IN April 2010, labour legislation was devolved to the provinces through the 18th Amendment. But the government did not take into confidence the two critical stakeholders — employers and workers’ bodies.

Most labour laws enacted at the federal level are based on the 36 conventions of the ILO ratified by Pakistan over the last seven decades. Consequently, the responsibility of meeting the requirements of these conventions falls on the federation and not the provincial governments. Unfortunately, this aspect was not considered before devolution.

Moreover, labour laws confronted the issue of streamlining around 200 acts, ordinances and rules. Some labour commissions constituted for this purpose by the federal government during the 1980s and 1990s had come up with pragmatic recommendations. But their efforts were in vain as successive governments discarded their advice.

Labour laws are in a state of confusion.

After devolution, this matter is no longer seen as an issue to be resolved. The voluminous nature of labour laws and the ramifications of devolution have created a dilemma for progressive employers. They face disappointment while trying to implement the law in letter and spirit. Even experts in the field are unable to guide them with clarity. Both employers and workers continue to encounter serious issues in relation to critical labour welfare laws in the superior courts.

The devolution of labour laws was a significant shift in the domain of legislation and administration. It should have improved benefits for workers and led to efficiency in the government’s pension and medical schemes management. Sadly, the situation has worsened over the past 12 years.

The declaration of minimum wage for unskilled workers by the government had not caused any problems since 1969, when the amount was fixed at Rs140 per month for the first time. But since 2010, the management of minimum wage by the provinces has twice caused monetary loss to workers due to highly ambitious amounts by two of the provinces at the expense of employers.

Progressive employers are not averse to aspiring to a higher minimum wage for the employees. However, they tend to oppose it when the increase allowed by the government ignores prevailing business conditions and their paying capacity. Effective from July 1, 2021, all four provinces and the centre had increased the uniform minimum wage of unskilled workers from Rs17,500 per month to the following: Punjab — Rs20,000; Balochistan — Rs20,000; KP — Rs21,000; Sindh — Rs25,000; the federation — Rs20,000.

Under Section 3 of the Sindh Minimum Wages Act, 2015, a minimum wage board is constituted, which is headed by a chairman and has equal representation from employers and workers. The board proposes the minimum wage to be fixed and submits its recommendation to the government under Section 6. The government may then issue a notification in the official gazette if it agrees with the board’s recommendation. In case of disagreement, the government may refer the matter back to the board for reconsideration.

The board had recommended a minimum wage of Rs19,000 per month, increasing it from the previous amount of Rs17,500. However, on July 19, 2021, the Sindh government enhanced the minimum wage to Rs25,000 but without issuing a gazette notification as required by Section 6.

The employers and their representative bodies strongly opposed the increase and filed a writ petition challenging it before the Sindh High Court. On Oct 15, 2021, the court decided the matter in favour of the Sindh government, which then issued a gazette notification to this effect on Nov 12, 2021, confirming the minimum wage of Rs25,000.

Less than a month later, the Supreme Court accepted the appeal of employers against the Sindh High Court’s judgement. Following the apex court’s order, employers could pay minimum wages of Rs19,000 to their workers, effective from July 1, 2021.

With the Supreme Court’s detailed judgement released a few days ago, the Sindh government can refer the matter to the board. However, whenever a consensus-based minimum wage is fixed for Sindh, it will be effective from a prospective date. Had Sindh agreed to the employers’ request of fixing the minimum wage at Rs20,000 like the other provinces, there would not have been any such dispute.

Consequently, workers in Sindh have ended up drawing a lesser wage of Rs19,000 as compared to their counterparts in other provinces.

Similarly, in July 2014, KP had fixed a higher minimum wage of Rs15,000 per month, when it was fixed at Rs12,000 by the other three provinces. On suspension of this wage by the Peshawar High Court in 2015, KP had to bring it down to Rs12,000 effective from July 2014, causing employees losses in terms of arrears.

The writer is a consultant in human resources at the Aga Khan University.

Published in Dawn, March 29th, 2022