be it a military dictatorship or a democratically elected government, as the PTCL management keeps on employing it ‘friends’ as consultants on hefty amounts to snatch the livelihood from the workers,” they added.

When contacted, the PTCL management said it would comment on the situation after the negotiations were over.