Labour Laws

The Apprenticeship Ordinance, 1962 - now repealed by Act I of 2019 - required larger industrial employers to run registered apprenticeship training programmes and set out obligations for both employers and apprentices.

This 1992 act abolishes bonded labour and forced debt-bondage in Pakistan, wiping out existing bonded debts, freeing bonded labourers and their property, and criminalizing anyone who enforces bonded labour or tries to collect on an extinguished debt.

A 1933 Act (substantially updated in 2022) that voids and criminalises agreements pledging a child's labour in exchange for payment, penalizing parents, the other contracting party, and any employer of a pledged child.

A 1960 ordinance letting Provincial Governments set a binding minimum wage for coal mine workers, which overrides lower contractual rates but preserves any existing higher-rate agreements.

A 1968 law requiring qualifying companies to pay a share of their annual profits into a Workers Participation Fund managed jointly by worker and management trustees, with tax exemptions and penalties for non-compliance.

A 1965 emergency-era law giving government-appointed Manpower Boards sweeping power to direct, control, and reassign employment in industrial undertakings, with penalties for non-compliance.

A 1978 ordinance letting the President remove or demote, without notice, government corporation employees appointed or promoted between January 1972 and July 1977, with a right to seek review or approach a Service Tribunal.

A 1966 law establishing the Institute of Cost and Management Accountants of Pakistan, setting membership qualifications, governance structure, and penalties for unauthorised practice of cost and management accountancy.

A 1957 law creating a Cotton Board to regulate and promote Pakistan's international cotton trade, giving the government power to requisition pressing factories, control cotton trading contracts through recognised associations, and penalise violations.

The Cotton Cess Act, 1923, imposes a levy on cotton exported or consumed in mills and channels the proceeds to the Pakistan Central Cotton Committee to fund cotton-industry research.

A 1918 Act letting the government appoint Controllers to regulate the manufacture, price and licensed sale of 'standard' cotton cloth to keep it affordable for poorer communities.

A 1944 wartime ordinance capping prices chargeable under cotton cloth and yarn sale contracts to the maximum rates set by a 1943 price-control order, and letting overcharged buyers recover the excess.

An old regulatory law requiring cotton ginning and pressing factories to keep registers, mark bales, use standard weights, and meet structural requirements, with small fines for breaches.

A 1926 law requiring cotton mill owners to file monthly production returns with the government for statistical publication, backed by small (now historic) fines for false or missing returns.

Lets the government restrict cotton being brought into designated protected areas to safeguard local cotton quality, using a licensing system enforced through the railways, with fines and possible imprisonment for unlicensed movement.

A 1934 law protecting dock workers who load and unload ships, empowering the Federal Government to make detailed safety regulations under Section 5 and Inspectors to enforce them, with fines for violations under Sections 5(3) and 9.

A 1974 Act empowering the Federal Government to create employment-regulation schemes for dock workers at Pakistani ports, covering registration, pay, welfare, and safety, with penalties for violations.

The Employees Cost of Living (Relief) Act, 1974, required employers to pay low-wage employees a series of cost-of-living top-up allowances, introduced in stages from 1973 to 1986, based on historical rupee wage thresholds that are now almost certainly outdated.

This 1976 act created Pakistan's compulsory old-age social insurance scheme (EOBI) for industrial and commercial employees, covering old-age pensions, old-age grants, survivor's pensions and invalidity pensions funded through employer, employee and government contributions.

The 1962 Ordinance that created a compulsory social insurance scheme providing certain workers with sickness, maternity, injury, and death benefits funded by employer contributions, with disputes resolved through dedicated insurance courts.

A 1938 law barring employers from escaping liability for workplace injuries by blaming a fellow employee, in cases involving unsafe premises or equipment, negligent supervision, or acts done under the employer's own instructions.

A 1991 law banning the employment of children under 14 in a long list of hazardous occupations and processes, and regulating working hours, rest, and safety for children legally employed elsewhere, with fines and imprisonment for violations.

A 1967 law imposing an excise duty on specified minerals as they leave the mines, with proceeds funding housing and general welfare programmes for mine labour through a dedicated Fund.

The 1934 Factories Act regulating health, safety, working hours, and protections for adults, women and children employed in Pakistani factories, enforced through government Inspectors and penalties for violations.

The 2012 law regulating trade union formation, collective bargaining, worker participation, and strike/lock-out and dispute-resolution procedures for workers in the Islamabad Capital Territory and cross-provincial businesses, administered through the National Industrial Relations Commission.

A labour-safety law regulating mine inspection, mine management responsibilities, workplace health and safety measures, working hours, and restrictions on employing women and children in mines, with penalties for violations (Sections 34-44).

A 1961 law establishing provincial Minimum Wages Boards to recommend and declare minimum wage rates for industrial workers, with penalties for employers who pay below the declared minimum; its stated fine amounts are outdated and minimum-wage setting is now largely a provincial matter.

A 1973 labour law giving newspaper employees (journalists and non-journalists alike) protections on termination notice, provident fund contributions, working hours, leave, and medical care, plus industry-wide wage-setting through a Wage Board.

A 1952 law that lets the government declare certain jobs "essential services" and then restrict workers in those jobs from quitting, striking, or leaving a designated area, backed by criminal penalties including imprisonment up to one year.

A 1936 labour law that requires employers to pay wages on time, restricts what can be deducted from pay, and gives workers a way to claim unpaid or wrongly deducted wages.

A 1941 Act, as amended, capping provincial professions/trades taxes at one hundred thousand rupees per person per year, and validating provincial taxes already collected within that limit since 1 July 1977.

Pakistan's foundational railway law, covering construction and maintenance of railway works, rules for carrying passengers and freight, the liability of railways as carriers, and a wide range of railway-specific offences and penalties.

A 1961 law setting minimum age, working-hour, rest, and leave standards for road transport workers such as drivers and conductors, with record-keeping duties on employers under Sections 8-9 and penalties under Section 11.

This 2002 ordinance establishes the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (SMEDA) as an autonomous body under the Federal Government, run by a Board with private-sector representation, to provide policy advice and support services to Pakistan's SME sector.

Regulates welfare facilities (water, sanitation, medical care, canteens, creches, education) and working conditions, hours, leave, and child-labour protections on tea plantations of 25+ acres with 30+ workers, with specific fines and jail terms for violations.

The Workmen's Compensation Act, 1923 obliges employers to compensate workers for accidental workplace injury or death without needing to prove fault, with compensation amounts (currently shown as Rs. 2,00,000 for death or permanent total disablement) set out in Schedule IV and claims resolved by Commissioners for Workmen's Compensation.