Industrial units told to pay labourers through banks

Labour department says move will keep a check on owners of industries, ensure provision of minimum wage

PESHAWAR: Labourers in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa got a good news on Thursday after the provincial labour directorate ordered all industrial units in the province to ensure that workers are paid the minimum wage of Rs15,000.

However, the directorate also ordered to end the practice of paying labourers cash, mandating that salaries are transferred through scheduled banks.

Owners of industrial units were warned that should they fail to comply with the directives by the end of January, an operation will be launched against them.

The move had been announced by Labour Department Secretary Khayam Hassan Khan and Director Irfan Ullah while addressing a news conference at the Peshawar Press Club on Thursday.

While most of the industries owners have welcomed the decision, some were upset about it, the department officials said, adding that some of these units who were reluctant to comply with the directives too have started a process to implement the directives and have sought additional time to do so.

He explained that the move was made to keep a check on the owners of industries and ensure the minimum wage to labourers.

Khayam said that the government will ensure that every labourer gets the minimum wage of Rs15,000.

“We have visited 630 units in the province of which 306 were not complying with the order,” said the secretary. He added that in Haripur, owing to the burden on local banks, the process was a little slow. On the other hand in Kohat, the large industrial units have started to comply with the orders but the smaller units were a little reluctant.

In Dera Ismail Khan, Khayam said that all major units have started the process of transferring wages via banks.

In Mardan, Swabi, Peshawar, Nowshera, Bannu, Abbottabad, Swat and Buner non-complying units have requested for some more time to implement the orders.

He added that they have also held talks with owners of brick kilns to finalize a draft of wages for their workers, dividing the employees into different categories.

Detailing the fines which will be imposed on non-complying units, Khayam said that the law prescribes a meagre Rs5,000 fine. However, he said that they were trying to amend the law which would allow them to increase the fine up to Rs50,000.

Talking about the salaries of teachers at private schools, who are reportedly paid less than labourers, Irfan said that the K-P assembly had passed a law under which teachers of private schools cannot be considered as labourers.

However, he said that the law referred to formulating a different mechanism to regulate minimum wage for teachers. In this regard, he said that they were in talks with the private schools association to ensure that teachers are at least paid a minimum salary of Rs15,000 per month.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 22^nd, 2017.