LAHORE: The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf Labour Wing has presented a 50-point charter of demand to the federal as well as provincial governments and required implementation of the demands, most of which fall within the ambit of the existing laws, to save labourers from the clutches of poverty.

Fighting for the rights of labourers in line with the PTI’s and founder Imran Khan’s manifesto, PTI Central Labour Wing president Rana Abdul Sami presented the charter of demand to the federal and provincial governments on International Labour Day on Thursday.

He stated that several demands could be implemented through existing laws, while there was a need to legislate to protect labourers in the society.

Listing the demands, the labour wing president stated that the persons drawing less than Rs70,000 per month salary be declared as labourers. He stressed that the respective governments must implement their notification of minimum wages and the wages be disbursed through banking channels.

Mr Sami said the workers continuously working for 90 days should be regularised into service and provided eight medical leaves, 10 casual leaves and 14 annual leaves. He said those working for 180 days in a year are entitled to gratuity. The workers should be provided daily-use items from fair price shops.

The labour wing stressed that the male and female workers should be given equal salaries. It said all workers in a registered institution under the Factory Act 1934 should be considered labourers.

The PTI labour wing demanded that the Wages Authority should be bound to decide a case within a week for the payment of dues to workers. It said labourers working in a province should not be put in a trans-provincial list.

Mr Sami demanded that the labour union elections should be organised and every organisation be instructed to establish a Works Council.

He demanded that the government should enhance the marriage grant from Rs400,000 to Rs800,000, and the death grant be increased from Rs800,000 to Rs1.2 million.

He stressed that the government should ensure the admission of workers’ children in the worker welfare schools. He said workers’ children quota in Comsats University should be set at 30 per cent and explained that there were only 1,800 workers’ children amongst the total enrollment of 35,000 students in the university.

He demanded that the workers’ children should also be given admission to the divisional public schools. He demanded that the scholarship amount of Rs3,500, Rs4,500 and Rs5,500 be enhanced to Rs5,000, Rs6,500 and Rs8,000, respectively.

The PTI labour wing demanded that the labourers should be given motorcycles through draw and be given flats in labour colonies on ownership rights basis. The flats given on rent in 2019 should be given to the allottees on ownership basis.The labour wing demanded that the Punjab government should inaugurate the 200 flats on the Kasur-Raiwind Road as its PC-1 was ready and added that 600 flats in Taxila and 200 flats in Jhelum be allocated to workers.

The labour wing called for increasing burial expenses in case of social security worker’s death up to Rs50,000 and on death of worker’s close relative to Rs30,000. In case of amputation of an arm or leg, the labour wing demanded that the worker should be given a pension equal to minimum wage.

It demanded that the contractual system should be abolished. The workers should be given self-registration facility and the R5 card should be treated as an identity card. The workers should be given the facility to view the C-1 form record on the website. The workers’ contributions should be received through the PRA.

The labour wing demanded that the board members, advisory council, monitoring and steering committee, vigilance committee, works council, scrutiny committees as well as Workers Children Education System Board members in an organisation should be selected through elections.

It demanded that the board assigned to fix minimum wages be constituted through election.

Published in Dawn, May 2nd, 2025