LAHORE: Hundreds of government workers and officials belonging to the solid waste management (SWM) wing have become a shuttlecock between the Lahore Waste Management Company (LWMC) and Metropolitan Corporation Lahore (MCL) on the issue of their dues as they have not received salaries for four months.

The issue emerged after the LWMC surrendered services of the around 400 officials to the MCL on account of inquiries initiated against them on various charges, Dawn has learnt.

“You know well about the skyrocketing prices of commodities, house rents, utility bills and other expenses. But, unfortunately, the government seems least interested in resolving our issue by paying us salaries for the last four months or so,” deplored a worker while talking to Dawn.

“We have become a shuttlecock between the LWMC and MCL on this issue. But no one is agreeing to pay us salaries,” he continued while lashing out at the both organisations.

Workers have become a shuttlecock between two departments

“I just want to ask why we are being punished,” he questioned, blaming the LWMC admin for narrowing ground for them by initiating baseless inquiries and surrendering their services to the MCL on minor matters.

Under an agreement of 2011, the SWM wing (around 12,000 regular workers and machinery etc) of the then City District Government Lahore/MCL was transferred to the LWMC that was formed to improve the Lahore’s cleanliness system. The agreement made the LWMC bound to surrender services of the workers again to the MCL if inquiries were initiated on various allegations (absenteeism, corruption etc). The agreement also mentioned that the LWMC would be liable to pay the salary to such staffers for two months only after surrendering them to the MCL while the rest of salaries would be paid by their parent department.

“The said workers were transferred to the MCL due to long absence, poor performance, negligence, inefficiency and misconduct. The LWMC has paid salaries to the surrendered workers in the last months and disbursed the salaries for further 140 surrendered workers this month. However, it is imperative to mention that the LWMC will not be able to release further salaries of such employees,” explains a letter of April 22, 2024 written by the LWMC to MCL.

In another letter on June 24, the LWMC mentioned the number of such workers increased to 436, stating that it would not be liable to pay their salaries.

A spokesman for the LWMC says: “When we have surrendered these officials to the MCL along with budgetary allocations besides paying them two-month salary under the agreement, why are the MCL people blaming us for not paying their further salaries? Since we have followed all legal provisions, the MCL, now, is liable to pay their salaries,” the spokesman said, adding that hopefully the issue would be resolved soon.

On the other hand, MCL Director (SWM) Mian Waheed dispelled the impression, describing the company’s stance as not based on facts.

“Under the agreement, the services of only those employees are required to be surrendered to us who have committed a crime of serious nature etc. Most employees were surrendered on account of being absent from duty that is not a big issue,” he explained. He said the LWMC didn’t transfer the budgetary allocations to the MCL for payment of salaries to the workers for further months.

Published in Dawn, August 12th, 2024