Power loom workers demand 17% wage hike

29 Jul '10

2 min read

It has been 10 days now that over 250,000 workers of the Faisalabad power looms are out agitating to get their demand of 17 percent hike in their salaries, approved.

Power loom owners too have raised a caution to put down the lids of about 70,000 units in three industrial areas if they don't get any sort of protection from the government. Where this strike, till now, has caused the mill owners a loss of about Rs 1.5 billion, there are several workers without adequate means of subsistence.

Around 4,000 workers assembled at Sadhar Jhang Road with workers' representatives like President of Labour Qaumi Movement, Latif Insari, Abu Zarr Ghaffari and Rana Muhammad Tahir, early this week, wherein these leaders along with others, walked down to the Chief Minister of Punjab demanding him to sign papers, which will implement the Minimum Wage Awards (MWA) at Rs 7,000 per month, and also sanction a 17 percent hike in their salaries.

Punjab government's meet, which was convened on July 20, has reached a consensus with the labour leaders and they have fixed the minimum wages at Rs 7,000 per month. But then again, labour union leaders have demanded urgent release of five of the labour right activists, whom they say were called upon by Faisalabad police for some discussions and were then detained.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk - India

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