I WAS having a discussion with my driver that his children are schoolgoing and his wife is a graduate, why can’t she apply for a teacher’s job so that there is some additional income? I pay him more than what most people pay their drivers, but he is always short of money.

His response was that he lives in Lyari. His wife applied for a job in a private school. She was offered a job with a salary of Rs3,000 a month.

Can someone look into it and make sure that minimum wages are paid in private and semi-private institutions? Also, there is a controversy about the definition of working hours. Is it eight, 10 or 11 hours a day? Can the labour department clarify this, especially for Sindh, where I live.

This way people will stop abusing drivers who start working in the morning but have no defined off-hour. He is at the mercy of the employer and generally works for eight to 10 hours, without additional payment.

Dr Mumtaz Lakhani

Karachi

Published in Dawn March 5th , 2015

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