Islamabad: Private offices in blue area: Underpaid employees need govt attention

[Naveed Yaseen]

by Noor Aftab
Plight of hundreds of underpaid employees working at many small private offices in the Blue Area, a main commercial hub in the heart of the capital city, needs the attention of the government that has committed to fix Rs6,000 as minimum monthly wages for workers across the country.

Most of these workers have not been issued office cards and they are not able to produce any proof in any situation of their employment in their respective offices.

Any protest against this discrimination means the termination of their jobs due to which they have adjusted themselves in their work places, waiting for any positive turn in their career.

The survey conducted by ‘The News’ Monday revealed that these employees are mostly under qualified and have no other easy-to-grab option in already employment-starved city.

They generally work as a receptionist, a phone operator or an office boy and sometimes face weeks long delay in their monthly salaries for apparently no specific reason.

The Blue Area, often criticised for ugly look of number of the plazas lining in the 3-km stretch from D-Chowk to Khyber Plaza, also hosts such offices that offer ugly work environment for their low-profile employees.

Muhammad Jaffar Hashmi, a senior Supreme Court lawyer and legal consultant, told ‘The News’ that as far as the announcement regarding minimum wages of workers made by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani was concerned, it was not yet clear what was the real ground situation.

He said apart from this announcement there were already labour laws that enabled workers to move courts if they have any reservation with regard to their jobs.

Jaffar Hashmi said the government must make effective measures to translate the announcement about the minimum wages into reality as low-paid workers were facing hardships due to unprecedented price hike.

Many low-educated female employees, mostly Afghan refugees who managed to settle in the cheaply hired houses, have serious reservations over the environment of their workplaces but they pessimistically feel themselves unable to do anything in this regard.

Bushra Afridi, an Afghan girl who worked as a receptionist at a low-grade office in Blue Area for almost five months, said she was employed at the meagre monthly salary of Rs3,000 but still her employer used to make delay in payment on one pretext or another.

“Delayed payment of salaries and inappropriate attitude of the employer made my job a real tough and loathsome affair. But fortunately I found a new job of a receptionist at a private school where I am quite happy and satisfied,” she said.

Sameena Nazir, director of Potohar Organisation for Development Advocacy (PODA), said the government functionaries have been making statements about the introduction of a new law to create a congenial environment for female workers at their workplaces, but it should keep in mind all the aspects of this issue before any kind of legislation.

She said the female workers were often subjected to discriminatory behaviour and there were many cases when some private offices even terminated their women employees when they applied for maternity leave.

Referring to low-salaries phenomenon, she said male workers were somewhat more outspoken than their female counterparts who often accepted low wages for the sake of their employment.

Sameena said the workers’ class that acted as the real backbone of economy must be rewarded with increased wages so that it utilized all of its potential for betterment of the country.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=142304