ISLAMABAD, March 20: The Federal Services Tribunal (FST) has directed the Pakistan International Airlines Corporation to pay dues to 238 employees retired under the October 1997 retrenchment scheme.

An FST bench, comprising Justice (retired) Amanullah Abbasi, chairman FST, and Mohammad Iqbal Khan, member, in its February 28, 2004 judgment, also asked the corporation to submit a compliance report to the registrar of the tribunal within two months. It also asked the PIA to sort out any discrepancy in financial benefits in consultation with the appellants.

The PIA had retired 238 employees in 1997 under Mandatory Retirement Scheme (MRS) - a decision which was challenged in the Sindh High Court in 1998 by the employees. The high court rejected the case, against which an appeal was made before the Supreme Court. The apex court also dismissed the appeal, but allowed the appellants to approach the FST.

S.M. Ismail, one of the retired employees, filed a petition before the FST in January 2001, pleading that the corporation had failed to pay normal increments, which would have been accrued to them on yearly basis before reaching the age of superannuation. Similarly, encashment of privilege leave was also not paid.

Though the tribunal asked the PIA to pay the appellant necessary dues, it dismissed Mr Ismail's plea regarding corporation's refusal to allow him to opt for voluntary golden handshake, also offered by the PIA management simultaneously for another category of employees. According to the appellant, the voluntary golden handshake was more attractive than the MRS.

The PIA had divided its employees in two groups - one group comprising employees who would reach the age of superannuation on or before July 2000, and others whose superannuation age went beyond 2002. The second group was allowed to opt for voluntarily golden handshake.

Under the mandatory retirement scheme (MRS), all the employees who were to attain the age of superannuation between October 31, 1997 and July, 2000 stood retired after paying them their salaries and allowances and other terminal dues to which they would have been entitled, had they reached the age of superannuation in normal course of time.

The tribunal stated that no discrimination was meted out to the appellant by the corporation by refusing him to opt for golden handshake because the PIA then was not in a sound financial health and urgently needed downsizing to make the corporation financially viable. The tribunal said that by classifying its employees in two categories, the corporation had not discriminated its employees rather applied a uniform policy to both the groups in their respective classifications.