Hidden employment: Just because it’s home work, doesn’t mean it comes for free
Labour rights conference suggests govt protection for informal workers.
HYDERABAD:
Pakistan’s labour laws have a strict requirement when it comes to the definition of ‘labourers’. Hence, about 8.2 million home-based workers, mostly women, are not recognised as labourers, depriving them of the protection offered by social security.
HomeNet Pakistan (HNP), a labour rights organisation, held a conference at the press club on Wednesday to discuss these issues. The conference was chock full of female workers. Most of them were from the bangle and embroidery industries.
“Many of them roast pine nuts, make bangles and shoes and stitch footballs, garments and embroidery,” said HNP executive director Ume Laila. “But they don’t receive fair wages nor are they covered by the government’s social safety nets.”
She described this class of workers as the most exploited and least paid in the production chain. “We need an official policy which entitles those who work at home or for informal sectors to social safety privileges,” she said. “They should be officially accepted as labourers.”
Once the government recognises them as labourers, they will be eligible for health facilities and benefits from the Sindh Employees Social Security Institution (SESSI), the Employees Old Age Benefit Institution (EOBI).
She suggested registering the workers at a district level. However, before they can receive concessions from the government, they must organise themselves into unions and express their demands forcefully, she explained.
Home-based Bangle Workers Association general secretary Irfana Jabbar explained that the bangle industry in Hyderabad has almost 100,000 workers, but only 4,200 of them are registered for social security.
Farhat Parveen of the National Organisation for Working Communities pointed out that an overwhelming number of home-based workers earn less than the minimum wage of Rs7,000 a month. “There is no regulation to monitor their earnings or to ensure that they are paid the minimum wage.”
Nasir Mansoor, another labour rights activist, told the gathering that the Workers Welfare Boards has reserves of billions of rupees for labourers. “This will not happen, unless the workers are able to wring benefits from the government,” he asserted.
He cited examples of the Sindhi fishermen who reclaimed over 1,000 water bodies that had been occupied by the Rangers and the Qadirpur Gas Field workers whose protests prevented the field from being privatised.
The conference ended on a positive note as the EOBI and Sindh Labour Department directors Abdul Baki Siddiqui and Muhammad Rafique, promised to extend benefits to the home-based workers if the government passes a law acknowledging them as labourers.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 17th, 2011.
Pakistan’s labour laws have a strict requirement when it comes to the definition of ‘labourers’. Hence, about 8.2 million home-based workers, mostly women, are not recognised as labourers, depriving them of the protection offered by social security.
HomeNet Pakistan (HNP), a labour rights organisation, held a conference at the press club on Wednesday to discuss these issues. The conference was chock full of female workers. Most of them were from the bangle and embroidery industries.
“Many of them roast pine nuts, make bangles and shoes and stitch footballs, garments and embroidery,” said HNP executive director Ume Laila. “But they don’t receive fair wages nor are they covered by the government’s social safety nets.”
She described this class of workers as the most exploited and least paid in the production chain. “We need an official policy which entitles those who work at home or for informal sectors to social safety privileges,” she said. “They should be officially accepted as labourers.”
Once the government recognises them as labourers, they will be eligible for health facilities and benefits from the Sindh Employees Social Security Institution (SESSI), the Employees Old Age Benefit Institution (EOBI).
She suggested registering the workers at a district level. However, before they can receive concessions from the government, they must organise themselves into unions and express their demands forcefully, she explained.
Home-based Bangle Workers Association general secretary Irfana Jabbar explained that the bangle industry in Hyderabad has almost 100,000 workers, but only 4,200 of them are registered for social security.
Farhat Parveen of the National Organisation for Working Communities pointed out that an overwhelming number of home-based workers earn less than the minimum wage of Rs7,000 a month. “There is no regulation to monitor their earnings or to ensure that they are paid the minimum wage.”
Nasir Mansoor, another labour rights activist, told the gathering that the Workers Welfare Boards has reserves of billions of rupees for labourers. “This will not happen, unless the workers are able to wring benefits from the government,” he asserted.
He cited examples of the Sindhi fishermen who reclaimed over 1,000 water bodies that had been occupied by the Rangers and the Qadirpur Gas Field workers whose protests prevented the field from being privatised.
The conference ended on a positive note as the EOBI and Sindh Labour Department directors Abdul Baki Siddiqui and Muhammad Rafique, promised to extend benefits to the home-based workers if the government passes a law acknowledging them as labourers.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 17th, 2011.