LAHORE, Feb 10: Over 2,537 industrial units and 2,281 shopkeepers were prosecuted during 2002 for violations of labour laws and using defective weights and measures respectively.

This was stated by District Labour Officer Syed Sakhawat Hussain Shah on Monday.

He said that 16 labour officers had conducted 19,066 inspections of industrial unit during the year. Fines totalling Rs252,952 were imposed on the industrial units by the courts in 1,041 cases of labour laws violations.

The officers conducted 58,068 inspections of weights and measures and the courts imposed fines totalling Rs277,200 in 2,295 cases. A fee of Rs3,530,396 was recovered in 1,125,372 cases of verification of weights and measures by the assistant directors and labour inspectors.

The officers conducted 873 inspections of 215 filing stations pumps in the district and lodged 80 cases for under-measuring petrol. Fines totalling Rs88,500 were imposed on petrol pump owners in 31 cases.

As many as 15,042 cases of failure to observe weekly holidays and failure to maintain the record of employees were forwarded to the courts after 104,902 inspections of shops.

Fines totalling Rs690,620 were imposed on the shopkeepers in 14,387 cases.