Negotiating work: Power loom workers call off protest

Agree to clean up factories and machines three days a week

FAISALABAD:

Power loom workers in Faisalabad have called off their protest against loom owners following negotiations brokered by the district administration on Sunday.  The owners have promised to issue workers social security cards within 15 days and the workers have agreed to clean and oil power looms for three days a week.

Power loom workers had called a district-wide protest over a month ago against loom owners saying that they were being made to clean and oil machinery for no extra pay. They had demanded that the owners hire extra workers to clean up the machines and oil them. Power looms in the district had remained shut for a week because of the protest.

A spokesperson for the district administration told journalists on Sunday that workers’ representatives and power loom owners had met Superintendent Farooq Hundal for a final meeting on Sunday. Aslam Meraj of the Labour Qaumi Movement, Malik Fazal Elahi, Malik Mumtaz and Tahir Mehmood spoke for the workers and Haji Nazir and Mian Adil Bari were the power loom owners’ representatives.

The workers decided to call off the protest and return to work. They agreed to clean up machinery and oil it for three days a week instead of six days as they used to.  The loom owners promised to get social security cards made for all workers in 15 days and to restore all the workers who had been fired for going on strike. SP Farooq Hundal said he would supervise the investigation process of all cases registered against workers and decide the cases on merit.

Power loom owners have also offered to extend Rs3,000 loan to workers who had been jobless for the duration of the strike. The workers had asked for the loans because scores of workers had complained about being financially distressed following the strike and unavailability of alternative sources of income during that period. The loan will be deducted from the workers’ salaries in instalments.

The spokesperson said that though the protest had begun more than 35 days ago, a complete shutter down of looms was called a week ago. He said the protest had emerged after workers complained that loom owners were forcing them to clean up looms, sweep the factories and oil various machines. They had demanded that the owners hire workers specifically for these tasks.

Scores of power loom workers had held demonstrations in front of the Faisalabad DCO’s office after which the district administration had promised they would broker a deal with power loom owners.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 14^th, 2016.