HYDERABAD, Nov 23: At least a dozen sacked workers of the Fateh Apparel and Fateh Waving Mills along with their children staged a protest sit-in outside the press club on Friday against the non-payment of their outstanding dues.

Talking to newsmen, the president, Mazdoor Action Committee, Shafiquddin Shaikh, said that the exploitation of the workers in connivance with the labour directorate by the owners of the Fateh Apparel Limited and Fateh Waving Limited had no parallel in Pakistan.

They said that the employees of a private sector unit always depended on gratuity, which had to be paid under the labour laws, but the owners of these factories had openly violated these.

Mr Shafiquddin alleged that during the nine years from 1989 to 1998, the mill owners gradually and systematically closed the two units and nobody knew where the money had gone.

He said under proper planning the capital had been transferred to Dubai and Moscow, and added that two directors were living abroad while one director was in Pakistan.

He said 400 workers had not only been rendered jobless but they had also been denied the amount of gratuity which was their legal right.

They warned that if their outstanding dues were not paid they would stage a protest sit in outside the Akbar Jee Villas (the residence of the factory owner) every day.

They said that the factory owners had sold the machinery of the factories in scraps for about Rs150 million.