LAHORE, Dec 5: The daily-wage workers of the Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited have not given a raise in their salaries approved on Aug 24.

Unskilled, semi-skilled and skilled workers have been given a raise of Rs30, Rs35 and RS45 in their daily wages of Rs120, Rs135 and Rs175, respectively. But, so far none of them have received the raise.

PTCL daily-wage workers association chairman Ilyas Qadri told Dawn on Thursday that the PTCL management denied the raise under the pretext of financial constraints.

He said over 3,000 employees in the province were being denied the raise, urging the telecommunication minister to look into the matter. Workers should also be given arrears.

He claimed that the PTCL had not yet regularized the service of daily-wage workers despite fulfilment of the requirements. “Instead of doing so, the PTCL is planning to downsize its regular staff,” he said.

Mr Qadri said over 6,000 daily-wagers were working across the country, of them about 2,000 in Lahore.

He maintained that about 3,000 workers had become over-age and could not get any government job. “It is unfair on the part of the PTCL management to deny them the right of regular appointment in the organization where they spent much of their time,” he said.

He said most of the workers had been in service for over six years and held MA and BA degrees but the management was not considering their capabilities.

Mr Qadri said there was no group insurance of the workers. “The workers pool money when someone dies to share their meagre income with the family of the dead colleague,” he added.

The daily-wage workers are serving as technicians, clerks, peons and road diggers.