REFERENCE Syed Aijaz Ali Shah’s letter ‘Doomed labour’ (Aug 19).

I would like to draw the attention of the writer to the fact that there is a ‘labour department’ only, and no such word as welfare is attached to it.

The labour department’s functions are promulgation of various labour laws, such as:

1. Commercial Industrial Employment standing (Order) ordinance: 1968; Payment of Wages Act. 1936; Factories Act. 1934; Minimum Wages Ordinance 1969; Child Labour Act 1991; Disable Employment Ordinance 1980; IRA 2013 and Worker Profit (Fund) Act 1968, a provincial subject after the 18th Amendment.

Mr Shah only praised the performance of the labour department through its departmental courts established under the Payment of Wages Act 1936.

He said many cases were decided in favour of workers, but he did not mention the cases in which the verdicts were against the workers.

I appreciate Mr Shah’s views, but I ask him whether all the above-mentioned laws have been enforced by the officers of the labour department in the thousands of factories functioning in Sindh.

Khalil Osto

Ex-Deputy Director (Labour)

Hyderabad

Published in Dawn, August 23rd, 2014