LAHORE, April 15: The Muslim Commercial Bank Workers and Officers Action Committee has criticized retrenchment and victimization of the bank employees despite substantial increase in profits and stressed the need for talks for the resolution of dispute.

Committee president Malik Ehtashamul Hasan and convener Saeed Ghani said at a press conference at the Lahore Press Club here on Monday that the MCB management had retrenched 220 drivers on April 6 and put another 2,500 on the termination list only a few weeks after it had given Rs5,000 to every employee to celebrate the grant of the No 1 bank of Pakistan award by the Euromoney.

They said there was no justification for retrenchments as the bank had earned a pre-tax profit of Rs2,101 million last year but reduced the number of employees from 13,031 to 11,614. It had, however, employed 20 people as officers against salaries ranging from Rs250,000 to Rs600,000 per month.

They claimed that the bank management wanted to eliminate the entire regular clerical and non-clerical cadre by retrenchment and promotions and hire new hands on contract to eliminate the trade union.