Workers' Rights
Minimum wage, working hours, EOBI pension, social security, leave, termination — under federal and provincial labour laws after the 18th Amendment.
Covered in this guide:
- Minimum Wage and How It's Notified
- Working Hours, Rest Days, and Overtime
- EOBI — Old-Age Pension and How to Claim It
- Termination, Notice Pay, and Severance
- Provincial Social Security (ESSI) — Health, Maternity, Injury Cover
- Annual Leave, Sick Leave, and Public Holidays
- Maternity and Paternity Leave
- Trade Union Registration and Collective Bargaining
- and 2 more topics
Your rights at work in Pakistan run on two tracks. Federal laws like the Payment of Wages Act 1936 and the Factories Act 1934 still set the floor. After the 18th Amendment (2010) labour was devolved, so the law that actually decides your minimum wage, your social security, and how you fight an unfair dismissal is now mostly provincial: Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan each have their own Industrial Relations Act, Shops and Establishments Ordinance, and Minimum Wages Board. The federal Industrial Relations Act 2012 only covers establishments operating in more than one province (banks, airlines, railways).
If you don't know which province your contract is anchored in, look at where you actually work. That's the labour law that bites. EOBI (the federal pension scheme) and ICT (Islamabad Capital Territory) rules are the two things that stay federal across the country.
Key Laws
Industrial Relations Act 2012 (federal)
Act X of 2012
Trade union registration, collective bargaining, and the National Industrial Relations Commission — but only for trans-provincial establishments. Most workers are covered by their province's IRA instead.
Punjab Industrial Relations Act 2010 / Sindh IRA 2013 / KP IRA 2010 / Balochistan IRA 2022
Provincial
Each province runs its own IRA after the 18th Amendment. Same skeleton (CBA, strikes, lockouts, Labour Courts) with provincial tribunal addresses and timelines.
Payment of Wages Act 1936
Act IV of 1936 (still federal in scope; provinces apply)
Wages must be paid by the 7th of the following month for establishments with under 1,000 workers, by the 10th for larger ones. Unauthorized deductions are restricted to a closed list.
Factories Act 1934
Act XXV of 1934
Working hours (max 9/day, 48/week), overtime at double rate, weekly day off, child labour bar, and basic safety duties on the occupier of every factory.
Employees' Old-Age Benefits Act 1976 (EOBI)
Act XIV of 1976 — federal, applies nationwide
EOBI old-age pension, invalidity pension, and survivor pension. Employer pays 5% of minimum wage; employee pays 1%. Minimum 15 years' contribution for pension entitlement.
Provincial Social Security Ordinances (PESSI / SESSI / KPESSI / BESSI)
1965 onwards (Sindh ESSO 2016 the most recent rewrite)
Province-run health/maternity/injury cover for workers earning up to a notified ceiling (typically PKR 30,000–37,000/month). Employer pays ~6% of wages; worker pays nothing.
Workers Welfare Fund Ordinance 1971
Ordinance XXXVI of 1971 (post-18th Amendment, partly provincial)
2% of taxable income from industrial establishments funds worker housing, education, and marriage grants. Punjab, Sindh, KP, and Balochistan each run their own WWF after 2010.
Minimum Wage and How It's Notified
Pakistan does not have one minimum wage. It has five, one for each province plus ICT, and they don't always move together. The Minimum Wages Ordinance 1961 set up the structure, but after the 18th Ame...
Working Hours, Rest Days, and Overtime
Nine hours a day. Forty-eight hours a week. Double pay for anything past that. Those numbers come from the Factories Act 1934 and they remain the headline rules ninety years on. Section 34 caps adult...
EOBI — Old-Age Pension and How to Claim It
EOBI is the only nationwide, employer-funded pension scheme for private-sector workers in Pakistan, and unlike most labour laws it survived the 18th Amendment as a federal subject. The Employees' Old-...
Termination, Notice Pay, and Severance
The 1968 Standing Orders Ordinance still does the heavy lifting on termination of permanent workers in commercial and industrial establishments employing 20 or more workers. It applies through provinc...
Provincial Social Security (ESSI) — Health, Maternity, Injury Cover
ESSI is Pakistan's compulsory worker health-and-injury cover. Each province runs its own institution after the 18th Amendment, but the structure is the same: any establishment with 5 or more workers r...
Annual Leave, Sick Leave, and Public Holidays
Pakistan's leave entitlements are scattered across the Factories Act, the Shops and Establishments Acts, and the Standing Orders Ordinance, but the practical floors don't differ much.Annual (earned) l...
Maternity and Paternity Leave
This area changed dramatically in 2023. The federal Maternity and Paternity Leave Act 2023 applies to federal government employees and establishments in ICT, and gives 180 days of fully paid maternity...
Trade Union Registration and Collective Bargaining
Forming a union in Pakistan starts with seven workers signing a memorandum of association. The application goes to the Registrar of Trade Unions in your province (or the federal Registrar for trans-pr...
Child Labour and Bonded Labour Bans
Article 11(3) of the Constitution says no child under fourteen shall be engaged in any factory, mine, or hazardous employment. The constitutional bar has been operationalised by the federal Employment...
Rights of Domestic Workers
Domestic workers were largely outside formal labour law until 2018–2019. Today, two provinces have given them statutory protection on paper — even if enforcement remains weak.Punjab Domestic Workers A...