National
PIA sacks all its Indian employees
By Our Staff Reporter
NEW DELHI, JAN. 16. All Indians working at the Delhi office of the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) were today dismissed from service on the ground that business in India had come to a standstill after the Government here banned PIA flights.
For the 17 Indians, among the 19-member staff working at PIA's Kasturba Gandhi Road office, the orders came as a rude shock as just the day before they had obtained stay orders from a Delhi court.
Fearing retrenchment following the PIA decision to relieve its Indian employees of all duties at its Mumbai office a few days ago, the Indian employees here approached the court. In turn, the court issued stay orders to the PIA asking it to refrain from any such action till February 7.
Summons too were issued to PIA officials to appear before the court on the above date at 10 a.m. While employees claim that these orders were delivered at the PIA office this morning, its general manager for northern and eastern India, Arshad Mahmood Raja, denied knowledge of any such order.
``We have not received such summons. And whatever I have communicated to the employees here has been done at the instance of authorities higher than me. Even I felt sad delivering the orders, but what can one do if the Indian Government banned PIA flights. There is just no business here these days,'' says Mr. Raja.
For their part, the Indian employees refused to accept the letters issued to them by the PIA. With years of service to the organisation behind them _ some of whom have put in more than 25 years _ employees argue that the PIA cannot blatantly flout court orders.
``The general manager is not even prepared to show us the orders from the head office. All we know is that he is citing unavoidable circumstances for this sudden decision to retrench personnel,'' says an employee on condition of anonymity.
On the issue of PIA business plummeting, the employees said they had foreseen the problem and had told the management that they were prepared to work without pay till services resumed. But there had been no response to this.
Strangely, for all the hue and cry over business being down, the PIA has decided to keep its plush office here open. In fact, Mr. Raja says he will attend in person to the few customers who have work at the office. ``Inshallah, we will open tomorrow and serve our customers.''
Employees, however, fear that as it happened at Mumbai, their office would be closed when they arrive on Thursday morning. Yet, they are determined to show up and take their fight to the courtroom for a settlement.
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