The Spokesperson of the embassy says that the issue of delay in the payment of the salaries has been resolved but admitted that remittances from Pakistan that take more than usual and certain budgetary constraints caused delay in the salaries to the employees.
WASHINGTON: (UrduPoint/Pakistan Point News-Dec 4th, 2021) The locally hired contractual employees of Pakistan Embassy in Washington faced delay in payment of salaries, the latest reports said on Saturday.
A report published by a local newspaper claimed that at least five of the Pakistani embassy's locally recruited contractual employees faced delays and non-payment of their monthly wages from August 2021.
“An employee who was working with the embassy for last ten years resigned,” claimed the report, adding that he resigned for the very reason of delays and non-payment in the month of September.
The embassy had hired local staffers on an annual contract basis who were working for the mission on bare-minimum salaries. The reports said that the salary was up to $2,000 to $2,500 per person per month.
It may be mentioned here that the local hires do not get the perks and privileges that Foreign Office employees enjoy including the healthcare benefits. The domestic staffers are usually hired to help with the Consular section that provides visa, passport, notarization and other consular services to the diaspora.
According to the report, such staffers were paid out of the Pakistan Community Welfare (PCW) fund which is generated locally through services fees and then dispensed locally as well. However, the said fund collapsed last year as the money was diverted to purchase ventilators and other medical equipment after COVID-19 hit the country.
The embassy tried to maintain the funds that caused delay in the payments of salary as it had also to borrow money from other account heads to keep up with the monthly salaries for the staffers hired locally.
The report said that Islamabad had digitized its visa services that are now handled in coordination with NADRA that also became another factor of delay in the payments.
The unpaid staffers had asked the ambassador in October to resolve the issue of non-payment of salaries who repeatedly took up the matter with the Foreign Office in Islamabad and managed to secure all salaries just last week.
The embassy’s spokesperson, however, said that the salaries’ issue being faced by the Embassy staff was now over. He said that they always dispersed salaries to their staff on time but there are some instances that when processing of remittances from Pakistan take more time than usual and some budgetary constraints cause delay.
