Law governing home-based workers yet to be passed

NGOs-proposed law is being vetted by the law dept

KARACHI: Tahira wakes up before dawn and peels around five to six bowls of shrimps every say. Her fingers have been burnt from the hard work but she earns only Rs25 per bowl and only Rs120 to Rs150 a day.

Like many other home-based workers, she prefers to work at home and peels shrimp whenever the catch arrives “Sometimes, the factory owner provides us with shrimp for peeling every day. Sometimes we work three days a week. Since we have no other means of livelihood we continue this job,” explained Tahira, who lives in Ibrahim Hyderi.

The plight of home-based workers has not been resolved. This is not limited to women who peel shrimp at home. Haseena Majeed spends almost the entire day using a sewing machine inside a room of her house. Despite working such long hours, she barely manages to earn Rs200. “I work for a garment factory but am troubled by the unfair wages and delayed payments,” she explained, adding that most women in the area are plagued by the same problems because the factory owners do not pay salaries on time.

According to HomeNet Pakistan, an organisation of home-based workers in Pakistan, there are 20 million home-based workers in the country of which 12 million are women. And most of the home-based workers are engaged in the garment and textile sector. “Despite the government’s tall claims, there is no law for home-based workers,” said Babar Raza, programme manager at HomeNet Pakistan. “In the absence of a law, these workers are suffering due to not having access to the medical facilities, job security, protection and their wages are also not fixed and well-known garment brands exploit them," he added. Raza said the Sindh government had launched the Home-Based Workers Policy in 2017 and announced that it would be converted into a law, but nothing has been done yet.



“Recently, the issues of Khaadi workers were highlighted in the media amid allegations of inhuman working conditions, but there are several brands treating the workers who make their clothes and other items poorly,” Zehra Khan, secretary-general of the Home-Based Women Worker Federation told The Express Tribune.

According to her, in the absence of the law there is no mechanism that recognises the rights and importance of home-based workers in the labour market. “It is the need of the hour to ensure policies, laws, rules and take such steps whereby workers are looked after, protected, promoted and encouraged by the government departments,” she said, adding that they have started lobbying with the government to make the law on home-based workers. “We, with the consultation of different stakeholders, have proposed the law and handed it over to the ministry of labour. The bill is being vetted by the law department,” she said, adding that under this law, a provincial council has been proposed to conduct a survey of and identify home-based workers.

“The mechanism will be evolved for their registration of workers and this council will maintain their record,” said Khan, adding that every registered home-based worker shall be entitled to all those benefits available to a person falling with in the ambit of workers and workmen envisaged in the Sindh Industrial Relations Act, 2013, Sindh Factories Act 2015 and Sindh Terms of Employment (Standing Order) Act 2017.