Social Welfare Department pays salary after one year

Lahore: On the orders of Ombudsman Punjab Javed Mahmood, payment of outstanding amount of 12 month’s salary has been made to contract employees of Social Welfare Department likewise one month salary to an industrial worker of a local garments factory has also been paid by the management of the factory. The complainants kept on knocking the doors of the concerned till one year but failed to get their legitimate right of salaries. At last they approached Ombudsman Punjab for redressal of their grievances and succeeded.

According to details, contract employees of Social Welfare Department, Khalil Ashiq, Muhammad Adnan Yaqoob, Hafiz Muhammad Zulfiqar and Adeel Masih lodged a complaint to Ombudsman Punjab that they were compelled to perform their duties for one year without salary although their contract agreement was expired. They were dodged by the administration in the name of re-employment on contract basis but the same was just a tactics to engage them there. They neither were re-employment nor salaries of 12 months paid to them despite efforts.

Ombudsman Punjab directed Deputy Director Research Shafiq Ahmad to probe the issue. It was proved during the course of inquiry that officers of Social Welfare Department kept engage them as employees for one year and refused to pay salaries. Ombudsman Punjab said the employees made utmost efforts for one year to get amount of their salaries but no one moved. “How a family can survive and celebrate Eids and other festivals without a single penny for two years”? asked Ombudsman Punjab.

In the light of the findings of inquiry report, Ombudsman Punjab ordered to attach the salaries of the concerned officers and make payment to the employees out of it. Social Welfare Department immediately released an amount of 5 lakh 50 thousand rupees and made outstanding payment of the salaries to contract employees. In another similar case, a local garments factory also paid outstanding salary amount of his worker Syed Zain Sajjad, on the orders of Ombudsman Punjab.

The garments factory management had terminated his services when he availed a leave on the eve of Eid Milad un Nabi and withhold his salary of one month in violation of the Labour Laws.