Labour Department Secretary has directed the Director General (Labour) and the District Officers (Labour) across the province to start inspecting the workplaces, particularly brick kilns and send a complete report to the department regarding bonded labour, minimum wages and other labour laws violation being allegedly committed by the owners.
He issued these directions after the Punjab government lifted ban on labour inspections in the light of a blast in a factory at Kharak and the continuous pressure mounted by the labour organisations, particularly Bonded Labour Liberation Front (BLLF) to restore the labour inspections to avoid any Kharak-like tragic incident in future.
“Besides holding protest rallies, we had also written letters to the Labour Department to restore labour inspections so that the departmental officials could inspect the workplaces and ensure labour laws and government’s instructions relating payment of minimum wages as notified by the government, provision of social security cards, employees old age benefits, dowry funds and other facilities to workers,” BLLF secretary general Syeda Ghulam Fatima told Pakistan Today.
She said had the sitting Punjab government lifted the ban on labour inspection, imposed in 2009 by the Pervaiz Elahi-led Punjab government, it would have averted the various tragic incidents that claimed lives and properties of workers at workplaces.
She however, appreciated the Punjab government for allowing labour inspection by lifting the ban in this regard and claimed that it would help the government as well as the labour organisations to identify various problems and solve these in an effective way.