PIA employees facing salary crunch

LAHORE: Over 13,500 employees of the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) are awaiting their salaries even 10 days after the start of May, while it is expected that the majority won’t get cash for another seven days.

The employees working with the national carrier are facing hard times, especially those who belong to the lower and middle cadres. “It is a sad situation as we are facing daily embarrassment at the hands of our families and those we owe money on a monthly basis, like our landlords, milkmen and others”, said a PIA employee while talking to The News.

When contacted, PIA Public Relations General Manager Mashhood Tajwar said: “Due to rise in dollar price, we are facing this problem. The total amount of payable salaries is about Rs 1 billion. A large amount of money was paid for fuel and navigational charges internationally. We are trying to give salaries to the lower scale (1-4) until this weekend and hopefully, the upper scales will be paid until next weekend. We don’t often get into this sort of situation, but we are doing crisis management right away.”

Another employee said: “This is a routine matter now. We get our salaries in the mid of every month. Our medical bills are also pending. Our families suffer due to this. We take loans to pay our children’s fee. No one is taking any action to rectify the situation.”