PESHAWAR: A Peshawar High Court bench on Friday suspended a circular of the Employment Old Age Benefit Institution, which sought the higher monthly contributions from the private commercial organisations in the province in light of a recent amendment to the Minimum Wages for Unskilled Workers Ordinance, 1969.

Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth and Justice Mussarat Hillai issued notices to the secretary of the human resource development ministry and regional E OBI head to file comments on a petition jointly filed by the Employers Federation of Pakistan and three commercial concerns, including Muller &Phipps Pakistan Limited, Cherat Cement Company and Cherat Packaging Limited.

The petitioners have challenged the applicability of the recently-passed Minimum Wages for Unskilled Workers (Amendment) Act (Act No VII of 2016) to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and requested the court to declare that the said amendment was only applicable to the Islamabad Capital Territory.

They requested the court to declare the circular issued by the regional EOBI head on Mar 28, 2016, regarding enhanced contributions with retrospective ef fect illegal.

The petitioners also prayed the court to stop the respondents including the ministry of human resource development and EOBI from adversely acting in pursuance of thesaid amendment, circular or demand.

Ashfaq Haider, lawyer for the petitioners, said the Employers Federation of Pakistan was a representative body of employers in the country registered as a company and was the only body affiliated with the International Organisation of Employers based at Geneva.

He said the parliament passed an amendment in the Minimum Wages for Unsl(illed Worl
He claimed that at the outset of the said Act it had been mentioned that it was applicable only to Islamabad Capital Territory.

The counsel contended that through section 2 of the said Act the minimum wages of unskilled workers had been enhanced retro-spectively. He said in the light of that Act, which was applicable only to Islamabad, the regional head of EOBI issued a circular on mar 28 whereby enhancement in monthly contributions under EOBI Act, 1976, had been worked out and circular had been circulated among the petitioners.

He argued that after the passage of the Constitution (18th Amendment) Act, 2010, the provinces were given powers to legislate with respect to matters regarding labour and manpower, and federation was left with no power to legislate on any subject regarding labour matters.

He said for an amendment in the province of KP in the Minimum Wages for Unskilled Workers Ordinance 1969, only provincial legislature was supposed to be competent.