With Kashmir unrest continuing for the fifth consecutive week without even a day’s break, the private sector employees are under increasing pressure to work or face repercussion which include cuts in salary or even getting fired from the service.
The private sector in Kashmir is largely limited to sales sector, mostly involving banking, insurance, telecom, and pharmaceutical companies. The sector has remained in a state of paralysis in the region since July 8 when the killing of militant commander Burhan Wani triggered widespread protests across all districts of the Kashmir valley.
Several residents working in the different private sector companies said there was an intense pressure on them from the higher-ups to show proper results, which they said were impossible in the ongoing situation. In some instances, the companies have released only half of the monthly salary to their employees in Kashmir and in other instances the companies are paying salary to employees for only those days for which they have worked.
The pressure is being felt by employees across the private sector, who claimed the cuts were a violation of contract. “Some managerial staff has been transferred and there is still wait and watch for the ground staff. The telecom sector might not bear it for one or two more months because prepaid connections are still not working,” an official of a telecom company here said.
The official, requesting not to be named because he was not authorised to speak, said the ban on prepaid phone connections had badly hit the telecom sector as it generated the maximum revenue. The mobile phone services have remained suspended for more than two weeks and were only partially restored with outgoing calls from prepaid connection and mobile Internet services were still barred.
An employee of New Delhi-based pharmaceutical company said he had been give the salary for only a few days as higher-ups informed him that pay will be released for only those days on which he was present at work.
The businesses in the Valley have been shut for the past four week as shutdowns called by separatists and curfew imposed by the government have continued for all days since July 8.
Many entrepreneurial ventures, which were started in recent years, have also been incurring losses as unrest shows no sign of an immediate end.
As unrest continues, Private Sector faces crisis
