KARACHI: Interim Chief Minister retired Justice Maqbool Baqar on Thursday directed the Sindh labour department to get implemented the minimum wage notification, regularise temporary workers in industrial units and bring an end to all forms of bonded labour in Sindh.

The Sindh Minimum Wage Board had on Tuesday revised the minimum wages for factory workers upward with the amount for skilled workers increasing to Rs33,280 and for unskilled ones to Rs32,000.

Chairing a meeting of the labour and finance departments, Workers Welfare Board and Sindh Revenue Board, the chief minister said that various media houses had not paid salaries to their workers for the past many months. “Similarly, several private schools underpay their female teachers,” he said and directed the labour department to get implemented the notification.

He directed the labour department to address the grievances of media workers and schoolteachers, particularly the female ones.

The CM has also decided to approach the federal government for the release of Rs22 billion contributions made by the Sindh-based industrial establishments in the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) for the Sindh Workers Welfare Fund (SWWF) and Sindh Workers Welfare Participation Fund (SWWPF).

He said he would write a letter to the caretaker prime minister with the request to direct the federal finance ministry to transfer to the province all the SWWF and SWWPF contributions, including Rs22bn as well as contributions relating to the province made by trans-provincial establishments.

Published in Dawn, September 29th, 2023