LAHORE, Nov 24: The All Pakistan Federation of Trade Unions has urged new government to freeze the prices of the essential commodities pending the revision of the wages of the workers.

The demand was voiced through a resolution adopted at a meeting of the federation held at the Bakhtiar Labour Hall here on Sunday with Haji Muhammad Amin Rathore in chair.

Federation secretary-general Khurshid Ahmed said that the families of the workers were starving because the traders had been given a free hand to raise the prices of the essential commodities but the government and the private sector employers were not ready to increase the pay and allowances of their employees to offset the increase in the cost of living.

He said that working class was left with no option except making an appeal to the government to freeze the prices of essential commodities because the workers had been deprived of their collective bargaining rights under the retrogressive labour policy and the Industrial Relations Ordinance 2002 and could not compel the employers to raise their wages by resorting to strike. He said that the government was not giving the workers the rights promised under the ILO Conventions ratified by the country.

He also called upon the newly-elected parliament members to attend to the workers’ problems at the earliest because there had been an unprecedented increase in unemployment in the country because of the anti-worker policies pursued by the military government under the dictates of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. He said that the new government should also freeze the pay and allowances of parliamentarians and ministers to forestal any further increase in the already high rate of inflation.