KARACHI: The Central Labour Minister, Mr Mohammad Hanif, said in Karachi yesterday [Oct 28] that the Government was still willing to hold negotiations with the labour representatives to restore industrial peace in Landhi. He, however, made it clear that the Government would not accede to the demand of wages for the strike period as he said “no work, no wage”. The Minister appealed to workers to resume duties from today and assured that their demands would be looked into sympathetically.

He told a Press conference that the workers had gone on an illegal strike for which they could not, under any circumstances, demand wages. This, he pointed out, was a world-wide practice as “if you do no work, you are not entitled to wages”. The Landhi labour situation, he said, was not an industrial dispute. And if there was no industrial dispute, there could be no strike, he said. — Staff reporter

[Meanwhile, Dawn’s staff reporter adds from Karachi,] The leaders of eleven trade union federations of Karachi, who joined hands last week in support of Landhi workers ... announced the failure of negotiations being held with the Government. They declared: the strike in the Landhi and Korangi areas would continue and they would ... decide the future course of action.

Published in Dawn, October 29th, 2022