Bank unions call for lifting of restrictions on activities

ISLAMABAD: Despite the passage of one year, the PPP-led government has yet to fulfil its promise about abolishing controversial sections of the Banking Company Ordinance which restrict union activities in the sector.

At a labour convention on Oct 1, 2009, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani had announced that anti- labour laws, including the Removal from Service Ordinance 2000 and Clause 27-B of the Banking Company Ordinance, would be abolished. The former has been repealed but the latter has yet to be abolished.

Trade union leaders of banks and other financial institutions on Saturday expressed resentment over what they described as the government’s apathy towards the interests of workers.

They termed the clause discriminatory and said it was inserted into the Constitution just to impose restrictions on union activities.

They said it gave a carte blanche to the government to privatise banks, selling them off to their ‘favourite parties’ who would approve loans for them without any check.

The law was enforced in 1997 during Nawaz Sharif’s second stint as prime minister.

Under the clause, union activities were banned during office hours; gathering of a few people on bank premises was prohibited; no unionist was allowed to talk to the bank management with respect to employees’ issues; and the use of bank premises and facilities for union activities was disallowed.

Chairman of the Organisation for Employees of Banks and Financial Institutions Malik Mohammad Hussain said the failure of PPP government to remove the anti-labour law “exposed its claims of being pro-worker”.

He said the performance of banks had been badly affected by the clause and cases involving embezzlement, loan write-off and favouritism in loaning had increased.

He said the government banks had been sold at throwaway prices. The United Bank Limited was sold for Rs12.5 billion, which he claimed was far less than the price of just one UBL building.

He demanded that the promise of repealing Clause 27-B be fulfilled at the earliest.

The organisation’s secretary general Akbar Ali Khan also assailed the failure to abolish the “black law”.

He said the controversial law was inserted in the Constitution to weaken unionism in banks and give the rulers and bank managements free hand to violate rules and regulations.

According to the Constitution, 25 per cent of the members of a union in any organisation should be open for ex-employees. But Clause 27-B has banned any such membership for outsiders.