Cabinet approves rehiring of 7,000 sacked employees, with 3 year retroactive salaries

[Naveed Yaseen]

(Naveed comments: Khao Piyo, Mauj Udao, untill,,, you know when)

* Law Ministry drafting presidential ordinance g Scheme will cost Rs 8 billion
* Arrears to be paid in three instalments

By Irfan Ghauri

ISLAMABAD: The federal cabinet approved a plan to reinstate more than 7,000 government employees sacked between November 1996 and December 1999 during a meeting on Wednesday, in spite of some dissenting voices.

The Ministry of Law will soon complete the draft of an ordinance to implement the measure, Information Minister Sherry Rehman told reporters at a press conference after the meeting.

Sources privy to the meeting told Daily Times that several key members of the cabinet expressed their disagreement with the plan, saying the costs it would incur would be a significant burden on the country’s already fragile economy.

The dissenting voices including Parliamentary Affairs Minister Dr Babar Awan and Law Minister Farooq H Naik – who said there were certain legal and procedural complications in the implementation of the re-hiring plan – and Defence Minister Ahmed Mukhtar – who said state-run organisations including the Pakistan International Airlines were already facing severe financial problems and the plan was not viable in the current circumstances.

Several other ministers also disagreed with the plan in the meeting chaired by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, but Raza Rabbani, the head of the committee on the sacked employees, prevailed in the dialogue, the sources said.

They said the secretaries for finance and cabinet divisions also opposed the plan, but agreed to it when Finance Adviser Shaukat Tareen was convinced after a long discussion.

According to the proposal, the sacked employees will be placed one scale higher than the revised scale of their post in case the structure of their cadre had been changed. Each reinstated employee will be paid compensation equivalent to three years of emoluments of the pay scale in which he would be placed. The compensation will be paid in three instalments of 12 months’ emoluments each – the first on re-employment, the second on January 1, 2010 and third on January 1, 2011. The employees given a forced golden handshake would be reinstated if they agree to reimburse all monitory benefits they had received.

In her briefing to reporters, Sherry Rehman said government employees recruited between November 1993 and November 1996 but sacked between November 1996 and December 1998 would benefit from the plan.

She said it would take two or three months for the sacked employees to re-join, and that the move would cost the government Rs 8 billion in salaries for three years and Rs 2 billion recurring annual expenses.

Government employees from the State Life Insurance, Utility Stores Corporation, Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation, Zarai Taraqiati Bank Limited, Sui Northern and Sui Southern gas companies, Pakistan State Oil, the Oil and Gas Development Corporation, Pakistan Baitul Maal, Pakistan International Airlines, the Civil Aviation Authority, the Intelligence Bureau, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Health are likely to benefit from the scheme.

Sherry said the government would fulfil its promise of regularising contractual employees in various government departments, in the next phase.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp...2009_pg1_5