Dawn 04 January 2005
KARACHI: Moot demands Rs6,500 as minimum wages By Our Staff Reporter KARACHI, Jan 3: Various trade union leaders on Monday terming the recent fixation of minimum wages at Rs 2,500 as unacceptable have demanded that at least Rs 6,500 be fixed as the minimum wages. The demand was made at a workers' meeting, organized by the National Labour Federation. Leaders of the Trade Union Action Committee which represents 14 federations of workers from all over the country spoke. The meeting was chaired by senior trade union leader S. P. Lodhi, while Saleem Raza, Shakih Majeed, Shaikh Majeed, Shaukat Ali, Malak Rafiq, A. K. Azmati and others also spoke. Terming the enhancement of pension under the Old-Age Benefit Institution (EOBI) scheme from Rs 700 to Rs 1,000 as unrealistic, they demanded that at least Rs 2,500 be fixed as EOBI pension. They also demanded that other pensions be enhanced, keeping in view the rate of inflation. Referring to the government's announcement that the Industrial Relations Ordinance 2002 would be amended, they stressed that the amendments be done keeping in view the recommendations submitted by the TUAC. They also criticized the proposed privatization of the KESC and Karachi Shipyard. They demanded that the law-enforcement agency officials, posted in these organizations, be sent back to their parent organizations. o o o Dawn 18 January 2005 Meeting on minimum wages put off By Our Staff Reporter ISLAMABAD, Jan 17: The process of increasing the minimum monthly wages of workers from Rs2,500 to Rs3,000 has hit snags as the government has postponed a number of meetings scheduled with the Workers and Employers Bilateral Council of Pakistan (WEBCoP), allegedly on pressure from industrialists. Official sources told Dawn that Monday's scheduled meeting of Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz with the WEBCoP, which is to forward its recommendations on the minimum wages, did not take place, apparently because of a meeting of the federal cabinet. Earlier, another such meeting could not take place as the prime minister had to fly to Egypt to attend Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's funeral, the sources said. The sources attributed the lack of progress on the issue to increasing pressures from industrialists who wanted to delay the matter as much as possible. Ironically, even the existing minimum salary of Rs2,500 is not being paid by most of the industrial units in Rawalpindi and Islamabad. Most of these mills have recruited workers on Rs1,800 a month. "The enhancement of minimum wages from Rs2,500 to Rs3,000 is likely to take longer than it was expected as the government has given no deadline to the WEB CoP to forward its recommendations for finalizing modalities of the matter," officials said. The WEBCoP, presumably an employer-dominated body, could delay the matter by months in the absence of a timeframe, the officials feared. President Musharraf on Dec 27 announced that the government had decided, in principle, to enhance the minimum wages of industrial workers to Rs3,000. He had said that a final decision would be taken after negotiations between the government and WEBCoP representatives. Workers across the country had expressed dismay and frustration over the announcement as they had demanded Rs4,000 as minimum wages. Within hours of the president's announcement, Labour and Manpower Minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan had said at a press conference that the matter would be finalized by the second week of January. According to the Labour Policy, 2002, the government is bound to increase the minimum wages in 2003. However, it failed to do so. o o o Dawn Letters to the Editor 21 January 2005 EPZ workers' condition The president recently announced an increase in the wages of industrial workers and the monthly payments of EOBI (Employees Old Age Benefit Institution) pensioners at a conference in Islamabad. He also laid stress on improving the working conditions of industrial workers. Not long ago, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz also vowed to improve the lot of the industrial sector workforce. In this context, I would like to point out human rights violations of skilled workers in garment factories under the Export Processing Zone near Landhi, Karachi. These skilled workers are paid ludicrously low wages. The workers have no job security even after the completion of their one-year probation period. No medical treatment is provided to them at the work premises. Whenever a foreign delegation visits the EPZ, the management conjures up false papers depicting an exaggerated salary structure of the workers, and erects makeshift clinics to impress the visitors. If a labourer dares to reveal the truth, he loses his job. The general attitude of the factory owners is callous. We know that in Pakistan labour is very cheap but employers have no right to treat the labourers as slaves or to blackmail them. Supervisors hound them as the poor souls have to sew a certain number of garment orders in an hour, and this number keeps changing from owner to owner and on the whim of the supervisor. This is literally a back-breaking task. It is a pity that the EPZ, which is in the vanguard of our country's business and economic growth and is a source of earning billions of rupees annually for the country, has such wretched working conditions and paltry wages for its skilled workers, especially in the garment sector. How can one assume that all this is going on without our high-ups knowing about it? MUHAMMAD ASLAM Rawalpindi _________________________________ Labour Notes South Asia (LNSA): An informal archive and mailing list for trade unionists and labour activists based in or working on South asia. LNSA Mailing List: Labour Notes South Asia To subscribe send a blank message to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> LNSA Web site: groups.yahoo.com/group/lnsa/ Run by The South Asia Citizens Web www.sacw.net _________________________________ ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Has someone you know been affected by illness or disease? 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