Kiln owner held for paying workers low wages

A labour officer raids the premises, takes violator into custody

FAISALABAD: Nishatabad police claimed on Wednesday to have arrested the owner of a brick kiln for paying the kiln workers low wages. 

A police spokesman told journalists that Labour Officer (Factories) Imranullah had, on a tip-off, conducted raid at a brick kiln in Chak 51-JB and arrested brick kiln owner Muhammad Ibrahim for paying low wages to the kiln workers.

The government has notified minimum wage at Rs962 for 1,000 bricks but the owner was paying Rs800 for 1,000 bricks to his workers, the spokesperson said.

Talking to journalists, Santa Masih, a worker at the kiln, said, “The kiln owner had never ever paid us the notified wages…he was exploiting our hard labour.”

He said the kiln owner also used his thugs to “teach kiln workers a lesson” for protesting against the payment of low wages.

The labour officer took the brick kiln owner into custody and later handed him over to Nishatabad police. The police have put him in lock up and have registered a case against him. Several labour leaders in the area appreciated labour officer’s work. They said the kiln owner deserved to be arrested and demanded similar action at other brick kiln houses as well.

Talking to The Express Tribune, Baba Abdul Lateef Ansari, central leader of the Labour Qaumi Movement (LQM) said this was probably the first time the Labour Department had taken such action against the owner of a brick kiln.

“We have earlier complained about the sorry state of affairs to the Labour Department several times but they had never taken action…their inaction had emboldened owners of brick kilns to pay low wages.”

He said if the Labour Department was serious about taking action against exploitative owners, they should raid more brick kilns. “Payment of low wages would be the least of the violations they will find.”

Published in The Express Tribune, September 24^th, 2015.