The News reported that privatization of Pakistan Steel Mills downsizing and dismissal of its employees is not on the agenda of its Board of Directors while many of its employees drew their salaries from banks on Monday.
PSM spokesman said in a statement that "It is to be mentioned here that there is no agenda for Privatization of Pakistan Steel. Earlier, advisor to PM on finance Dr Hafeez Shaikh has said that 3 major government entities ie Pakistan Steel Mills, Pakistan International Airline and Pakistan Railways were being restructured and be privatized.
The government has stated that eight sick units of the country including the 3 mentioned above were eating up to PKR 252 billion on account of subsidy every year. Also, representatives of various unions of PSM have said that they would not let the government to privatize the Mills.
Mr Zafar Khan GS of Pakistan Steel Labour Union said that some people were working on the agenda of privatizing the mills as they were deteriorating its working conditions every day. He said that the PSM was working on 25% capacity these days owing to shortage of raw material. It clearly shows what the authorities want.
He added that the PSM therefore has taken no decision regarding the downsizing and dismissal of any of its employees. The present management believes on saving the rights of its all employment according to the rules and regulation of the country.
The PSM authorities have submitted a proposal to the Ministry of Industries & Production, requesting PKR 25 billion bailout package to ensure its smooth operations with a well design transparent future business plan. Despite facing financial constraints, the PSM had advised banks to release salaries of its employees on Friday, which many of the employees drew recently.
The statement clarified that all workers of the Mills were getting full gross salaries in compliance with the agreement signed between elected representative of workers and Pakistan Steel management last year. The new BoD constituted by the government of Pakistan contains experienced expert persons including 6 from government institutions and another 6 from private sector.
(Sourced from the News)
