MULTAN City News

Kiln workers announce protest drive for rights from May

From Our Correspondent

MULTAN: The brick kiln workers have announced launching a protest drive for swift implementation of labour laws and mounting pressure on government to protect their rights.

The brick kiln workers announced this in a two-day convention, which concluded at an NGO office here on Monday. The Bhatta Mazdoor Tehrik and Labour Qaumi Movement leaders said that the protest drive would begin from Multan division on May 13 by taking out rallies. The Bhatta Mazdoor Tehrik office-bearers urged the government to take concrete steps to improve working condition of the workers, enhance minimum wage to Rs 25,000 per month, issue social security cards and form district vigilance committees to visit brick kilns on regular basis. They said that the campaign launched by the Punjab government to eliminate child labour from the brick kilns should be expanded to other sectors.

NGO coordinator Sarwar Bari said that the brick kiln workers were largely deprived of their rights and entitlements and were forced to work in unhealthy and unsafe environments. According to the NGO survey report, the brick kiln owners allegedly did not issue any appointment letter to their workers, he said, adding that 96 per cent kiln owners did not pay same wage to male and female workers for similar work. The NGO coordinator said that only 2.42 per cent brick kilns knew about mechanism that existed at the workplace to deal with the complaints of sexual harassment. He said that 97.6 per cent workers reported that their employers did not provide a health and safety programme to them. He said that more than 40 per cent kilns did not maintain record of loan and repayment of loan while workers at 75 per cent kilns were not satisfied with the way the record of loan repayment was maintained.