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PTCL to lay off 29,000 employees

ISLAMABAD — The federal government has formally allowed the management of the Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) to lay off more than 29,000 employees under its Rs17 billion voluntary separation scheme (VSS).

The decision was taken in Islamabad yesterday at a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Privatisation (CCOP), presided over by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz.

Official sources says Rs 17 billion required for staff reduction by almost 60 per cent would be shared equally by the government and Etisalat — the UAE-based management of the PTCL.

It would probably be the largest ever layoff in Pakistan’s history in terms of percentage of the workforce when the planned voluntary separation scheme is implemented.

The meeting was informed that the package also offered retention benefits to staff who would avail themselves of the separation scheme but were required to be retained by the management. The PTCL workers’ unions have opposed the separation scheme but the sources claimed they had agreed to the ‘attractive package.’

According to an official announcement, the CCOP approved the voluntary separation scheme. The IT and Telecom Secretary briefed the committee on the salient features of the scheme, aimed at making the company more competitive, efficient and beneficial for the low-paid employees. It will be offered by the end of October and employees would be given two months’ time to express their option. There would be no compulsion and the employees would be free to exercise their option, the announcement said.

It said the prime minister emphasised that the voluntary character of the scheme should be ensured in its implementation and the low-paid employees should get the maximum benefit. The scheme must ensure non-discriminatory treatment to employees who opted to avail themselves of this package, he said. Meanwhile, the PTCL union leaders appeared to be largely unclear about the package.

“It is difficult to comment at the moment because the package has not been announced. PTCL employees do not know how the package will benefit them because we have heard it definitely is not what the management had promised to the employees,” said Rana Hassan, Central Secretary-General of the Employees’ Union, the Collective Bargaining Agent (CBA), and head of the VSS committee representing PTCL workers.