THOSE who work in industrial and commercial establishments usually fall under the management and non-management categories. If there is a workers’ union, the latter can be called the unionised staff. Within these categories, there is further division into technical and non-technical staff, the former being more in demand and better paid than the latter as they are considered the organisation’s source of income.

However, at a US company at Daharki, Sindh, where I worked, the management staff was referred to as ‘management professional and technical’ while the non-management staff was called ‘non-management professional and technical’. Referring to an employee as ‘non-technical’ was considered degrading and equal professional status was maintained.

Equal emoluments and perquisites were given to professional and technical employees employed in the same grade, with a similar number of years of work experience. This boosted employers’ morale and they endeavoured to perform their best.

In progressive organisations, HR professionals determine the compensation levels of management employees. They carry out salary surveys of comparable companies where similar jobs exist, and seek guidance from books on fixing salaries. Jobs are evaluated by committees constituted for this purpose. Consequently, compensation is fixed to the entire satisfaction of the management employees.

Almost all countries revise minimum wages from time to time.

In the case of non-management employees, organisations with Collective Bargaining Agent unions periodically negotiate with the latter and reach an agreement regarding increases in salary and benefits. In organisations without CBA unions, the process of wage determination of non-management employees is not that smooth despite the existence of numerous labour laws guaranteeing their rights.

As per the Payment of Wages Act, 1936, wages are regulated in the case of certain classes of workers employed in an industry. It provides for the payment of wages, fixation of wage periods and the time of payment of wages. The law also limits the kind of deductions which may be made from the wages of a worker in order to restrain the employer from taking unauthorised action.

The Minimum Wages Ordinance, 1961, provides for regulation of minimum rates of wages. The Minimum Wage Board constituted under this ordinance, has besides the government, representation from both employers and the workers in a province. The board is authorised to recommend the minimum rates of wages for jobs.

The minimum rates of wages for unskilled workers in certain commercial and industrial establishments are fixed under the Minimum Wages for Unskilled Workers Ordinance, 1969. Almost all countries in the world keep revising their minimum rates of wages periodically or whenever the need arises. The level of minimum wages indicates the general structure of compensation of industrial workers in the country.

Prior to the 18th Amendment in April 2010, minimum wages for unskilled workers were the same in all the provinces of the country. On the abolition of the Constitution’s Concurrent List, labour laws were devolved to the provinces, which started fixing their own rates of minimum wages and taking out notifications to that effect. Nevertheless, with a few exceptions the rates remained the same.

In July 2014, while the minimum wage was fixed at Rs12,000 per month in all the provinces, the PTI government in KP made it Rs15,000 per month, which was challenged by employers before the Peshawar High Court. In March 2015, the court suspended the notification issued by the government which had to take it back. The retrospective fixation of the minimum wage at Rs12,000 per month, effective from July 2014 caused loss of arrears to workers.

A similar situation has arisen in Sindh which has fixed the minimum wage for unskilled workers at Rs25,000 per month, effective from July 2021. This amount constitutes a 43 per cent increase over the previous amount of Rs17,500. The federal government has fixed it at Rs20,000; Punjab and Balochistan have also fixed it at Rs20,000, while the amount in KP is Rs21,000. Three separate writ petitions have been filed by employers’ bodies before the Sindh High Court challenging the Sindh government’s fixing the minimum wage without routing it through the Minimum Wage Board.

According to the Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research, the minimum income of a worker should be at least Rs35,000 per month, which appears to be a more realistic assessment. Fixing the minimum wage in each province should be based on objective criteria and not political expediency. Besides, the mandatory legal requirement of prior consultation with the two main stakeholders — the representatives of employers and workers — should not be bypassed by the provincial governments.

The writer is a consultant in employee relations at the Aga Khan University and also teaches labour welfare laws at IBA.

Published in Dawn, August 31st, 2021