More than 250,000 PTCL telephones and DSLs are out of order due to the month long country wide PTCL workers' strike despite the PTCL management claim that the workers have ended their strike after reaching an agreement with regard to increase in their salaries and other service benefits.
Talking to Business Recorder here on Monday, Patron PTCL Linemen Union, Hafiz Lutfullah and PTCL Lahore Union spokesman Gulzar Tanoli contradicted the PTCL management's announcement of an agreement between the management and the workers. They said that workers would continue their strike till they get 50 percent increase in their salaries as had been given by the Federal government, which holds majority share in the largest telecommunication service provider in the country.
However, PTCL management says that as the public sector entity has been privatised, the new management is not bound to increase salaries of its workers commensurate with the government decision. Hafiz said though the management had paid salaries to some of its employees before Eidul-Fitar, yet there are 17,000 employees who were not paid their salaries before Eid. "These employees held protest rallies in front of Press Clubs on Eid day. They will repeat their protests on Tuesday," he added.
A PR man, who handles PTCL publicity and media affairs, confirmed that the Company was suffering daily losses of millions of rupees due to the hundreds of thousands of telephone sets and DSLs lying dead and closure of sale points of its other telecommunication products. He admitted that his residence telephone was also out of order as linemen were on strike. A PTCL customer, Shahbaz Malik, said due to the tussle between the Company and its employees, millions of customers, businessmen, and users of DSLs have been suffering since long.
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