Tripartite conference: Govt urged to amend labour laws, curb inflation, unemployment

Mian Raza Rabbani assures workers that every effort would be made in line with their proposals.

ISLAMABAD:

The working class on Friday urged the government to take emergent measures to tackle growing unemployment on account of severe loadshedding and aggravating poverty in the country.

The demands were made during the tripartite consultation conference on draft Industrial Relations Act-2011, held at Pakistan Manpower Institute Auditorium.

Their demands included amending provisions of labour laws in conformity with International Labour Organisation (ILO) Conventions 87 and 98 ratified by the government and allow freedom of association to the federal capital territory and national level due to the expiry of Industrial Relations Act 2010.

Federal Minister for Labour, Khurshid Shah and Parliamentary Implementation Commission Chairperson, Mian Raza Rabbani assured the workers that every effort would be made in line with the proposals made by the workers and employers organisations to resolve the issues raised by the workers representatives.

The minister announced that families of the coal miners died in Sorang coal mines in Balochistan, would be paid Rs1 million as compensation.

Moreover, they demanded of the government to implement labour laws through independent labour inspection machinery in conformity with ILO Convention No 81 ratified by the government and repeal section 27/B of the Banking Companies Ordinance.

The government should curb price hike and raise the wages of the workers engaged in the private, government and semi-government and autonomous bodies commensurate with the price hike, they said. The surplus workers of Karachi Electric Supply Company may be adjusted and terminated workers of PTCL and National Bank may be restored at the earliest, they added

General Secretary of Pakistan Workers Federation, Khurshid Ahmed,

Deputy General Secretary, Zahoor Awan, Balochistan Provincial General Secretary, Haji Ramzan Achakzai, Abdul Latif Nizamani Sindh, Gauhar Taj and others addressed the conference on the issue.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 14^th, 2011.