February 23, 2002	Saturday	Zilhaj 10, 1422

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HARIPUR, Feb 22: Two women members of the Haripur Tehsil council have accused the owners of Hattar Industrial Estate (HIE) of violating labour laws by paying the factory workers less than the prescribed wages.

Talking to newsmen here the other day, women councillors Eiddunisa Bibi and Raheela Kausar said the industrialists of Hattar had been given extraordinary rebates and slabs by the successive governments in the hope that they would accommodate the local manpower in their business concerns, but they had rather added to the miseries of the locals.

According to statistics collected by Dawn, of the 252 industrial units in Haripur, 125 are in operation with over 10,000 workers.

They lamented that women workers, over five per cent of the total workforce employed by the Hattar Industrial Estate (HIE), were exploited in many ways.

From working hours to the payment of salaries, social security, or weakly holidays, the industrialists were violating the rules in connivance with the officials of the department concerned.

The women councillors accused the industrial concerns of not paying the women labourers their salaries in accordance with the Minimum Wages for Unskilled Workers Ordinance 2001.

The workers were not given even social security benefits, they added.