SHC adjourns minimum monthly wage case till Sept 07

KARACHI: Secretary Industries Sindh and the chairman Wage Board appeared before the Sindh High Court (SHC) on Thursday in challenge to the minimum monthly wage fixed by the Sindh government, ARY News reported.

A high court bench comprised of Justice Salahuddin Panhwar heard the case.

The counsel of the petitioner argued that the government was failed to fulfill the legal requirements of its decision on the raise in minimum wage for unskilled workers.

The bench questioned whether the government have mandate to fix salaries of the workers. “No reference of the minimum monthly wage of Rs 25,000 given in the government’s reply,” the judge remarked. “No dispute surfaced in other provinces,” Justice Panhwar observed.

“The provinces have authority over the matter after the 18th Constitutional Amendment,” government counsel said. “Still the country is same and the circumstances are similar,” the bench remarked.

The petitioners’ lawyer concluded his arguments and the court adjourned further hearing of the case till September 07.

In the previous hearing the bench had ruled combining all petitions challenging the minimum monthly wage of Rs25,000 for unskilled workers, fixed by the provincial government.

The bench also granted pleas of trade unions and NGOs to become party in the case.

The petitioners in their pleas termed increasing the minimum monthly wage of workers from Rs17,500 to Rs25,000 as ‘unjust’.

The employers submitted that a 43 per cent increase in the minimum wage was irrational and without any legal basis.

The petition said that the government has overstepped its authority and pleaded for cancellation of the minimum wages order of the government of Sindh.