PHC moved against amending payment under wages act

Exploitation of private schoolteachers

PESHAWAR: A petition was filed with the Peshawar High Court (PHC) for deleting the words “private educational institutions” from a proposed act that could deprive thousands of teachers of the private educational institutions of the right to minimum wage.

Lawyer Salim Shah Hoti challenged the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-led provincial government’s act in the high court for deleting the words “private educational institutions” from the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Minimum Wage Act 2013.

The lawyer said the move was aimed at denying the right to minimum wage to teachers working at the private schools and colleges. PTI Chairman Imran Khan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser and provincial government through the chief secretary, secretary law and advocate general Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were made parties to the petition.

The petition noted that the provincial legislature had passed the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Payment of Wages Act, 2013 and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Industrial Statistics Act, 2013. It said the acts were passed for the welfare of the workers associated with the private sector institutions.

The petitioner pointed out that the legislation was carried out by the provincial legislature as a result of the provincial autonomy granted after the 18th Constitutional Amendment.“These acts are aimed at regulating minimum wage for the persons employed in factories, industrial and commercial establishments and to regulate the payment of wages, provide for regulation of industrial and commercial employment in the province and facilitate the collection of statistics of certain kinds relating to factories, industrial and commercial establishment,” the lawyer submitted.

He stated that minimum monthly salary had been fixed at Rs13,000 whereas the private educational institutions had employed highly educated and qualified teachers on low salaries. He noted that this was not only disrespectful to them, but insufficient to make both ends meet.

The lawyer submitted that though the educational institutions received fee from students, most teachers were not paid salaries during summer vacations. He termed it sheer injustice and exploitation. It said the management of private educational institutions violated labour laws and exploited the teachers and supporting staff.

He pointed out that before the deletion of the words “private educational institutions” from the act, the Labour Department had launched a drive to implement the act and several cases had been registered against the violators.

“The Directorate of Labour has carried out 314 inspections of private educational institutions, 162 prosecutions lodged in labour courts and fine of Rs359,000 imposed on the violators,” the petitioner said.

He added that Labour Department had launched a campaign to collect the statistics of the private educational institutions and carry out inspection to redress the grievances of the teachers and other staff.

The petition claimed the Labour Department drive caused panic at the educational institutions as the influential and powerful owners of the private educational institutions lobbied against the act to save their skin.

“Having the support of the incumbent Speaker Provincial Assembly, who is also owner of a chain of educational institutions, they succeeded to win the support of MPAs and a bill (amendment) was introduced in the assembly for deletion of words private educational institutions from the act,” the petitioner claimed.

It was submitted that amendment to delete the word “private educational institutions” from the act was an attempt to unabatedly continue the exploitation of the teachers and supporting staff under the garb of law and would ultimately negatively impact the education system.