The woes of minimum wage workers
My friend Asfandyar is part of a rare breed of Pakistanis – he still believes in the inherent virtue of our people, is passionately hopeful of a brighter future in this land, and expends all his efforts and intellect towards achieving the idealistic goals that can otherwise be glimpsed only in the poetry of Faiz and verses of Iqbal. Our friendship sprouted from a common interest in the financial markets, but has since jumped to the esoteric reaches of social sector reform and institutional reconstruction. A few days back, during a conversation, his tone was excessively despondent; he had (on some financial due-diligence trip) visited the factory and home of some affluent industrialist, and discovered the deplorable and abject conditions that in which the factory workers and domestic “servants” (we have to get rid of that word!) lived – “inhumane”, as he described it.
This brings us to some of the most pertinent questions of our society: have we, as a nation, become convinced that not all people are equal? Have we, quietly, given up on the dream of a classless society? Have we accepted the idea that how one’s life turns out to be will, for the most part, be an accident of birth? And specifically (keeping aside the state’s responsibilities of providing education, employment and healthcare to its citizens), is there no basic minimum, in terms of housing, salary, and ancillary benefits, which private individuals owe to their employees?
Speaking of “basic minimums”, it is perhaps appropriate to start with the minimum wage paradigm in our society. It turns out that we have two basic laws that govern this area – the Minimum Wage Ordinance, 1961, and the West Pakistan Minimum Wages for Unskilled Workers Ordinance, 1969. The 1961 Ordinance is applicable to all “industrial establishments” employees (whether skilled, unskilled or apprentices, including even domestic workers) but excludes those of federal or provincial governments, coalmine employees or persons employed in agriculture. The 1969 Ordinance (per section 3), places a legal obligation on all owners of “a commercial or industrial establishment” to pay a minimum salary (specified in a Schedule of the Ordinance) to each employee. (It excludes persons in service of Pakistan, defense services, ports, railways, telegraph and telephone, postal services, firefighting, electricity, gas, water supply and hospitals.) Additionally, it allows certain deductions that the employer can make from this minimum salary, in case the employer is so magnanimous as to provide “housing accommodation” or “transport” to the workers.
Under these laws, the government (federal and provincial) have the minimum wages payable. Most recently, in May of this year, the federal government increased the minimum wage to Rs 8,000 per month and the Punjab government increased it to Rs 9,000 per month.
This sets the stage; now to the problem at hand: notwithstanding the idea that Rs 8,000 or 9,000 is a paltry amount for someone supporting a family of seven and trying to put the kids through school, the deeper issue is that these figures are meaningless for the countless daily-wagers, private employees and domestic “servants(!)” who have to individually negotiate their salary with the conscience of some Mercedes-driving ‘seth’. The government, federal or provincial, has no real way of ensuring that the minimum wage standards are being adhered to by private employers. The government’s sphere of influence, at the very maximum, extends to those individuals who are being employed by state run or controlled organization.
The state’s inability and lack of seriousness is evident from the fact that (according to labor department statistics) in Lahore there are only 13 labor inspectors. In the entire province of Punjab, there are a total of a hundred. Is it possible that in a province with a population of over 100 million people, and thousands of small industries, shops and commercial establishments, that a total of 100 people will be able to enforce the minimum wage laws? Is it not, then, true that we as a nation have no priority in ‘fixing’ the minimum wage (and thus, by extension, the minimum basic standard of living) in our society?
Next question: is only the government to blame for this, or do we all share part of the blame?
Let us, for a moment, concede the idea that our government (federal and provincial) is corrupt, inept and apathetic. Let us also concede that it will remain so, regardless of which party comes to power (or which dictator claims the role of a ‘savior’). Does that mean that individuals in our nation, who are privileged in terms of wealth and education, do not have a stake in the issue? Just because the government cannot enforce the minimum wage, must we continue to pay our cook, or driver, or sweeper or guard the minimum possible that we can negotiate? Must we build our ‘kothi’ and farmhouses in gaudy affluence, with a downtrodden “servant quarter” and substandard bathroom to house five guards? Must we close our eyes to whether the people who work with us, or for us, have children some place away, who are being denied (for want of money) the very basic education that costs no more than a trip to our favorite restaurant?
Asfandyar, in his analysis of the issue, was correct. It is time that we shift our national conscience from a ‘vertical interpretation of fundamental rights’ (where each citizen claims its rights, under the constitution, from the state alone), to a more ‘horizontal’ approach (where, irrespective of the state, each citizen claims the basic fundamental rights from the other).
Now, if only, we could export this idealism from the pages of the newspaper, onto the practice of our lives.
The writer is a lawyer based in Lahore. He has a Masters in Constitutional Law from Harvard Law School. He can be reached at: [email protected]
