‘Add informal sector to party manifestoes’

Collection and consolidation of labour data is the first step.

LAHORE:

Speakers at a consultative seminar on home-based workers on Saturday urged the political parties to review their manifestoes to include measures for improvement of labour rights protection in the informal sector of the economy in them.

They said promises to provide social safety nets to the HBWs at this stage will facilitate parties to legislate on the sector in the coming days. They said as a first step towards developing a policy on HBWs provinces should start collecting and consolidating data.

They also asked the government to ratify the International Labour Organisation’s convention on home-based workers (C177).

The event was organised by HomeNet Pakistan to discuss the condition of home-based workers in the purview of a draft policy and the post-devolution scenario.

Strengthening Participatory Organisation regional director Salman Abid said political parties have to take the lead in formulating and enforcing measures for welfare of home-based workers.

Punjab Assembly Deputy Speaker Rana Mashood assured the meeting that legislation on HBWs would soon be initiated. He asked the Labour Department to immediately start registering HBWs at the union-council level.

Economist Qais Aslam said about three forths of the country’s work force was being exploited due to the lack of effective labour rights legislation.

Rubina Saigol, too, pressed for inclusion of proposals for home-based workers in political parties agendas.

Social Welfare and Women Development Secretary Fazal Abbas Mekan told the gathering that the provincial government had already constituted a council on home-based workers. He said the council
would come up with a policy and finalise legislation on the issue within three months. He said the council was headed by Advisors to the Chief Minister Begum Zakia Shahnawaz and Sirdar Zulfiqar Ali Khan Khosa. Sindh Minster for Labour Amir Nawab Khan said a task force in his province would soon finalise a policy for HBWs. He said with devolution of power the provinces now had the opportunity to initiate pro-poor legislation. He requested the federal government to release funds for Employees’ Old-age Benefits and Workers’ Welfare Board to the provinces.

Sindh Minister for Women Development Tauqir Fatima Bhutto suggested her counterparts in other provinces to develop a mechanism for coordination of policies on HBWs.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 30^th, 2011.