The Punjab Government has issued notification to enhance the minimum wages of work charged employees of all the government departments from Rs 9,000 to Rs 12,000 per month. According to details, the Punjab government had enhanced the minimum monthly wages of workers to Rs 12,000 with effect from 1st July 2014 in the Budget 2014-15, but the Finance department did not issue the necessary notification to give effect to this increase.
Work charged employees of the Irrigation department; Mankera Division Khoshab lodged a complaint with Ombudsman Punjab that they were still being paid the old wages at the rate of Rs 9,000/ per month instead of Rs 12,000 as announced by the Punjab government. Ombudsman Punjab Javed Mehmood took up this matter with Secretary Finance who has issued the necessary notification giving approval to the Revised Schedule of Wages Rates 2015.
As per revised schedule of Wages Rates, work charged employees of all provincial departments would get minimum monthly salary @ Rs 12000/ raising the same from Rs 9000. The Ombudsman has pointed out that the notification should have been issued soon after the announcement made during the budget speech. He advised the authorities to look into the maladministration and inefficiency of the concerned officials as work charged employees remained deprived of the fruits of the increase in wages for past 7 months due to non issuance of the notification.