Sindh Assembly needs to change laws for workers

PILER wants independent inquiry into the status of all institutions privatised since 1991.

KARACHI:

Labour representatives have argued that privatisation is the sole cause for the downfall of companies, institutions and corporations in the country and that changes need to be made to labour laws.

“Privatisation has ruined dozens of organisation and companies in Pakistan,” said Karamat Ali, the executive director of Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research (Piler), during a news conference at the press club on Wednesday.

He said that the government brought on privatisation in a bid to improve institutions, eliminate unemployment and spark economic progress. “But it brought vast unemployment and destroyed these very institutions,” said Ali. “The people of Karachi should not even think about privatisation after what they saw happen to the Karachi Electric Supply Company.”

He demanded an independent inquiry into all the institutions which have been privitised since 1991. Ali went so far as to say that the government should have handed over the institutions to labourers and workers rather than giving them to a third party that would destroy them.

Farid Awan, the leader of Pakistan Workers Confederation in Sindh, informed the media that they had held a meeting of labour representatives from all over the province on problems they faced after the 18th amendment. “We have decided to draft our recommendations and send them to the Sindh Assembly so they can remove some clauses from the Industrial Relation Ordinance (IRO) 2011,” he said.

According to Awan, the workers want an end to corruption, nepotism and political intrusion from all public sector institutions at the federal and provincial levels. “We demand that the same labour laws be applied to home-based workers, fishermen and labourers,” he said. “They should also be given unemployment allowance, social protection, education, residence and an increment in salaries according to inflation.” The labour representatives also want farmer courts that can solve agricultural and land disputes.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 14^th, 2011.