Activists call for payment of minimum wage to janitors

Refer to SHC ruling issued on March 10, 2021, demand its implementation

KARACHI:

Activist highlighted on Saturday the plight of workers- especially janitors working in civic institutions, security guards and persons employed at fuel stations- demanding from the government to ensure the payment of minimum wage- fixed at Rs17,500- to them.

The speakers, namely rights activist Naeem Sadiq, Pakistan Institute of Labour, Education and Research executive director Karamat Ali and National Trade Union Federation general secretary Nasir Mansoor, put forward the demand during a seminar titled 'Situation of Implementation of the Minimum Wages Law' at the Karachi Press Club.

Addressing the seminar, Sadiq called for the Sindh Employees Social Security Institution (SESSI), Employees Old-Age Benefits Institution (EOBI) and the Sindh Labour Department to implement a recent Sindh High Court ruling issued on March 10, 2021, pertaining to the payment of minimum wages to janitors and sanitary workers.

"The petitioner in this case told the court that he was concerned about the meagre wages of sanitary workers, security guards and others, who were mostly hired via private contractors," said Sadiq.

He lamented the non-implementation of the law for minimum wage in Pakistan.

"Here, the minimum wage is significantly less than the living wage and even then 60 per cent of workers are deprived of it," he said, adding that workers were neither given a dearness allowance in the country, nor social security.

According to Sadiq, around 95 per cent workers in the country are not provided social security by state institutions in Pakistan.

He regretted that civil society in Karachi had failed to play its role in raising voice for the rights of workers such as janitors and security guards, who remained a vulnerable section of society.

"The EOBI and SESSI, which are state institutions, have to ensure the implementation of the minimum wage law," Sadiq stressed.

Ali cited a World Health Organisation report, stating that citizens in Pakistan, on average, were earning less than two dollars per day, which was even lesser than the minimum wage of Rs17,500.

He too underlined the need to implement the SHC ruling pertaining to the payment of minimum wage to janitors.

Moreover, Mansoor demanded the inclusion of unemployment allowance in social security services.

He pointed out that during the Covid-19 lockdown, employees in the private sector were not paid salaries despite the Sindh government having passed a law to ensure that workers received their pays.

"Scores of workers were sacked during the past year in Karachi and the government failed to implement its own law," he lamented.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 4^th, 2021.