Minimum wage board’s comments sought on petition against new minimum pay

The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Friday directed the minimum wage board, labour and human resources department and others to file comments on a petition of employers that challenged the fixation of the minimum monthly wage of Rs25,000 for unskilled workers by the Sindh government.

The petitioners, the Employers Federation of Pakistan and others, had submitted in their pleas that in order to gain political mileage, the Sindh government had announced an increase in the minimum wage of workers from Rs17,500 to Rs25,000 a month in the recent budget without even initiating statutory requirements as contained in the Sindh Minimum Wages Act.

They submitted that representatives of the employers had earlier objected to the recommendation of the minimum wages board on various legal and factual grounds but they were not invited to the board meeting.

The employers’ federation maintained that after consultation with its members, they had informed the government that they could agree on increasing the minimum wage from Rs17,500 to Rs19,000 per month but the government issued the impugned notification by fixing the minimum wage at Rs25,000 per month in spite of the fact that the labour secretary had not sent a reference to the board that proposed Rs25,000 per month as the minimum wage.

The federation submitted that a 43 per cent increase in the minimum wage was irrational and without any legal basis and it would have consequential effects in terms of variable cost on account of allowances, leave bonus and gratuity, etc.

The petitioners said that the increase in the minimum wage of unskilled workers would also invoke a proportionate increase in the wages of other categories of workers and employees, which would affect the whole compensation structure of the petitioners and could even cause closure of businesses.

They submitted that the minimum wage in other provinces had been fixed at Rs20,000 per month from July 1and the fixation of Rs25,000 in Sindh would place the petitioners in most uncompetitive and disadvantageous position.

A counsel for the minimum wage board sought time to file comments on the petition. Granting time to the board, the SHC directed the counsel to file comments within two weeks.