LAHORE, May 18: Punjab Minister for Labour, Communication and Works Lt-Gen Muhammad Tariq (retired) has announced reorganization and reactivation of the labour department without any downsizing.

He was speaking at a joint meeting of the officers of the Labour Department, Punjab Employees Social Security Institution and the Punjab Workers Welfare Board from all over the province at the Alhamra Art Centre here on Saturday.

The minister said that an adviser had already been appointed to inspect various wings of the department, its schools and hospitals and submit proposals for the betterment of the same.

He said that the District Labour Officer would be the anchor person of the department in every district. The labour secretary was being directed to remove all the legal hindrances in this regard.

He said that the system of performance audit would be introduced for the officers in BS-17 and above. A performance chart would be prepared for the assessment of the working of every officer which would be different from the ACR and not replace it.

The performance of the school teachers would be assessed on the basis of the results of the classes being taught by them. A different work chart would be prepared for every DLO in accordance with the labour department activities in the respective district.

He said that the performance of the department had deteriorated due to the absence of good leadership in the past. The shortcoming had now been removed.

The minister said that particularly the attitude of the officers at the lower level required a change. He said that 31 officials of the department had been sacked already on charges of corruption.

He said that a new weights and measures policy was being introduced. He directed the officials to invite the Nazimeen of the union councils concerned to accompany them during the weights and measures inspections in any area.

He said that the practice of individual inspections should be discontinued immediately and all the officers concerned of the department should conduct joint inspections of industrial and commercial units, social security hospitals and dispensaries and the schools for workers’ children for ensuring transparency.

He directed the provincial labour secretary to arrange a survey of all the 34 districts in the province for the assessment of the requirements of the DLOs. Coordination committees should be formed at every level to streamline the working of the department.

The minister announced promotion of the principals of the schools for workers’ children in the next higher grades when they pointed out that they had been serving in BS 18 for the past 20 years. He also ordered constitution of a board of governors for running the schools for workers’ children in every district. The percentage of the workers’ children in such schools should not be less than 60 per cent under any circumstances.

He directed the officials to recover the social security contribution from all the factories instead of a few. He announced a cash award of Rs116,000 for eight officials of the PESSI, including a director, for the recovery of over Rs10 million contribution from a factory owner.

He said that the housing schemes in Lahore and Faisalabad required improvement. The Workers’ Welfare Board funds should be utilized for developing maximum number of housing colonies. Ample funds were available for the purpose. The DLOs would be responsible for the affairs of the colonies in their respective districts.

Earlier, Punjab Labour Secretary Major Iqbal Ahmed Raja (retired) said that the reorganization plan would be implemented soon. He said that impartiality would be the cardinal principle in all the new training programmes of the officials. Tripartite compensation committees had been constituted already.

Labour officers would now be recruited in BS-17 instead of BS-16 through the Public Service Commission.

The department would also be made industrialist-friendly.

He said that a summary for Rs19 million funds had been submitted to the federal government for improvement of the infrastructure of the department. Part of these funds would be used for acquiring computers and recruitment of operators. Four new ambulances were being acquired for the social security hospitals and dispensaries.

The government was pursuing a policy of resolving the disputes between the employers and the employees through consultation instead of adopting punitive measures for the purpose. Due attention was being given to the extra-curricular activities in the schools for the children of the workers and due importance would be given to the same while assessing the performance of the teachers for the renewal of their three-year service contracts.