LAHORE, Nov 30: The Muttahida Labour Federation has urged the government to grant autonomy to the Workers Welfare Board and allow the members to elect its chairmen for running it in a democratic manner.

The Punjab secretary-general of the Federation, Hanif Ramay, said in a statement on Sunday that the Workers Welfare Board was being run from the proceeds of Workers Participation Fund or the share of workers drawing salaries up to Rs5,000 per month in the profit of various industrial units. It had become a paradise for deputationists from different government departments.

The operation costs of the board were much higher because its most employees comprised deputationists who draw 25 per cent higher salaries in the form of deputation allowance and fringe benefits like unlimited medical allowance denied even to the regular employees of the board.

He said that the workers wanted autonomy for the board because the deputationists thriving on its resources were reluctant to release the marriage and death grants and educational scholarships to the workers for whom the board had been created and from whose fund it was being run.

He said that the board could be run in a much better manner in much less funds in case it was granted autonomy after excluding deputationists from it.