Mills shut down in labour dispute

Labourers demand better working conditions, safety measures.

FAISALABAD: In a move that could have adverse implications for duty-free access to the European Union, industrialists have shut down factories in the Sidhar industrial area after labourers demanded improvement in working conditions, which they term dismal.

“Factories have been shut down for the last two weeks as owners are trying to force labourers, who are largely daily-wage earners, to take back their demands and resume work,” claimed Labour Qaumi Movement Secretary Aslam Miraj. The Sidhar industrial area has 22,000 power looms with a weekly production capacity of one million metres of grey fabric and has 5,000 workers in the weaving sector.

The labour movement insisted that factory owners should provide basic facilities for the workers. Weaving factories in the industrial area lacked safety equipment and every year two to five workers die due to electricity short circuit and because of insufficient safety measures such as first aid, fans, air coolers, ambulances and pure water, said Miraj while talking to The Express Tribune.

Poor and out-dated electricity wiring caused the short circuit, posing a threat to the lives of workers. In the first week of August, a worker died due to suffocation, sparking a tussle between the labourers and the mill-owners, he added.

The labourers were also seeking social security cards and EOBI pension cards.

Pakistan is a signatory to the United Nations Convention on Labour Rights and the EU has made compliance with these conventions a pre-requisite for keeping in place the GSP Plus status. The millers have closed their units and filed 37 applications with the police.

Council of Loom Owners Association Chairman Waheed Khaliq Ramay said extortion was the primary reason for the shutdown.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 26^th,  2015.

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