Govt to fix wages, weekly offs for brick kiln labourers

Court orders authorities concerned to pay school fee of children of workers

LAHORE: The Punjab government has decided to introduce legislation for the protection of the rights of brick kiln labourers and to fix their wages with a weekly day off.

Justice Jawad Hassan was hearing a petition seeking direction to the quarters concerned to take appropriate measures for the protection of brick kiln labourers. The petitioner requested the court that facilities be provided to the labourers working at brick kilns.

As the proceedings commenced on Friday, the Assistant Advocate General Rai Shahid Saleem appeared before the Lahore High Court (LHC) representing the provincial government.

He informed the court that the government was going to take concrete steps for the survival of the labourers through its legislation. He told the court that the labourers’ wages would be fixed and a day will also be marked as their weekly off day in the legislation draft being prepared by the provincial government.



He informed the court that this was the first time the government is going to take concrete steps for the rights of labourers. He said that it was a very serious issue which the government would not neglect at any cost. He submitted that the registration of 6,999 brick kilns has been completed and the government has also a plan to issue social security cards to the labourers.

Shedding light over the child labour, Assistant Advocate General Shahid Saleem informed the court that the law prohibiting child work was being implemented strictly.

Justice Jawad Hassan observed that the labourers who work at brick kilns be given the status of workman.

Meanwhile, the court directed the secretary labour to submit detailed report on what measures had been taken for the protection of labourers of the brick kilns all over the province.

The petitioner in his petition had contended that the brick kiln labourers had been left on their own and no one was ready to ensure the provision of even nominal facilities to them. It was further stated in the petition that the labourers were receiving minimum wages as compared with other institutions. Neither health nor proper education facilities were being given to them or their children.

On March 28, LHC’s Justice Rasaal Hasan had directed the secretary labour to take appropriate measurers for paying the school fee of the children working at brick kilns.

Justice Hasan passed the order on a petition filed seeking direction for the Punjab government to pay the fee as the continuation of a scheme which the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s (PML-N) government had initiated in its tenure.

As the proceedings commenced, Advocate Syed Farhad Ali Shah had contended the court that PML-N government had launched a program under which the children, working at brick kilns, had been given an opportunity like other children to get an education.

He submitted that the fee of the children had been paying to the schools concerned but now when the Pakistan Tehree-e-Insaf (PTI) government came into power, the fee was not being paid which was regrettable and against the moral values.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 1^st, 2019.