SAHIWAL: Dozens of members of the District Kiln Owners Association staged a protest rally outside the press club on Saturday and demanded a change in the Factories Act 1934 and revision of kiln laborer wages being declared and set by the Minimum Wage Board of the Punjab government.

They blamed the ongoing demand for increasing kiln labourers’ wages were against “ground realities” and it was only done to “please certain NGOs having vested interest in destroying the kiln industry of Pakistan”. They alleged the labour secretary along with certain NGOs was destroying the kiln industry in Punjab as they had already destroyed the carpet and football industry in Sialkot.

They threatened to announce a strike across Punjab if their demands were not met.

Chichawatni tehsil president Master Muhammad Sadiq, who led the rally, said the provincial labour secretary was destroying the kiln industry.

There are 254 brick kilns in the Sahiwal district where more than 25,000 labourers work.

Certain rights groups and civil society organisations in the Sahiwal district have been demanding in the last few years that brick kiln workers should be paid Rs740 for making 1,000 bricks as is declared under the Minimum Wage Board of Punjab on the orders of the superior court.

Since no kiln owner is paying labourers at this rate, the pressure has built up for the implementation of minimum wages rates.

Realising the gravity of the situation, the district government and the Labour Department took all stakeholders on board and started a series of negotiations during January 2014.

It was finally decided among all stakeholders that Rs100 would be increased in existing wages.

The decision was made in a three-hour long meeting of stakeholders chaired by Sahiwal DCO Dr Sajid Chohan. Representatives of kiln owners and laborers from different localities, district Labour Department officials, the ADCG and activists of Insan Dost Association were also present.

The district government and the district Labour Department directed local kiln owners to increase daily wages of kiln labourers as per the agreement.

In February, representatives of the District Kiln Owners Association sought time to get other kiln owners on board.

Sources in the Labour Department confirmed that more than 40 per cent kiln owners implemented the agreement while the rest refused to honour it.

District Brick Kiln Association President Pir Muhammad Arain had assured the district government and the Labour Department that he would take on board all association members and kiln owners to increase wages.

But after passing three months, most of kiln owners have not increased wages committed by the association.

While rights organisations have announced holding protests from April 22 for pressing the district government to implement the agreement regarding increase in wages of kiln workers.

It is in this background that owners of the kiln association displayed more than two dozen banners on Saturday in Sahiwal which reads “increase in wages is against ground realities and it is NGOs vested interests to destroy kiln industry of Punjab”.