The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) approved the firing of all Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) workers, claiming that the mills had not functioned for years and that the workers had done nothing.
There are 9,350 workers who will be fired within a month, and within three months another 250 will be let go. The ECC meeting, chaired by PM’s Finance and Revenue Adviser Abdul Hafeez Shaikh, also approved the employees’ Rs20 billion package, which amounts to Rs2.3 million per person.
Though the mills have been closed for years, they run a deficit of Rs550 billion and are spending billions on debt servicing. But the transfer will not be completed until federal cabinet approves it.
Sources said that in June 2015, PSM stopped its commercial operations without formulating a Human Resource (HR) plan for its 14,753 employees, now down to 9,350. Currently PSM employees’ net salary bill per month is about Rs350 m, adjusted as a loan in PSM’s financial accounts. Since 2013, the Government has extended an aggregate Rs34bn loan to PSM on the basis of net salary payments.
The ECC also adopted and approved 12 separate proposals for technical supplementary grants from different divisions and departments, including the Revenue Division, the Interior Division, the NAB, the Cabinet Division, the Finance Division, the National Heritage and Culture Division, the Communications and Religious Affairs Division, the Federal Education and Professional Training Division and the Inter-American Training Division.
Extracted from City42 News
