The Sindh government issued a notification to increase the minimum monthly wage to 37,000 rupees (132 USD) in all private industries and factories from 1st July 2024. However, despite this, most factories in Karachi are still paying workers a minimum wage of merely 32,000 rupees (114 USD), or even less in some places. Workers across different factories are discussing this issue, and labourers are expressing severe unrest.
Similarly, Artistic Milliners, which ranks third in Pakistan for garment exports, has factory owners who earn billions of rupees in profit each year by severely exploiting workers’ labour. Workers in this factory would discuss daily with the administration and management about when their wages would be increased.
Meanwhile, in October 2024, workers from the Artistic M2 Unit Garment Finishing Department went on a two-hour work stoppage strike. The primary reason was that every month, the administration would repeatedly promise that wages would increase from that month, but the increase never materialised.
After the two-hour strike, the administration immediately issued a notification stating that not only would wages be increased, but also that all monthly arrears would be paid. As a result of the strike, while wages have been increased on one hand, on the other hand, overtime has been either reduced or eliminated for most workers.
It should be noted that workers in every factory have been doing not just the scheduled work hours but mandatory overtime for many years, because current wages are not sufficient to run households. That’s why all workers strive to work overtime, as the supposed legal compensation for overtime is double the remaining wage – meaning overtime pay is double. However, even this double wage policy is not implemented in most places.
Furthermore, the arrears amount (this is the amount that is meant to be paid to workers from the month when the government issued the wage increase notification until the month when the factory implemented the increase) has not been received by many workers. Along with this, overtime for supervisors and skilled labour has been stopped, and the work duration has been set to ten hours.
These are all the tactics through which capitalists are pocketing the wage increase amount. However, the Revolutionary Communist Party wants to make it clear that a few thousand rupees increase in workers’ wages cannot bring any change because the rate at which inflation has increased in just the past two months is double the rate of wage increases.
The workers and their organisers believe that workers should begin the struggle to make the minimum monthly wage equal to one tola of gold (approx. 220,000 rupees or 785 USD). Along with this, the time has come to challenge this exploitative system and advance the struggle for workers’ empowerment for a better working and living condition.
PTUS supports the struggle of Textile workers in Pakistan, especially in workplaces such as Artictisc Milliner.
[Note: A ‘tola’ is a traditional South Asian unit of mass, approximately 11.66 grams]
