Labour dept fails to enforce minimum wage in private sector

Majority of private businesses pay their employees less than fixed wage

RAWALPINDI:

The private sector is not complying with orders regarding the minimum wage.

In Rawalpindi, only four labour officers and eight labour inspectors are overseeing the implementation of the minimum wage of Rs 20,000 issued by the federal government on July 1 in Rawalpindi.

The labour department has so far imposed fines on 500 violators but it is not proving to be fruitful, sources said.

The implementation of the order in the private sector was around 10 per cent and many owners paid their employees less than the fixed minimum wage according to their own will.

Officials said that since the implementation of the new minimum wage, the labour department has challaned 500 different businesses and sent their cases to magistrates concerned.

Sources in the labour department said the orders regarding the minimum wage can truly be enforced if the labour officers and inspectors were given the right to impose heavy fines on violators.

Read Labour leaders demand workplace safety, minimum wage

Meanwhile, the provincial labour department has also done away with the Elimination of Child and Bonded Labour Project across the province.

The closure of the project management unit (PMU) has left 150 employees jobless.

Under the project, started by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, parents were given Rs1,000 per child for not sending their children to work.

Under the project, the government also used to bear the expenses of private schools where the poor children were admitted and they were also provided free books and uniforms.

Under the project, child labour at brick kilns, hotels and workshops had been curtailed on a large scale. However, after the project was closed, the practice of child labour has reared its ugly head across the city.

Labour Inspector Dr Abdul Shakoor told The Express Tribune that they were trying their best to implement the minimum wage order.

He said that the owners refusing to comply with the government’s order were being fined and their cases were being sent to magistrates for legal action.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 2^nd, 2021.