Demand for reforms: Activists call for tripartite conference to address working class issues

Karamat Ali demands end to corruption in labour and other depts

KARACHI: Trade unionists and civil society activists called on the newly appointed advisor to chief minister for labour, Saeed Ghani, to convene a tripartite conference to resolve the long pending and worsening issues pertaining to the working class.

In a press conference on Tuesday, Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research (Piler) director Karamat Ali felicitated the labour advisor on his appointment and urged upon him to bring immediate reforms in the sector to save it from further worsening.

"The labour and its affiliate departments like Sindh Employees Social Security Institution and Sindh Workers Welfare Board are infested with corruption, nepotism and bad governance," said Ali, asserting that there was an urgent need to put things in order.

The facilities established to extend healthcare and social security to workers and their families are in bad shape, he said, adding that industrial accidents are on the rise due to the inefficiency of the labour inspection department.

Talking about the plight of workers, he said that the minimum wage law was not being implemented across the board and employers were exploiting the labourers.

This is because the authorities are not working on the lines they were ought to, he added, pointing towards corruption as one of the core issues.

Ali said that no tripartite conference, involving workers, employers and authorities, had been held since 2001. The process is mandatory under the International Labour Organisation's conventions, of which Pakistan is signatory, he added.

Citing the Sindh Industrial Relations Act, 2013, in which peasants were categorised as workers, he said that its benefits were still to be extended. He said that no process for registration of the peasants with the labour department had been initiated in rural areas, due to which they had been deprived of their right to make unions and federations. He mentioned other laws, such as Sindh Tenancy Act and Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, saying that they were apparently limited to paper alone.

Concluding the press conference, he said that he hoped that Ghani will make serious efforts in resolving the issues. Others who spoke at the event included Sindh Labour Solidarity Committee's Habibuddin Junaidi, Shafiq Ghori and Jafar Khan. They also extended their 'free' services in drafting better policies for the benefit of workers.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 3^rd, 2016.