CHINIOT: Summer days are the worst in Chiniot when everything under the sun is baked. Nights do not bring any comfort. But sizzling days and sultry nights do not bother much Mujahid Ali, a kiln worker, who has spent his years exposing his skin to the sun.

`Summer is harsh, but not harsher than the exploitation by the kiln owner who never pays me the notified wages for my work,` he says.

Like Mujahid, about 1,200 kiln workers are underpaid at 40 bricl< kilns in Chiniot district.

Mujahid says he does not know when they will get fixed wages even though the Supreme Court has directed the Punjab government to issue a notification about the wages.

The Punjab government notified Rs888 per 1,000 bricks and also made vigilance committees at district level to ensure its implementation.

The Punjab government alsoHe says the department is also pushing kiln owners to pay notified wages and avoid extending advance payments to labourers. He said only one complaint was lodged by a worker with the department regarding low wages.

District Coordination Officer Shaukat Ali Khichi said even though the kiln workers were not getting notified wages, their wages were comparatively better than their counterparts in adjoining districts.

Jamshed Cheema, president of Kiln Owners` Association, said that increasing costs of raw material and low price of bricks had pushed them to pay low wages to workers. He said they revised the wages every year.

Social worker Mehr Safdar Ali says weaker district administrations and influence of kiln owners on government officials were the main reasons behind Punjab government`s failure to implement the notification. He said another suo motu by the Supreme Court would force the government to implement the notification.restricted issue of advance payments by the 1(iln owners which often landed the workers in sorts of bonded labour. The government allowed advance payment to workers only of 14 days.

Mujahid and other kiln workers say their wages are Rs600-700 per 1,000 bricks while several workers are still in the grip of advance payments and cannot leave their workplace anytime soon.

Mujahid told Dawn that he had spent 25 years making bricks and thinking about getting freed from the chains of advance payments.

He said Punjab government`s notification only forced the kiln owners to increase their wages from Rs550 in 2013 to Rs700 now.

He said no labourer could raise voice regarding underpaid wages as kiln owners did not tolerate any dissenting voice at the work.

District Officer Labour Imtiaz Ahmad Saifi says kiln workers are being given social security cards and 50 workers have availed the facility.