Everything will usually get worse before it gets better, but when it does

get better...remember all who put you down and all who helped you up.
Forgive but never forget. (Timothy Pina)

This case study is prepared by Waheed Shahmir and Sajad Ali of BBA
Six, section A. In this case study we have covered real life story of an oil
and gas industry worker, while doing that we made sure that it turns out
to be a close replica of the real story. Every little detail of the story has
been kept as it was in the way narrated to us by the victim that
experienced it first hand, except the names of Places, Characters and
Peoples in the story have been faked on the request of the victim of the
incident who wants to be kept anonymous and also wants his company
to be kept anonymous while writing this case study.
Waheedshar143@gmail.com
Sajada475@gmail.com

ABSTRACT

This case covers the unfortunate incident faced by Mohammad Hanif while working
at workplace where he got severely burned and hardships he faced as a result of it
at hands of his employer. He was dismissed from the company when he needed
them most as a result of an old and redundant policy at that time according to which
employees were not to be given leave of more than three months under any case.
Case also includes details of the campaign started by employees union at the
company afterwards to get him reinstated at which they eventually got successful
and got him reinstated again at the company. This campaign also got the attention of
higher management to revise all the policies prevalent at the company and make
appropriate amendments to them if found to be inconsistent and incompatible to
current era needs.

ABOUT THE COMPANY

FPCL is one of the three major Exploration and Production Company of Pakistan,
engaged in upstream exploration, development and production activities of
hydrocarbon resources (Natural Gas, Crude Oil, Condensate & LPG) operating since
1954 (as branch of Esso Eastern Inc. USA, till its sell by EEI to Fauji Foundation in
May 1983). The company is currently operating the countrys second largest gas
reservoir at Kazi Field, District X, Sindh. The (FPCL) is making significant
contribution towards the countrys development by providing raw material to the
fertilizer industry and supplying gas for power generation. The Companys
contribution to the national exchequer is to the tune of Rs. 55 billion per annum.

CASE PRESENTATION

My name is Mohammed Hanif. I work at HSE department of FPCL Corporation

Limited as a supervisor which is one of the Pakistans major Exploration and
Production Company. Working in Oil and Gas Company has numerous advantages
but that comes at cost of high risks as well in the industry. One of the significant
advantage is that your compensation package for the job is quite high as compared
to jobs in other industries. The high risks include death and getting severely injured
while working in oil and gas industry is quite high and four major reasons for them
are 1. Vehicle Collisions 2.Fire & Explosion 3.Machine Hazards 4.Fall hazards.

Although the chances of fatalities is high in the industry but working all those years in
FPCL we rarely came across such a news and which was as result of the effective

policies and a robust HSE management system put in place by the company. From
the day one of working in company, I like all other employees in the industry were
made aware of the hazards that we could face but I never had thought I would come
across one. Getting a job in Pakistan where job prospects are quite scarce and that
too in oil and gas sector is deemed no less than a blessing.
After completing my intermediate in 1995 I couldnt continue my studies further
because of the financial problems and as a result i went ahead with job hunt that
remained fruitless for two and half years. After two and half years desperate hunt for
jobs, I finally got my first lucky break at FPCL where pay was good along with
numerous other benefits and most important was job security at the company and
that was when I thought nothing could go wrong from hereon. Looking at that now
after so many years has passed it feels as if it was calm before the storm that was
about to hit my life.

The day when all hell break loose was 23rd July 2003, exact five years after I started
working for FPCL, which had started like all other normal days of my life. I woke up
at usual 6:30 am in the morning, took a shower, got dressed into usual work apparel
provided to us by the company, ate my breakfast and left for work at 7:15am.
Punched my card at departments office entrance at 7:40am and greeted my senior
Haseeb Ahmed who as usual was going through all days work schedule that we
were tasked by the department head, which as usual included all the gas wells that
needed safety inspection.

As usual at 8:00 am haseeb ahmed and I left for respective gas wells which were
scattered all over the kazi field on the Toyota truck provided to us by the company
which included tool bag with all the tools that we needed in our line of work. Well#50
was the first gas well where we reached at 9:00 am and cleared it after the usual
safety check. From Well#50 it took us 15 minutes to get to well#56 which was next in
our work schedule, with that we started the usual check of the apparatus present at
the well.

