Ensuring labour rights
Pakistan urgently needs better laws on occupational safety and health
The writer holds a PhD from the University of Melbourne and is the author of Development, Poverty and Power in Pakistan, available from Routledge
Economic participation is theoretically supposed to provide decent work opportunities to improve the lives of the workforce, which is the driving force behind the dizzying levels of current global productivity. In reality, however, the average worker across the developing world in particular is generally trapped in an exploitative global supply chain, receiving inadequate remuneration and facing hazardous work conditions.
The absence of adequate labour protection legislation and its effective implementation is one major reason for the current plight of workers within the developing world. A new survey has revealed the urgent need for several developing countries, including Pakistan, to update as well as implement existing legislation to ensure adequate protection for the workforce, which enables them to participate in the global economy. This global review of national labour laws was conducted by the University of Amsterdam’s WageIndicator Foundation that covers 35 indicators across 131 countries to assess country-specific efforts to create decent work conditions for their workers. Besides India, Pakistan was the only surveyed country, which had set the minimum age for hazardous work at 14 years instead of 18 years. Pakistan also has no law to promote non-discrimination in employment-related matters requiring equal pay to women workers for work of equal value. Pakistan even lacks an unemployment benefit system, which means that unemployed people have little support available in case they are unable to find an adequate job for themselves.
Pakistani labour laws do stipulate generous overtime compensations, they provide a very reasonable amount of maternity leave, and have also introduced significant penalties to prevent sexual harassment at the workplace. However, providing legislation against exploitative labour practices is of course useless if these laws are not complied with. While Pakistan is doing well in formulating better labour legislation, there are many evident gaps in its effective implementation. The country desperately needs to improve its labour inspection services. The government not only needs to hire more labour inspectors, but also ensure a basic level of consistency with regard to implementation of labour laws across the different provinces.
Pakistan also urgently needs better laws on occupational safety and health. In addition, the country needs to ensure effective implementation of these. According to Labour Watch Pakistan, with the exception of a few units, the textile industry, as well as the cement, iron and steel industries, do not take sufficient precautions to prevent work-related injuries and safeguard the health of their workers by preventing exposure to harmful chemicals generated during the production process. Other industries like paper, leather, and fertiliser production generate a lot of pollution and pose health risks to the workers involved in these industries, as well as the public and the environment at large.
Labour activists have long been calling for an increase in compensation rates for those injured in accidents at the workplace. Besides this, problems faced in terms of injured workers getting this compensation, especially if they were hired on a contract basis need to be addressed as well. Then there are the unregulated hazardous industries in the informal sector, such as tanning and surgical instruments, where there is no concept of worker protection. In fact, much of the production process in countries like our own takes place within the informal sector where there is no labour oversight at all. Therefore, to ensure better protection of the bulk of its workforce, Pakistan needs to bring ‘informal industries’, including the so-called cottage industries, as well as agricultural and domestic work, into the ambit of the formal workforce where national labour protections laws are also applicable.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 18th, 2015.
The absence of adequate labour protection legislation and its effective implementation is one major reason for the current plight of workers within the developing world. A new survey has revealed the urgent need for several developing countries, including Pakistan, to update as well as implement existing legislation to ensure adequate protection for the workforce, which enables them to participate in the global economy. This global review of national labour laws was conducted by the University of Amsterdam’s WageIndicator Foundation that covers 35 indicators across 131 countries to assess country-specific efforts to create decent work conditions for their workers. Besides India, Pakistan was the only surveyed country, which had set the minimum age for hazardous work at 14 years instead of 18 years. Pakistan also has no law to promote non-discrimination in employment-related matters requiring equal pay to women workers for work of equal value. Pakistan even lacks an unemployment benefit system, which means that unemployed people have little support available in case they are unable to find an adequate job for themselves.
Pakistani labour laws do stipulate generous overtime compensations, they provide a very reasonable amount of maternity leave, and have also introduced significant penalties to prevent sexual harassment at the workplace. However, providing legislation against exploitative labour practices is of course useless if these laws are not complied with. While Pakistan is doing well in formulating better labour legislation, there are many evident gaps in its effective implementation. The country desperately needs to improve its labour inspection services. The government not only needs to hire more labour inspectors, but also ensure a basic level of consistency with regard to implementation of labour laws across the different provinces.
Pakistan also urgently needs better laws on occupational safety and health. In addition, the country needs to ensure effective implementation of these. According to Labour Watch Pakistan, with the exception of a few units, the textile industry, as well as the cement, iron and steel industries, do not take sufficient precautions to prevent work-related injuries and safeguard the health of their workers by preventing exposure to harmful chemicals generated during the production process. Other industries like paper, leather, and fertiliser production generate a lot of pollution and pose health risks to the workers involved in these industries, as well as the public and the environment at large.
Labour activists have long been calling for an increase in compensation rates for those injured in accidents at the workplace. Besides this, problems faced in terms of injured workers getting this compensation, especially if they were hired on a contract basis need to be addressed as well. Then there are the unregulated hazardous industries in the informal sector, such as tanning and surgical instruments, where there is no concept of worker protection. In fact, much of the production process in countries like our own takes place within the informal sector where there is no labour oversight at all. Therefore, to ensure better protection of the bulk of its workforce, Pakistan needs to bring ‘informal industries’, including the so-called cottage industries, as well as agricultural and domestic work, into the ambit of the formal workforce where national labour protections laws are also applicable.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 18th, 2015.