Punjab stipulates minimum age limit for domestic help

Punjab Domestic Workers Act 2018 enshrines hefty fines for employers breaching workers’ rights

LAHORE: The “Punjab Domestic Workers Act 2018” not only binds everyone to address a servant as ‘domestic worker’, but it has also fixed a fine of Rs.50,000 over employing a child under age 12.

The Act stated that whosoever knowingly contravened the provisions of Section 3 (no child under the age of 15 years shall be allowed to work in a household in any capacity) shall be liable to punishment with imprisonment for a term which may extend to one month. If the employer employs a child under the age of 12 years, and in case of a child under 15 years the fine may extend to Rs50,000 but shall not be less than Rs10,000.

The Act also suggested that an employer who fails to comply with or contravenes any provision of the Act be punished with a fine which for the first offence may extend to Rs5,000 and for a second or subsequent offence with a fine which may extend to Rs10,000 and in case of a child under 15 years by a fine which may extend to Rs50,000 but which shall not be less than Rs10,000.

The Punjab Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs Raja Basharat on Wednesday introduced the “Punjab Domestic Workers Act 2018” during the Punjab Assembly session. Deputy Speaker Sardar Dost Muhammad Mazari referred the Act to the concerned committee and sought a report within two months.

The Act made it clear to everyone that domestic workers shall be addressed as domestic workers and not ‘servants’. “No child under the age of 15 years shall be allowed to work in a household in any capacity.”

Domestic workers shall have the rights and entitlements…(a) domestic workers shall not be employees under the bonded labor system or forced or partly forced labor system  or on manual scavenging (b) no domestic worker shall be discriminated in recruitment, continuance of employment, deciding wages, benefits and other rights on grounds of religion, race, caste, creed, sex, ethnic background, and place of birth/residence/domicile/migrant or any other reason.

No extra work may be assigned to the domestic worker without free will of the domestic worker and extra remuneration, the employer shall provide dignified working conditions and occupational safety and health measures for the benefits for domestic worker shall include sickness benefit, maternity benefits, medical care during sickness and maternity, medical care of dependents injury benefits disablement pension and survivor’s pension.

Referring to the weekly holiday, every domestic worker employed in a household is entitled to have the holiday of at least one whole day in a week.

Every domestic worker is entitled to sick leave with full wages for a total period of eight days every year. Such leave, if not availed of by a domestic worker during a calendar year, may be carried forward, but the total accumulation of such leave shall not exceed sixteen days at any one time.

Moreover, every domestic worker engaged in domestic work is entitled to ten days of festival holidays with full wages in a year. The days and dates for such festival holidays shall be notified to the domestic worker by the employer at the beginning of the calendar year.

For each day of the leave or holidays allowed to a domestic worker, he must be paid at the rate equivalent to the daily average amount, which, during the three months preceding the leave or holidays, was being earned by the domestic worker.

In minimum wage, the Act states that no employer shall pay to the domestic worker, the remuneration payable, at rates less favourable than those at which remuneration is paid to the domestic workers of the opposite sex performing same work or work of a similar nature or of equal value.

The Act further stated that a female domestic worker engaged in domestic work shall be entitled to maternity benefits with a minimum amount equivalent to six weeks wages in a prescribed manner but not less than the minimum wages notified by the government.