ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani Tuesday announced incentives for workers and labourers including increasing minimum monthly wage to Rs 8,000 from present Rs 7,000, directing concerned Ministry to formulate a new labour policy ‘which should provide more relief’.
Addressing May Day ceremony here, PM Gilani said there would also be 20 percent increase in pension and debt grant enhanced to Rs five hundred thousand and marriage grant to Rs one hundred thousand.
Prime Minister ordered regularizing services of contractual workers in Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited‚ Capital Development Authority and Higher Education Commission.
Earlier, in a message issued on the occasion of Labour Day falling on May 1, the prime minister said, "Today is the 1st of May. The day is observed globally to pay tributes to the workers and labourers of Chicago for the sacrifices they rendered for attainment of their rights."
He said the concept of agricultural, industrial and socio-economic development is incomplete without contribution of labourers, workers and farmers.
The global strides in industry and agriculture are owed to the hard work of labourers and farmers, he added.
He said Pakistan People's Party is fully aware of the farmers, labourers and workers role in the national development and has been strenuously engaged in efforts to bring about positive changes in their lives.
"Our Shaheed leaders Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto considered the labourers and workers as an invaluable asset of the party. Shaheed Bhutto founded PPP on the slogan of welfare of the neglected sections of society and for the sake of carving out a respectable place for them in the social setup," he added.
He said, "We believe that secret of any country's development lies in the value of hard work and its human resources. A society, which does not address the basic needs of its working classes, remains backward."
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