Govt urged to increase worker wages as per rising inflation

LAHORE: Women Domestic Workers Union (DWU) Punjab organised a rally in connection with International Labour Day here at Lahore Press Club on Wednesday.

A large number of women domestic workers joined the rally organised in collaboration with Women in Struggle for Empowerment (WISE). The participants were chanting slogans and carrying banners and placards inscribed with demands in favour of domestic workers.

They demanded of the govt to increase their wages in proportion to the rising inflation and implement the minimum wage notification 2023.

Addressing the rally participants, WISE Executive Director Bushra Khaliq said that women domestic workers are vulnerable to discrimination in respect of working conditions, terms of employment and to other abuses of human rights. They are forced to face issues like long and unlimited working hours, violence and multiple forms of abuse at workplace, forced/child labour and insufficient wage etc, she added.

She described that despite the domestic workers law in Punjab, they are not being registered with Punjab Employees Social Security Institution (PESSI). She urged the Punjab govt to frame rules of business for effective implementation of the law by reflecting it in the schedule 2 of Punjab Government Rules of Business, 2001 and to make all the rules as prescribed under Section 2(q) read with Section 38 of the Act of 2019 to enable the departments concerned to apply the law in letter and spirit.