Shaheen Labour Union of Lahore Stock Exchange (LSE) has announced to observe complete strike on Wednesday against what its leadership said; "stubbornness of the management of the exchange in acceptance of their genuine demands."
All efforts of the union for reconciliation with the management have failed, therefore, the workers have unanimously decided to go on strike on Wednesday, Ijaz Hussain Mughal, President of the Union said, here on Monday.
"After the failure of all our efforts to convince the management for accepting our genuine demands, we have decided to take this extreme step, Mohammad Nasir, General Secretary of the Union told Business Recorder. The human resource policy of the management is totally against the workers' interest and despite lapse of four months, the management has not shown any flexibility in its attitude, he added.
Earlier, in a meeting with the head of HR department, the union had agreed with the proposal that the LSE employees will be given all benefits available to the KSE workers. However, they will have to surrender the benefits, which they were getting more than the KSE employees, he pointed out.
The union accepted this proposal, but later the HR authorities backed out from this offer for the reasons better known to them. He alleged that the LSE management was pressurising the union leadership for withdrawal of the strike call, "but we are firm in our decision and will not retreat." He, however, said that their doors were open for any sort of positive dialogue with the management to resolve the issue amicably.
"If the management meets our workers' all demands, including their desired raise in salaries and allowances, we will withdraw the strike call, otherwise we will paralyse the exchange on Wednesday," he warned. When contacted, the LSE Managing Director Hamid Imtiazi told Business Recorder that the management had accepted all their demands except 150-percent enhancement in salary package.
"We have increased their children allowance for the employees and met various other demands too, but making 150 percent raise in salary is an unfair and unjustified demand." He said that the management had sought time from them to survey other such institutions and organisations to look into their salary packages and if a huge difference was found between the salary structure of LSE and other institutions, it will be bridged.
"But these people are not ready to listen to us," he said. To a question about the status of the union, the MD said that the LSE has challenged the registration of the union in court and the matter is sub judice so "we consider their strike call illegal." He further said that the LSE management would also use all possible means to thwart the strike, he concluded.
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