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PESHAWAR: The Pakistan Workers Federation has demanded that the provincial government increase the salaries of its employees by 25 percent on the pattern of the federal government.
According to a federation statement, “the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government increased the salaries by 10% but, after an employee protest, promised that the federal government’s decision would be followed in this regard.”
It also required the government to publish a notice setting minimum salaries for those who work for a daily wage.
Razim Khan, the PWF’s Central Chairman, stated that although the government had only raised pay by 10% in its yearly budget, it had previously promised to raise salaries much more following the federal budget and should now make good on that promise. He threatened to issue a protest call if the K-P government broke its promises on the pay increase.
In support of their requests, workers from several government agencies organized a protest rally outside the K-P Assembly last month.
Many men and women also took part in the demonstration, including workers from the departments of health and education, paramedics, the Peshawar Development Authority, the Water and Sanitation Service Peshawar, the Capital Metropolitan, and other departments.
Protesters screamed anti-provincial government slogans while brandishing placards and banners with demands inscribed on them.
Since the demonstrators had stopped the main Khyber Road, there were huge lines of cars for miles on either side of the street, severely impeding traffic movement.
Speaking at the event, the presidents of several groups stated their demands that the provincial budget’s salary for public employees be increased by 100% in response to the rapidly rising rate of inflation. They deemed the provincial government’s proposed 15% pay rise for public servants to be insufficient and rejected it.
They demanded of the provincial government that it increase the fund allocated for government employees in the budget and integrate ad hoc relief in the basic salaries to increase them by 100 percent and also double medical allowance to provide some badly-needed breathing space to government employees.
They said that a 10-year-old allowance is still provided to the employees while the cost of medicines has increased by 400 percent in recent years without inviting any attention from the quarters concerned.
Similarly, they said a conveyance allowance had not been increased in the past decade even though fuel prices had risen to Rs300 from Rs100 during this time.
Speakers also demanded that the decision on a deduction made under pension reforms be withdrawn and the salary be fixed at least at Rs50,000 instead of Rs32,000.
They also demanded that utility allowances be given to municipal WSSP employees like other departments.
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