WWF to provide scholarships to 5,000 students

Islamabad, The Worker Welfare Fund (WWF) is providing scholarships to around 5,000 students of various levels, official source said.

The source added that the Fund also made payment to the registered workers for marriage of their daughters and heirs to the deceased workers in death cases. In 18th Amendment, the fund was transferred to the provinces. However, its account was with Accountant General Pakistan Revenue (AGPR), the source added.

Workers Welfare Fund is a federally-managed fund, under the administrative control of Ministry of Human Resource Development.
It is an independent organization, run by a governing body with representation from all three-way partners i.e., government, employers and workers.

Workers Welfare Fund was established under the Workers Welfare Fund Ordinance, 1971 to start various initiatives for workers’ welfare like provision of low cost residential accommodation and other amenities including education and health facilities.

Besides, it is responsible for managing the “fund” placed at its disposal under the Ordinance (collected through contributions from various establishments); investment of this fund and using of income, accrued through fund resources for various workers’ welfare initiatives.

Workers Welfare Boards operate in the provinces and these are established under the mentioned Ordinance for expanding the field of worker welfare activities under the Fund. The main functions of the Provincial Workers Welfare Boards are:

Construction of residential colonies for the industrial labor
Construction of schools for the children of industrial labor
Construction of Dispensaries for industrial labor
Construction of drinking water supply schemes
Provision of educational scholarships to workers’ children
Provision of Marriage Grant (Jahez Fund) for the workers' daughters (and female workers themselves)
Provision of Death/Funeral Grant to the family of a deceased industrial labor

Every establishment whose total income in a year is not less than Rs. 500,000 (earlier Rs. 100,000) must pay to the Workers Welfare Fund a sum of two percent (2%) of its total income as is assessable under the Ordinance. The assessment of income is made in accordance with income tax returns deposited under the Income Tax Ordinance.