Saturday 2 May 2009

Workers unware of Labour Day!

Labour Day! What is this day? Wajid Ali, who was painting a side door of a grand building with brown colour on Friday noon, asked and asked again with a polite smile, is it a day which is observed in the memories of a politician’s death or birth anniversary?

Replying to a question as how does Ikram, an outdoor tea seller, observe the Labour Day, he said he works seven days a week and is making off all day long, as he works on commission and not on a fixed-salary. “So, I serve the tea to my customers from dawn to dusk, then I receive that commission. Therefore, time is money for me,” he explained with many pauses.

The May Day is observed in the memories of a dozen of Chicago’s workers, who were massacred in 1886 by Chicago police in response to question for their rights and this day is meant to give relaxation to the workers.

Generally, but, politicians take advantage of this international event as well here. They deliver an emotional speech before the labourers on this day, renewing their commitments for working in the great interest of labours and forget their promises the next moment the speech is finished, said a worker of Premier Sugar Mill. Explaining his priorities in accordance with their needs, he said the first and the foremost issue for them (workers) remained their low salaries. “Though the government has raised a minimum salary of its employees to Rs6,000 in last budget, but the same rulers are unable to give us a kitchen budget, as how to run our home with an average of six people in a family with one breadwinner,” he questioned. He appealed to the government to raise minimum salaries up to Rs10,000 immediately or in the next budget.

Moreover, the government should also make the private sector fully implement this minimum salary package order immediately, as it (private sector) seldom raises the salaries and continues to exploit workers. Rasool Khan, who was anxiously waiting for a construction hirer in morning hours, appealed to the government to pass on the benefit of reduction in international commodities and oil prices to the locals so that it would greatly help them cut their expenditure short to some extent. He, however, knew almost nothing about the Labour’s Day and asked me to explain about the day and its importance. But he was not unaware of commodities price hike in local markets, although he did not know about the Labour’s Day and his basic rights! He explained that prices of edible items, including vegetables, meat, pulses and flour, have shot up and he said this inflation breeds poverty, rise in street crime and increasing Talibanisation in the country.

He who is obviously not a certified expert on the subject maintained that people without economic empowerment or with the growing sense of economic insecurity join mafias or so-called political parties in the city and other parts of the country as well, in order to run their every day business smoothly.