KARACHI, May 30: A meeting held in the labour department in connection with a referendum being held in the Pakistan Steel Mills on June 15 remained inconclusive on Friday.Sources told Dawn that the next meeting would be held on Monday. They added that the National Industrial Relations Commission had ordered that a referendum be held in the Pakistan Steel. They recalled that the last referendum in the steel mills had been held in January 1995 and the Pakistan Steel People’s Workers Union had won it and had been declared the collective bargaining agent.

Friday’s meeting in the labour department was attended by all the unions in the steel mills.

The sources said that one of the nine unions that participated in the labour department meeting demanded that daily wagers and contractual employees be also allowed to take part in the referendum.

They added that since the issue could not be settled in the meeting on Friday, it would be taken up in the next meeting on Monday.

They said that there were around 13,000 employees in the steel mills. They added that the number of officers was around 7,000 and the rest of the employees were “workers”. In addition, they said, there were around 5,000 daily wagers in the steel mills, some of them working over the past 15 years.

The sources said that only “workers” could vote in the referendum.

The sources said that when the tenure of the CBA elected after the 1995 referendum came to an end in 1997, one of the unions in the steel mills moved the NIRC, which took 11 years to decide the case and direct the provincial labour department to make preparations for another referendum.

The nine unions that are taking part in the labour department meetings are: Pakistan Steel People’s Workers Union, Pakistan Steel Labour Union, United Workers Front of Pakistan Steel, People’s Unity of Pakistan Steel, Employees Unity of Pakistan Steel, Pakistan Steel Mazdoor League, Labour League of Pakistan Steel, Pakistan Steel Progressive Workers Union, Pakistan Steel Staff and Workers Unions.