KARACHI: Angered by Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi’s recent announcement of providing bureaucrats and federal government employees with three months’ additional salary, trade union leaders and labour rights activists have demanded that private sector workers also be paid as much.

Speaking at a joint press conference called by the National Labour Council (NLC) at the Karachi Press Club on Tuesday, they said that it was sad that the provincial government had overlooked unskilled workers in this year’s budget and that there was a need to fix minimum wages for them.

NLC Secretary Karamat Ali demanded fixing the minimum wages at Rs30,000 to Rs31,000 per month, considering the growing cost of living and inflation. He also said that last year in July the federal and provincial governments had fixed the minimum wages at Rs15,000 per month.

‘Minimum wages be fixed at Rs30,000 to Rs31,000 per month’

Tracing history, he said that in 1969 minimum wages for unskilled workers was fixed at the rate of Rs140 per month but experts and economists were of the opinion that those wages were less and equal to 50 per cent of what it should have been.

“We demand that minimum wages be fixed every year according to that formula of indexation. The provincial minimum wage boards should announce the wages ahead of Eid to provide relief to workers,” he said.

Karamat Ali also said that minimum wages were usually fixed by the provincial minimum wage board for the industrial workers whereas no wages are fixed for the other type of workers such as agriculture workers or peasants and home-based workers.

“Like minimum wages, there should also be a limit of maximum wages in Pakistan as it is already practised in many developed countries,” he said, adding that internationally maximum wages were also announced to limit the gap between the haves and the have-nots.

Karamat Ali then said that the federal cabinet had recently enhanced the salary of the President of Pakistan to Rs846,550 from his previous salary of Rs133,333 and a bill in this regard had already been presented in the National Assembly. “This increase is more than double,” he said.

He said that after the 18th Amendment the issue of labour had been devolved to the provinces but the federal government still interfered in labour affairs. “For example,” he said, “the prime minister has recently announced the names of the official delegation, which is going to take part in the annual meeting of International Labour Organisation [ILO] without any consultation with the provinces. Every year, members of a certain labour group are sent to ILO meetings by the federal government while depriving the provincial labour leadership of this opportunity,” he said.

He suggested that a mechanism be evolved in which the provinces be asked to send their nominations for taking part in international events, including the annual meeting of the ILO in Geneva.

Senior labour leader Habibuddin Junaidi also said that the announcement of three months’ basic pay for employees of the federal government was actually a political decision ahead of the general elections. “This is an attempt to influence election results,” he added.

Labour leader Liaqat Sahi said that the Supreme Court of Pakistan had upheld the third-party contract employment system against the Constitution of Pakistan. “But the present government has not taken any serious measure to end the third-party contract system in companies and government departments,” he said. He also added that hundreds of thousands of workers in both public and private organisations were deprived of their due rights owing to this contract system.

Vice chairperson of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) Asad Iqbal Butt said that measures should be taken to provide relief to peasants and workers.

Deputy general secretary of the National Trade Union Federation Nasir Mansoor, Zehra Khan of the Home-Based Workers Federation, general secretary of the Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum Saeed Baloch, Farhat Parween of the National Organisation of Working Communities and executive director of the Workers Education and Research Organisation Mir Zulfiqar Ali were also present on the occasion.

Published in Dawn, May 30th, 2018