Follow @Kalpoint_com

Provinces not consulted on new labour policy

Posted on: Mon May 03, 2010

ISLAMABAD: The just-announced labour policy, which was under consideration for the last three years at the federal level, was finally formulated without taking the provincial governments and other stakeholders into confidence, sources say.

 We kept asking for a copy of the policy till late night on April 30 just a few hours before its approval by the federal cabinet the next day followed by its announcement by the prime minister but in vain, a senior Punjab official closely working with Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif told The News.

He pointed out that after the insertion of the 18th Amendment in the Constitution, the subject of labour has now absolutely become provincial and the federal government has nothing to do with it.

The official said they came to know about the finalisation of the labour policy on receiving the agenda of the federal cabinet meeting. Then, we asked where is the labour policy so that we know its contents and are in a position to speak on it.

He said that not a single meeting to deliberate upon the proposed labour policy was held in which representatives of all the stakeholders, especially the provincial governments and industry, were invited to give their inputs.

 We had formed a 10-member committee to contribute to the labour policy, the official said, adding that they wanted to give the copy of the labour policy to its members so that they were in a better position to speak on behalf of the chief minister in the Labour Day function at the Convention Centre, Islamabad, Saturday.

The official said that when it came to the notice of the prime minister that the Punjab government and other stakeholders have not even been provided with the copies of the labour policy, he expressed his disapproval and censured the concerned quarters about the lack of proper consultations.

He said that the policy was hurriedly pieced together to make it public on the Labour Day so that the government had something to show. He said the provincial governments were now entrusted with dealing with labour issues.

However, the official said that when even the previous labour policy had not been implemented, particularly the fixation of minimum salary of Rs6,000 by the private sector, the raise in the lowest limit of the pay was not understandable. Another official said that since the labour policy announced by the federal government would not be mandatory upon the provinces, they would be free to prepare their own. Provincial governments will certainly take guidance from the federal policy, but have to devise their own in view of their specific conditions, the official said.

Courtesy : The News