PIA employees irked by delayed salaries, suspension of medical perks

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LAHORE: Delayed salaries and suspension of medical facilities have perturbed over 13,500 employees of the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), Pakistan Today has learnt.

PIA Officers Association Secretary General Safdar Ajum blamed the poor management for the delayed salaries and the suspension of medical facilities.

“There is a strong lobby of former chief executive officer (CEO) Musharraf Rasool Cyan that occupies important posts and is deliberately ruining PIA. The employees are awaiting their salaries even 10 days after the start of October. We see no chance of being paid in the next 10 to 20 days. PIA is facing the worst economic crunch in history,” he said.

The Supreme Court (SC) on September 3 declared former PIA CEO Musharraf’s appointment as illegal and ordered the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to investigate the salary and perks offered to him.

Safdar said that the government has not appointed a new CEO and additional charge of the post of the chief executive officer has been given to Muhammad Saqib Aziz.

“In the absence of a permanent CEO, the matters of PIA are worsening with every passing day. The government should appoint a permanent CEO at the earliest so that the issues of employees are resolved,” he said.

Talking about the suspension of medical and pharmacy facilities, he said that the employees of PIA are facing the worst time as they have not been given their salaries and the medical facilities have been suspended.

“The medical and pharmacy facility has been suspended for the last 25 days and no one is there to tell employees what is happening. Hospitals have refused to treat patients. Pharmacies are not giving medicines to patients. There are about 300 cancer patients and an equal number of Hepatitis patients who need permanent treatment. Many critical patients are the state airline’s retired employees. In the current scenario, all employees are suffering a lot,” he added.

A PIA employee, who wished not to be named, said that the workers are facing embarrassment on a daily basis since many of them have failed to pay the school fee of their children and rent to their landlords.

“We are taking loans from friends and family and we have become sick of this routine. The management should at least tell the employees when exactly they would get their salaries so that we can at least take loans for that period only. We do not have big salaries. The foreigners are getting huge salaries while our families are starving. No one is there to check this situation,” he said.

When contacted, PIA Public Relations Officer Athar Awan admitted the delay in disbursement of salaries and the suspension of medical facilities due to issues in cash flow. However, he said that the issue of late salaries would be resolved in a day or two as the management is trying its best in this regard.

“As far as the suspension of hospital treatment and pharmacy facilities is concerned, there was an issue of payment which could not be done to vendors on time. The process of payments to the vendor has been started and hopefully this issue will be resolved soon,” he said.