National Assembly Standing Committee on Energy Thursday said labour unions, operating in public sector, should work for welfare of their workers without affiliation with any political party.
“Labour unions should remain in their limits and struggle for welfare of the workers without any association with political parties,” Chairman Bilal Ahmed observed when the meeting was deliberating on the issues of Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) and Sui Southern Gas Company Limited (SSGCL).
Committee Member Shehryar Khan Afridi raised the issue that SSGCL was removing the contractual employees and making transfers of union activists to other cities. The SSGCL MD said the workforce was not permanent employees of the company but the third-party workers, whom are hired by contractors for a certain period on temporary basis.
He said it was the practice that the management sat with representatives of elected labour unions on the charter of demands to resolve the issues confronted by employees. He said the union under discussion was not the elected body, adding that the workforce in SSGCL was already surplus and it needed precise rightsizing to run the company on commercial basis.
The committee also discussed termination of services of contractual-Sub-Engineers by the gas companies. The MD SNGPL said such workers were hired on temporary basis for a certain period with clear dates of their joining and relieving.
He said a petition of sub-engineers against the termination had been rejected by the Islamabad High Court and now the case was with National Industrial Relations Commission.
He said SNGPL would advertise posts in next 15 days and the terminated engineers could apply for the jobs, fulfilling required formalities. Shehryar Afridi quoted a labour law in favour of the terminated engineers that any employee, who worked for 90 days against any vacant post, became eligible for regular appointment.
The committee expressed concern over the termination of contractual employees by gas distribution companies and pointed out that although the matter was pending with the Court for adjudication, the authorities concerned should reconsider their cases on humanitarian ground under existing legislation and treat them equally to avoid any discrimination. Earlier, the body considered “The Regulation of Generation, Transmission and Distribution of Electric Power (Amendment) Bill, 2017” and “The Private Power and Infrastructure Board (Amendment) Bill, 2017” and directed the Power Division to hold a meeting with all stakeholders to remove lacunas in the proposed legislation, if any, and report back for further consideration.
National Electric Power Regulation Authority (NEPRA) chairman said the bills were not shared with the authority and it had reservations on them.
The committee also directed the Power Division to ask all electric supply companies to keep proper liaison with the Parliamentarians of their respective areas to apprise them about completed, ongoing and proposed electric schemes for their constituencies.
Among others, the meeting was attended by MNAs Malik Ihtebar Khan, Rana Afzaal Hussain, Mian Tariq Mehmood, Ch. Khalid Javaid Warraich, Shahjehan Muneer Mangrio, Shehryar Afridi, Imran Khattak, Abdul Waseem and Sajid Ahmed, besides, Minister of State for Power Abid Sher Ali.
