It has become a 'dream' for the poor labourers that they would be provided with the minimum wage of Rs 7,000, fixed by the federal government, as industries are reluctant to comply with the decision, it is learnt. More than 60 percent industries in Sindh province are not paying minimum prescribed wages to labourers, compelling them to live a hard life besides facing severe financial problems, sources in Sindh government told Business Recorder on Wednesday.
In the federal budget for 2010-11, the federal government had raised the minimum wages of the labourers to Rs 7,000 from Rs 6,000, they said. But, they added, the industries, particularly in Sindh, were not complying with the government decision, causing miseries to the labourers. Following the federal government's announcement, the Sindh Minimum Wages Board had also fixed the wages of Rs 7,000 for unskilled labourers working in some 36 industries.
The industries that fall under the jurisdiction of the Sindh government include auto workshops and garrages bidi making, cement, ceramic, cotton, ginning and pressing, chemicals and other chemical industry, construction, cycle, electric appliance, flour milling, food, furniture and wood working, glass, hotel, iron steel and fabricated metal, machine-made carpets, machinery, paints and varnish, paper product, petroleum, pharmaceutical, plastic, printing press, readymade garments, rice husking, road transport, rubber, silk/rayon small unit and power loom, soap manufacturing, sugar, tannery, textile, tobacco and transport equipment, they said.
They said the wages apply to all workers employed in the above industries throughout the province. The employers would pay wages to the workers engaged for work of 8 hours a day subject to the provisions of the West Pakistan Shops and Establishment Ordinance, 1969, Factories Act, 1934 and other relevant labour laws. Besides, a female worker employed in the industry would get the same minimum wages as a male worker vide Rule-15 of the Sindh Minimum Wages Rules, 1962. Besides, the workers would continue to enjoy already existing facilities allowed to them regarding residential accommodation, water, electricity, medical aid, recreation facilities, subsidised food, education or such other benefits/facilities, if not already provided to them in the industry.
Sources said that Sindh's industries were ignoring the government's directives due to lack of proper mechanism by the Industries and Commerce Department and Labour Department. After passage of two months, the labourers were still deprived of the minimum wages by the industrialists due to apathy of the authorities concerned.
The Labour Department of Sindh government had time and again directed its field officers to strictly ensure implementation of minimum wages to unskilled workers, but the labour inspectors and other staff were involved in what the say 'corrupt practices', adding that the department had so far received thousands of complaints from workers but no action was so far taken against the influential industrialists.
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