ISLAMABAD - The policy of regularisation did not bode well for the employees of National Commission for Human Development (NCHD) as it did not bring any relief for them; instead, the benefits which they were already enjoying as contractual employees have also been denied.
The cabinet subcommittee on regularisation of contract/daily wages employees headed by Syed Khurshid Ahmed Shah had approved the regularisation of nearly 3,000 NCHD employees. In November 2013 their posts got regularised by the establishment division. With the entitlement of government servants all the benefits of contractual employees were withdrawn.
“It was fake regularisation and we were fooled in the name of regularisation. I was getting Rs 80,000 before regularisation but after the announcement my salary was reduced to Rs 25,000. I have been working with this organisation since 2005 but I am being paid what an initial appointee in grade 16 gets,” complained one of the officials.
“Assistant managers on contract basis were getting around Rs 40,000 salary (plus other benefits, for example Rs 50,000 medical allowance) and now after regularisation these employees have been assigned BPS-15 with lump sum salary of Rs 20,000. This is a loss of 50 per cent. There are 35 employees working in this category, who have been seriously affected by this act,” informed an assistant manager.
The employees told The Nation on condition of anonymity because they did not want their names to be published for fear of reprisal of senior management.
Likewise, the employees working on other positions have suffered a substantial loss in terms of basic pay scale and in terms of salary reduction from previous years. Majority of these employees is poor who are surviving on loan and some of them are under heavy debt to support their families’ basic needs.
The employees complain that despite lapse of one and half years, the senior management did neither draft rules and regulations for the organisation nor was pay-protection mechanism worked out. “Due to non-implementation of civil servant rules, we are not entitled to any allowance, accommodation, and other perks which civil servants enjoy. We have been hearing that rules have been drafted and posts have also been sanctioned for all the employees but the management is not serious to resolve the issues of employees. It is just as we are working in a nongovernmental organisation.
Office timings, leave schedule and other working routine of private organisations are being followed. A female employee, who had accepted the job regularisation letter, was terminated without any justification a few days ago,” said another employee.
He alleged that four directors of the commission did not want to implement civil servant rules as they had been enjoying hefty pay packages on contract basis.
Many employees did not accept the regularisation letters and moved courts against it. “The job regularisation was actually a drama played with thousands of employees by the management of NCHD and the ministry of federal education and professional training under which the Commission works,” the employees believe.
It’s important to note that about 6,000 teachers of non-formal community schools run by the NCHD are also waiting for their four months salaries to be released.
“We have been working on these issues and things are in the pipeline,” maintained Dr Allah Bakhsh Malik, additional secretary of ministry of federal education and professional training who has been given additional charge of NCHD as director general. He said, “The rules have been drafted and would be presented in the next meeting of the board of governors of the commission for approval.
Gradually the employees would get all the benefits.”