KARACHI, Feb 7: The management of the Pakistan Steel has agreed not to sack or lay off or force any more workers to opt for voluntary retirement and to pay a bonus of Rs 2,000 to all its employees.

The agreement between the management and the representatives of the workers was reached on Wednesday after the “assertive intervention” of the City Nazim, Naimatullah Khan, who urged both parties to ensure that there was no law and order situation in the mills as it would affect the atmosphere in the city also.

On Jan 31 the workers of the mills had blocked the road leading to the Pakistan Steel and kept it blocked for over eight hours and opened it only after the public representatives intervened and requested them and the management to solve the issue through negotiations. A meeting was scheduled to be held on Feb 6.

On Feb 6 the Nazim, accompanied by the two AIGs Asad Jehangir and Tariq Jamil, besides others went to the mills to convince both the parties and help them resolve the issue peacefully.

The meeting, which lasted more than five hours, was attended by the Pakistan Steel chairman, Afzal Khan, and the representatives of four unions — Pakistan Steel Labour Union, People’s Workers Union, Labour League Union, and United Workers Front — and others on Wednesday.

Mr Khan speaking at a press conference on Thursday evening said that he informed the steel mills chief that a road accident in which a female student, Bushra Zaidi, had died many years back had turned into an ethnic conflict that had left many dead in the city. He added that if there were mass scale sackings of steel mill workers it would affect the peaceful atmosphere in the city also as thousands of workers lived there.

Giving details of the agreement, he said that the bonus of Rs2,000 would be paid before Eid, and after the accounts were audited more bonus would be also given. He said that the management had not given any bonus for over five years.

He said that the management had agreed to restore all the bus routes which had been closed down recently and that no worker would be forced to leave his city residence and shift to the Steel Town houses that were being provided by the management.

He said that the management and the unions had agreed to withdraw the cases filed against each other. The cases filed in connection with the holding of the referendum would also be withdrawn after which the referendum could be held, soon.

Naimatullah Khan said that the management had issued many baseless charge-sheets and now it had agreed to withdraw all these charge-sheets. He said that the management had also agreed to develop the Gulshan-i-Hadeed Phase III.

A few demands of the workers were, however, not accepted by the management, which refused to give the new pay scales that were announced by the government and had already been given to the employees of other corporations. The management maintained that until the number of workers was brought down to around 12,500, from the present of over 13,500 new pay scales would not be given.

The management also refused to transfer over 250 women teachers to their original teaching jobs. These teachers have been transferred to the plant and were assigned non-teaching assignments. The management also refused to increase the present ceiling of Rs500 of medical expenses.

It also did not agree to lower the deduction of house-rent, that had been doubled recently, from the salary.

The labour leaders — Rana Haneef, Dhani Bakhsh Samoon, Nisar Ahmad Shar, Mohsin Khan and others — who attended that press conference, however, maintained that they still stood by their accusations that they had been levelling against the steel mills chief and the management.