The caretaker Punjab government has notified an increase in minimum rates of wages for unskilled adult & adolescent workers employed in all industrial and commercial establishments across the province.
An official notification said that per day minimum wage has been fixed at Rs1,230.77 for eight working hours and Rs32,000 per month (for 26 working days).
The government said the deductions in wake of accommodation and transport facility shall be allowed to the employers. For providing housing accommodation, the employers can deduct Rs397 per month while they can deduct Rs85 per month for providing transport facility.
“As per provision of Rule 15 of the West Pakistan Minimum Wages Rules, 1962, for work of equal value, a female worker of the category shall get the same minimum wages as allowed to a male worker of the category for such work,” read the notification.
The daily / weekly working hours, condition of overtime work, work on weekly days of rest and paid holidays, etc, in respect of the unskilled adult and adolescent workers of given category shall be regulated by the by the Factories Act, 1934 (Act XXVI of 1934), Payment of Wages Act, 1936 (No. IV of 1936) and other relevant Labour Laws, it added.
“The minimum rates of wages of other categories of workers (highly skilled, skilled and semi-skilled) employed in any industry shall in no case be less than the minimum rates of wages, now, fixed for unskilled adult and adolescent workers in the Province of Punjab,” it concluded.
