PWF slams govt for not increasing minimum wage.

SWABI -- Pakistan Workers Federation (PWF) on Saturday criticised the government for not increasing minimum wage of the working class in the budget 2020-21, saying that food inflation had risen over the past 10 months.

Talking to this correspondent here, PFW general secretary Mohammad Zahoor Awan said the federal government's economic survey released a day before the budget had admitted 35 per cent price inflation of daily consumption food items in the first 10 months of the outgoing financial year.

He said that minimum wage of the workers should be increased and salary of public sector employees also hiked by at least 15 per cent. The minimum wage was fixed at Rs17,500 in 2019, he said, claiming that this was about a quarter of what was required by a family for a living and meeting basic requirements in this time of high inflation.

'Numerous industries did not pay even the Rs17,500 to workers and the government failed to adopt a mechanism for implementation of the wage policy,' he said.

Answering a question, he said that the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf had violated its manifesto that it would ensure the minimum wage commensurate with inflation level in the country. He said that even skilled...