Seminar speakers want Workers Welfare Fund to remain with centre

SWABI: A unanimously adopted resolution at a one-day seminar called for not transferring the Workers Welfare Fund (WWF) to the provinces.

“Thousands of employees would lose their source of livelihood and a perfect mechanism under which the destitute workers get benefits might be disturbed if the fund was transferred to the provinces,” read the resolution.

The seminar was organized by Pakistan Workers Federation (PWF) in its main office in the district headquarters. It was attended by labour leaders, heads of various organizations, local leaders of political parties and mediapersons. Jalil Ahmad Khan, Syed Arif Shah, general secretary of Samaji Behbood Rabita Council, Shaukat Ali Anjum, PWF’s national coordinator and leaders of political parties and journalists spoke on the occasion.

The speakers said after the 18th Amendment, there were talks of transferring the Employees Old Age Benefits Institution (EOBI) to the four provinces but the federal government later took a result-oriented step and decided that it would remain with the centre.

They recalled the worker leaders ran a full-fledged campaign against the devolution of the EOBI to the provinces. The speakers first the Balochistan Assembly and later the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly passed resolutions and the Punjab province also supported the idea, only Sindh province was in favour of the transfer.

They said that majority of KP workers worked in Sindh and Punjab industries and if the government had moved to transfer EOBI to the provinces, then the workers of our province would have to get pension from KP but there was a weak industrial base and it was not possible for our province to pay them.

Shah said that WWF provided dowry, death grant and numerous other facilities to the workers of four provinces and in case of disturbing the present mechanism the entire system would be disturbed.

They said that some of the employers have not yet implemented the government announced 17,500 per month minimum salary to every worker.