LAHORE, Dec 18: Workers of the carpet industry staged a demonstration near the Lahore Press Club on Monday to press for an increase in wages and registration under the labour laws.

The workers participating in the demonstration, held on the call of the Punjab Carpet Industry Labour Union, were carrying banners and placards on which they had written their demands.

Speaking on the occasion, union president Dawood Khan and secretary-general Niaz Khan said that wages of carpet workers had not been increased for the past one year.

They said owners of a carpet-weaving factory in Daroghanwala had decreased the daily wages by Rs10 instead and harassed the workers on protest. As many as 250 workers had left their jobs out of 350 as a result.

The industry, they said, was exporting carpets worth Rs14 billion every year and employing nearly 600,000 workers. There were more than 500 carpet-weaving factories in the country, but not even one was registered under the labour laws with the result that workers were being deprived of social security and old-age benefits.

The government should get the carpet factories registered so that workers could get social security, pension and benefits of minimum wages under the labour laws, they said. —Reporter