FAISALABAD, March 19: The Bhatta Mazdoor Faisalabad has demanded that the government should direct the authorities concerned for the implementation of labour laws especially relating to kiln workers.

At a meeting held under the chairmanship of its President Anwar Bhatti, leaders of kiln workers said that thousands of poor daily wage earners were facing serious financial and health problems due to the negligence of government agencies.

They said that government instructions about providing marriage grant, death grant, education allowance and social security benefits for the kiln workers were also not being implemented as officials concerned were in league with the kiln owners.

The campaign for the registration of all workers under Workers and Factory Act 1973 had not so far been started by the agencies for reasons best known to them, they said.

They alleged that hundreds of minor children and women were forced to work at different kilns in Faisalabad and its adjoining districts. The practice of locking kiln workers in rooms after duty hours was also a routine practice which was not only human rights violations but also a stigma on the face of authorities concerned, they said.

They claimed that the Punjab government’s order of fixing Rs184 as payment of manufacturing 1,000 bricks for the kiln workers were being violated by the kiln owners with impunity.