Workers demand release of four months salaries

HARIPUR: The workers of Heavy Electrical Complex (HEC) at Hattar Industrial Estate here on Monday approached the deputy commissioner of Haripur and sought his help in getting outstanding salaries for four months.

Led by labour leader Tahir Amin, the representatives of the workers met Deputy Commissioner Auon Haider Gondal and through a written request stated that over 200 workers of HEC have been going without salaries for the last four months.

They said despite repeated requests and protests, the factory administration has not yet disbursed them salaries due to which they were facing hardships in running their family kitchens. They told the DC that the shopkeepers had stopped selling them grocery items on credit and their children were at the verge of starvation because the factory administration had failed to pay them salaries for the last four months.

They warned of a series of protests if the administration failed to disburse them salaries before Eid.Tehsil Nazim Samiullah Khan also joined the workers in solidarity and met the deputy commissioner and requested him to play a role in getting salaries to the workers.

The DC called the factory administration and deputy director of Labour in Haripur to his office on Tuesday (today) to apprise him about the solution of the problem. Meanwhile, according to factory sources, the Ministry of Industries and Production had written to the secretary Finance of the federal government for making urgent arrangements for release of salaries and operational expenses, including the bank markup.

The factory sources said that the HEC’s privatization was in its final stage and the factory was unable to obtain business for its earnings. It may be added that the HEC, a state-owned enterprise which is working under State Engineering Corporation of Pakistan (SECP) has 250 workers and over 20 officers and it manufactures and repairs of upto 40 MVA and 132 KV voltage of power transformers.

But like some other state-owned enterprises, the HEC is a loss-incurring unit. It has been on the privatisation list of the Privatization Commission since 2005 till last year. But interestingly the hand-over process of the company to the successful bidder has not been completed yet.