Round 2 begins: KESC workers protest probable sackings

KARACHI – Despite the recent reinstatement of over 4,000 employees, the Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) has outsourced various departments to private companies and turning the restored workers practically redundant. Fearing that grounds are being prepared to lay them off, more than 1,000 KESC workers returned to the Karachi Press Club (KPC) to protest against the company’s management, with many arguing that another round management-workers face-off is likely in the coming days.
KESC officials, meanwhile, have denied that the company is letting off any of its employees.
Sources told Pakistan Today that despite having thousands of employees on its payroll, the KESC has outsourced their jobs and responsibilities, while a huge number of workers have been sent to the surplus pool. “Those who spent four days and nights on the road to protest against their termination are not being given any work, and the company’s management is forcing them to resign,” sources alleged.
Protestors who had blocked the road outside the KPC complained that the jobs of 2,000 out of the 4,700 reinstated workers had been given to private companies. KESC People’s Workers Union’s Secretary-General, Lateef Mughal claimed that the company was leaving no stone unturned to harass those employees who had rejected the Voluntary Separation Scheme (VSS) program of the company.
Mughal alleged that the employees are still being forced to accept KESC’s golden handshake through various tactics, but the workers were not willing to accept this scheme and were once again preparing to protest against the Abraaj Capital-led management. He further charged that hundreds of show-cause notices had been issued to the employees for their involvement in violent protests outside the company’s head office.
It is worth remembering that the KESC management, in an attempt to tighten its purses, had laid off 4,300 employees on January 19 after first offering them a golden handshake. After reinstating them on government pressure, a “Compulsory Retirement Scheme” (CRS) – an amended form of the Voluntary Separation Scheme – was offered to the lower staff, allegedly in a bid to oust them.