While Haseeb was taking the Gas pressure meter reading from the flow charts that
were present outside the chamber where gas well head was present, as usual part of
the routine work I went inside to have check on the valves of the well head and
service them with grease where need be and I had brought along the tool bag in
there with me as well. What I didnt realize or suspect while entering the well head
compartment was that whole of it was filled with the gas due to leakage in one of the
pipes attached to well head mechanism.

As fate had it decided, I was at wrong place at wrong time and as I picked my tool
bag from the floor to get out of there, I saw a steel wrench from the bag falling on the
iron pipe beneath me and which produced a spark which was enough to start a fire in

those conditions and in no time i was engulfed by flames. I ran out of the
compartment screaming from the pain of fire eating away my flesh and fell on the
sand present outside rolling over it in desperate try to extinguish flames, while in
middle of that struggle my body could not take it more and I became unconscious .
After that although I dont remember anything but as they told me afterwards, haseeb
extinguished flames of me with help of fire extinguisher, got me into the truck and
from there he took me to community hospital as fast as humanly possible. From
community hospital where I got initial treatment, at night I was shifted to AGA KHAN
Hospital Karachi. When I opened my eyes after 18 hours, I was in the hospital and
70 percent of my body had received burns and I saw myself completely wrapped in
white bandages.

For a month I was spoon fed, lying on the bed I could barely move and as the doctor
said it took around two years for me to fully recover. All the medical expenditure was
handled by the company till I recovered as it was promised but while I was still in the
hospital and mere three months had passed, I got the notice that regional
management had decided that they no longer could keep me as a employee at
company because of company policy, according to which they couldnt provide any
employee with leave of more than three months.

Oh I felt so miserable when this notice got to me and at the same time felt my future
going awry in front of my eyes, oh I had lost all my hopes. After a week of receiving
notice, Yasir Shah and Mudassir Nazir (General Secretary and President of the
employee union) along with other members came and assured me that they will take
this case with management and if they wouldnt give in to their demands then
ultimately they will pursue this matter in court. They gave me assurance that they will
get me reinstated on my position no matter what.

Well that provided me with some hope although I was not too optimistic about it at
the start. I was constantly kept updated of the progress at hospital by my friends and
members of employees union those visited me after regular intervals. As I had heard
at first management didnt give in to demands of employees union and as a result
employee union took this case in Sindh High Court. As the case got filed at court
this matter came into attention of higher management and as Managing Director got
the news, he at once called in the employees union at head office for the meeting.

During the meeting he assured employees union that I will be reinstated after they
withdraw the case from high court which was bringing the company a bad name. Oh
the joy I felt when got this news cant described in words and finally after having to
face so many hardships I was getting the result of keeping my hopes intact. The
Managing Director took the regional management to task and asked them for a very
detailed report of as to why this incident was handled so unprofessionally and also

asked them to review the prevalent policies and procedures to make sure they are
updated and compatible in this era of work settings.

QUESTION AND ANSWERS

Mr Hanif did you learned anything from this experience that you could share
with us?

Certainly, hardships provide you with invaluable lessons that helps you in future for
sure and also help you to know yourself and your surrounding better. One thing i
learned out of this was that before this incident had occurred, I used to be very
sceptical of the very existence of employees union in the presence of Human
Resource, although I was not vocal about it but these thoughts regularly used to
cross my mind. This event taught me that organizations or countries where
generally Human Resource is still not valued as other departments and dont have
too much say in companies affairs, at places like that employees union are essential
to safeguard interests of employees for them.

Mr Hanif many years has passed since the incident? So what do you think can
such kind of episodes get repeated at FPCL again?

Well I pray no one goes through what I went through, it was horrific incident and
thinking about it after so many years I still get shivers down my spine, so I will always
hope it this kind of incident doesnt get repeated at FPCL or any at place to anyone.
With that I would also like to add that FPCL of today is totally different organization
than what it was decade ago. I can assure you now that lot have been done to
prevent such kind of incidents happening at FPCL premises after all those years.
After my incident management decided to conduct emergency drills on regular basis
in FPCL to keep employees aware and prepared for such kind of incidents. Luckily
for FPCL some six years ago it welcomed, Managing Director Imtiaz Shaheen who
totally changed FPCL into new organization structurally, some of the important
changes were that all departments were given equal say in the running of the affairs
of company and got autonomy in running of their day to day work. That MD is
credited to have changed FPCL from fully centralized organization into semi
centralized organization which has done wonders with that change showing
significant improvement in employee satisfaction levels and organization
performance has increased which is quite visible in companys annual report in terms
of profit.