KARACHI: The Pakistan Steel Mills has dismissed another 500 employees including the services of a number of officers falling in seven categories.
In November 2020, the PSM laid off over 4,500 employees making up about 49 percent of workers and 70 percent of officers were retrenched under which 4,544 people were rendered unemployed.
These sacked staffers included all 155 employees of the PSM medical department. PSM spokesman Muhammad Afzal is also among the terminated employees.
According to the letter sent to the employees, the PSM management has terminated the employment by retrenchment with immediate effect. They will be paid wages or salary of March 2021 in addition to legal dues in accordance with the terms and conditions of their employment and one month wage during their period of notice.
The PSM has decided to retrench all officers of the production directorate, except COBP and refractories department; all officers of technical services directors, except qualified engineers and IT professionals; all officers of production, planning and control, public relations department, Pakistan Steel Institute of Technology and Corporate Planning and Investment except qualified engineers;
It has decided to terminate all assistant managers and deputy managers of security department, engineers working on non-technical posts of marketing and internal audit department; all contract and daily-wagers except those in finance and A&P directorate; officers of zonal offices, except engineers and master’s degree holders posted at Lahore and Islamabad.
The letter said it was a painful decision not only for the employees but also for the management; however, it was taken as it had become inevitable in the interest of PSM and the country.
The management said PSM had been incurring losses for many years and accumulated losses as of June 30, 2020 exceeded Rs212 billion, while production activities in the mill had been closed since 2015.
The PSM had 16,700 employees in 2015. Nearly 7,000 have retired while over 5,000 employees have been sacked.
