Workers Welfare Funds Act: SC seeks report from provinces, Islamabad district government

The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed all the provinces and the Islamabad district government to file detailed reports on how many factories were in their areas, and how many people were working in them, who were covered under the Workers Welfare Fund Act.

A three-judge bench, headed by Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed, heard a suo motu about the disbursement of the Workers Welfare Trust Funds (WWF) on the applications of the union workers.

Director Finance Punjab Welfare Funds informed the bench that 7,031 persons were paid money in 2019-2020 from the WWF.

The chief justice observed that thousands of factories were in the Punjab, wherein millions of workers were employed but the benefit of the fund was extended only to 7,031 government employees. He inquired what the criteria for selection of people were for the WWF amount. The chief justice asked how many applications the department had received last year and how many were processed. The chief justice said the money from funds was given only to selected persons of the unions in each factory, while the rest of the workers were not even aware of their rights, and about the fund. He inquired from the director whether they had physically examined if the funds facility was available in each factory.

The director told that a person contributing for the social security funds or the EOBI was eligible for the WWF, adding that in each district there was a scrutiny committee.

Additional Advocate General (AAG) Punjab Chaudhry Faisal Farid sought time for submitting workers data after getting it from the provincial Labour Ministry.

The AAG Sindh, Shahbir Shah, informed that Rs 16 billion were already lying with the nazir of the Sindh High Court. This amount has been deposited by 28 companies, whereas altogether there are 221 companies, which are liable to make payments. He said that the SHC on the last date directed that the petitioners shall deposit disputed amounts with the nazir. It is expected that on 16th when all petitions were fixed before the SHC, the court would direct that all the petitioner companies deposit the disputed amount with the nazir of the court so that the amount which belongs to the workers is at least secured.

The bench was informed that Rs 172 billion are lying with the federal government, which they have not devolved to the provinces in respect of the WWF.

Additional Attorney General Sajid Ilyas Bhatti, representing the Finance Ministry, sought time for filing report about Rs 172 billion of the Workers Welfare Trust Funds.

The court in the last hearing was told that a figure of Rs 124 billion had been reconciled by the Finance Ministry, while Rs 48 billion still needed to be reconciled. The court therefore said that if there will be any embezzlement in the Workers Welfare Trust Funds then they would refer the case to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).

The court noted that due to non-release of funds after September 2018 the universities and colleges were not giving scholarship to the children of the workers and their daughters could not be married due to non-payment of marriage grants. It said still many workers have been waiting for the death grants under WWF since 2013, adding there is negligence on the part of the government department.

The court noted that there are also schools and hospitals run with the Workers Welfare Funds and their employees are not paid salaries for many months. The court said they would not intervene in the domain of the government, adding the government officials should not use courts for running the state affairs.

The case will be fixed after one month.