Devolution: Union leaders say EOBI should stay with Centre

Zahoor Awan says workers will be given lesser amounts if EOBI is devolved

LAHORE:

Workers’ representatives at a meeting with lawmakers on Wednesday stressed the need for the Employee’s Old Age Benefits Institution to remain with the Centre.

Addressing the seminar, Pakistan Workers Federation General Secretary Zahoor Awan said it was important for the federal government to oversee the EOBI for equitable workers welfare.

“The amount collected by the EOBI varies. In Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the amount collected is less than the spending by the organisation,” he said.

Awan said between 2013 and 2014, the institution had collected Rs645 million in KP. “The amount paid to workers in benefits over the period was Rs1,933 million.”

“If control of the EOBI is devolved to the province, the workers will be given lesser amounts,” he said.

“This will also cause problems for workers who do not work in their native towns,” he said. What will happen if a worker is employed in one province and his family lives in another?” he said.

“If workers move from one province to another, how will this play out following the devolution?” he said.

“The 18th Amendment was enacted nearly five years ago but no policies have been developed by the provinces on pensions,” he said.

Muhammad Akbar of the Muttahida Labour Federation said, “We are not opposed to the idea of greater autonomy for the provinces. In fact, we want workers to be empowered. Devolution of the EOBI, however, will cause problems for workers at all levels.”

Several parliamentarians pledged support to unions in this regard.

MPA Saadia Sohail said what they had learnt at the seminar would help them further the workers’ cause. She said it was time to move beyond partisan concerns.

Referring to the collapse of the factory at Sundur Industrial Estate, she said, “When factories collapse, it is labourers who lose their lives.”

MPA Farzana Butt said the government was working to improve the situation but it would take a while before the results were visible.

Javed Gill, director of the Integrated Project at the Punjab Labour Department, said experience had shown that the devolution of the EOBI would not benefit workers.  Gill said PWF’s research had highlighted these problems.He said it was important to devise a monitoring mechanism even if the body stayed at the federal level.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 31^st, 2015.