LAHORE: A petition was filed with the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Saturday, challenging the dismissal of hundreds of thousands of factory workers and private employees during the lockdown, put in place to contain the spread of coronavirus, in Punjab.
The plea nominated Government of Punjab, provincial Department of Industries and Commerce and Department of Labour as respondents.
The petition, while observing that a nationwide lockdown has been imposed to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus in the country, pointed out that trade organisations and factory owners have laid-off workers amid the lockdown in Punjab.
“Trade organisations have also cut the salaries of workers in Punjab,” the petition noticed.
It also observed that the governments in Sindh and Balochistan have undertaken steps to protect the jobs of workers in their provinces but in Punjab, it claims, hundreds of thousands of workers are now facing financial ruin after losing their jobs.
The petition requested the court to instruct the Punjab government to reinstate all workers fired after the imposition of the lockdown in addition to financial compensation for them.
