THE Industrial and Commercial Employment (Standing Orders) Ordinance, 1968, was one of the best-ever labour laws promulgated in Pakistan.

Recently Sindh has promulgated the Sindh Terms of Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 2015. This Act has been extended to a number of commercial establishments like schools and healthcare facilitie. However, some amendments have been made, which will hamper the smooth functioning of such establishments.

In the Sindh Act, all employees working for an establishment have been declared as ‘worker’ except the occupier and manager having the hiring and firing authority. This implies that an employee drawing a salary of more than Rs1,000,000 a month will be considered a ‘worker’ under the Act.

The Act requires that its text, periods and hours of work, pay days and holidays allowed and rates of wages payable to all classes of workers, will be prominently displayed on boards near the entrance to the establishment and in all the departments.

Moreover, the legislature has made retrogressive amendments which could have been relevant in the 1930s, when most of the labour laws were enacted, but not in an era in which the majority of employees has got access to the internet and workers are fully aware about the terms of their employment through the appointment letters and collective labour agreements.

Barring private schools, in most of the schools children are forced to attend classes under the trees or inside dilapidated buildings. The latter types of schools face many problems like lack of teachers to teach critical subjects. How the Sindh government expects them to pay profit bonus to the teachers and comply with other provisions of the act, when they don’t have the funds even to pay the teachers’ salaries.

Parvez Rahim

Karachi

Published in Dawn, June 29th, 2016