ISLAMABAD: Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) administration has sent 45 individuals to prison who were caught red-handed for violating Weight and Measures Ordinance and for giving salaries below the minimum wage set by the government during past eight months.
Between July 2016 and March 2017, the administration has done 1670 inspections, issued 4260 challans, and fined 141. In total ICT has fined Rs 1,916,300 to violators.
However, there are still hundreds of thousands of workers in the capital who are working for private firms, shops, brands and various markets who are earning below the minimum wage without an authority taking any measures.
Officials said that during the inspection, ICT administration found massive violations in weights and discovered that almost all steel dealers in capital use hidden switches to weigh less steel. Dealers included Al Rayan steel Ali Pur, Hydery steel DHA, Bismillah steel service, Ghori steel, Ashraf steel, Hajvery steel, Al-fateh steel, Sunny steel, Rehman steel, Islamabad steel, Malakand steel and other steel dealers.
Head of Labor Welfare Department ICT Muhammad Ali said, “ICT administration has confiscated 17 scales in which hidden switches were installed to defraud people up to 400kg every time they weight steel,” adding that every steel dealer was fined 100,000 Rs and some of them imprisoned as well.
ICT administration also took notice and acted lawfully against the government, private firms and departments which were providing monthly salaries to their employees below the minimum wages set by the Government of Pakistan.
According to the documents, the ICT administration labour welfare department has summoned the general managers, managing directors and chief executive officers to appear before the administration and notify the increase in salaries of their respective employees. In eight months, 9763 employees included 1880 of PSDP, 1107 of PARC, 721 of OGDCL, 1910 of PBCL, 2460 of CDA, 10 of SRBC, 450 of U.S.C, and 1225 of MISC have received benefits.
An officer of ICT confided in Pakistan Today that the sanitation workers of CDA were getting less than 10000 thousand rupees per month, upon which, the ICT administration summoned the sanitation contractors and directed them to increase the monthly salaries of sanitation workers to meet the minimum wage which is 14000 per month.
He said that the PSDP MD was also summoned in this regard. “PSDP in October 2016 published an ad in the daily newspapers seeking the applications of interested candidates for the projects of Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP). In the ad, it was mentioned that PSDP will pay Rs. 8,700 to their employees.” He said that this was a complete violation of the minimum wage.
It is noted that the incumbent Finance Minister Mr Ishaq Dar while announcing the Federal Budget (2016-17) on 03 June 2016 raised the minimum wage rate for unskilled workers from Rs 13,000 to Rs 14,000 per month with effect from July 2016, which was applicable to Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT).