‘Outdated regulations responsible for accidents’

LAHORE:

The government should update industrial safety laws to protect the lives of workers, speakers at a safety conference said on Wednesday.

The event had been organised by All Pakistan Wapda Hydro Electric Workers’ Union (CBA).

The speakers said that the rate of fatal as well as non-fatal accidents was on the rise in electricity, mining, engineering, textile, construction and chemical sectors.

“Accidents involving workers are increasing due to the prevalence of outdated safety laws such as the Factories Act, 1934; the Boiler Act, 1910; the Mining Act, 1923; and the Electricity Act, 1910. The absence of an independent labour inspection body, as required under International Labour Organisation conventions, is also a factor,” they said.

“Coal mine workers in Balochistan face daily work hazards. Textile workers suffer from asthma and tuberculosis due to unsafe working conditions. The government should take immediate steps to ensure safer working conditions for industrial workers,” they said.

Khurshid Ahmed, the union general secretary, said that the government was indifferent towards workers’ safety. “Rs173 billion is lying unutilised in the Federal Revenue Board under the head of Workers’ Welfare Fund. Billions of rupees deposited in the Employees Social Security Institution and the Old Age Employees Benefit Institution are also not being spent on workers.

He said that there were only 560 labour inspectors in the country, which had an estimated 60 million industrial, commercial and agriculture workers.

He urged the government to provide free education and employment to children of workers who lost their lives or were disabled in the line of duty.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 3^rd, 2015.