Factory workers protest non-payment of salaries
FBR considering charging higher rates of income tax from those who are outside the tax net. PHOTO: REUTERS
Factory workers at the Hattar Heavy Electrical Complex (HEC), who were on strike for the last three days against the non-payment of their salaries for four months Monday marched out of the industrial estate and staged a sit-in at the Haripur deputy commissioner’s office.
According to sources, some 250 employees of HEC have been denied salaries for four months at a time when inflation is the highest in the country’s 75 years of history and only a few days are left in Eidul Fitr.
Trade union leader Tahir Amin said authorities concerned have turned a blind eye to the sufferings of factory workers who were toiling in the complex without their legitimate salaries.
“Families of the labourers spent their fasting month with immense difficulties but how will they spend their Eid without their dues cleared? He said if honorable courts can issue orders to the State Bank for the release of funds for the election, then they should also take suo moto notice of the plight of these workers.
“The bureaucrats and their children are living a luxurious life yet the children of the downtrodden are forced to starve.”
The leader said this shows the double standards of the anti-poor state.
Meanwhile, the assistant commissioner of the area assured the workers that the management of their factory has been contacted and they have assured them of the release salaries soon.
Tahir Amin further said many factories in Hattar do not pay full wages to the workers as per the government policy.
“Poor labourers already work on low wages, but depriving them of their salaries is very cruel and unjust.”
The Supreme Court should take suo moto notice of the fact that factory workers across the country are not getting their salaries on time, he demanded.
“Hattar Industrial Estate is the highest revenue-generating estate in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. About 500 factories are operating here, but the problems are so much that the workers are fighting for justice.”
In a written application submitted by the workers to the deputy commissioner, the workers took the stance that the factory was a subsidiary institution of the government but now it has been privatised.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 18th, 2023.