Hazardous work: Punjab told to compensate heirs of deceased labourers

Workers at stone crushing factories had died from prolonged exposure to silica dust.

ISLAMABAD:

The Supreme Court of Pakistan directed the Punjab government on Tuesday to pay financial compensation by December 2 to families of 18 labourers who died while working at stone-crushing factories in Gujranwala.

The court also directed the Environment Protection Department director general to present a report about the status of cases pending in environment tribunals at the next hearing. It also summoned law officers from all the provinces.



The three member bench, headed by Chief Justice Nasirul Mulk, was hearing a suo motu notice, taken on the case filed by two members of the Public Lawyers Front (PLF), Usama Khawar and Yahya Faird Khawaja. They have asked the court to direct the provincial governments to frame rules to regulate stone-crushing factories.

The applicants claimed that more than 100 labourers had died in Dera Ghazi Khan and other regions of the Punjab in recent years due to silicosis caused by poor workplace conditions at stone-crushing factories.

“Work at the factory entails feeding stones into the grinding machine to turn them into a powder. The process raises a dust cloud in the absence of a control mechanism,” they said.

During the hearing, Raheel Kamran Sheikh, the counsel for the petitioners, expressed dissatisfaction with the report. “No compensation has been paid to the families of the deceased. The provincial government has also not taken action against anyone,” he said.

Punjab Additional Advocate General Razaq A Mirza stated that the provincial government was working on a comprehensive plan to deal with the issue.

He also presented a notification for the formation of a committee that would review the working conditions in stone-grinding factories and ensure compliance with labour safety standards. The committee will submit a report in four weeks, he said.

He said the provincial government had approved Rs5.4 million compensation for the families of the deceased. “The amount will be distributed within a month. Rs0.5 million each has already been paid to families of 34 labourers who died in Dera Ghazi Khan,” he said.

Mirza said that the government had fined seven stone-crushing factories Rs760,000. The judges remarked that the penalty was light.

Justice Gulzar Ahmad said that government departments were not doing their work properly. “Cases should also be registered against officials who have shown negligence in this matter,” he said.

The court ordered the additional advocate general to complete the process of compensation and submit a report about it at the next hearing.

The court also directed the officials to submit detail of action being taken against factory owners for violating environmental and labour laws.

The hearing was then adjourned until December 2.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, November 12^th, 2014.