Workplace safety: ‘The CM does not care about workers’

AWP says govt has failed to protect workers nationwide

LAHORE: “The government has failed to give protection to hardworking labourers throughout the country,” Awami Workers’ Party (AWP) secretary general Farooq Tariq said on Wednesday.

Tariq made the remarks at a press conference organised by the Minimum Wage Action Committee in connection with various incidents over the last two months that had claimed scores of workers’ lives.

The AWP man said relatives of those killed in the Sundar factory collapse had only been promised Rs0.5 million compensation. “The family of an on-duty policeman is given Rs6 million in the event of his demise,” Tariq said adding that deaths of on-duty labourers should be treated on the same footing.

He said the Burki Road steel mill blaze that had claimed the lives of five workers was the result of the proprietor’s negligence. Tariq said the fire had erupted after the owner had orders workers to weld a hole in an iron tank full of crude oil. “The proprietor’s greed caused the blaze,” he said.

Rana Hassan of the Minimum Wage Action Committee said scores of labourers had died in various incidents over the last two months.

He said 10 had died in a building collapse in Gujjumata area on September 4, 28 in Gujranwala, 53 in the Sundar building collapse and five in the Burki Road steel mill fire. “Such incidents are becoming increasingly commonplace and yet the government has not taken any serious measures,” Hassan said. He said proprietors had been given a free hand to do as they pleased.

“Not only do labourers work in unsafe environments but they are also not paid the minimum legal wage,” Hassan said.

He said the government and the Labour Department ought to take swift action in this regard. “Had the department been empowered by the government like the Punjab Food Authority (PFA), incidents like these would not have happened,” Hassan said.

He said the committee would stage a protest demonstration in front of the department on November 25 along with various unions and rights organisations. “We will let them know that such behaviour is not acceptable,” Hassan said.

Yousuf Baloch of the National Trade Union Federation said health and safety were a serious issue. He said labour inspectors should regularly conduct inspections and ensure that workers were not at risk. “The chief minister does not care about the plight of workers,” Baloch said. He said there were around 450 factories operating in the Sundar Industrial Estate and not a single union. “This is a sad as proprietors do not allow employees to unionise,” Baloch said.

Representatives of the All-Pakistan Workers’ Confederation, the PTCL Union (CBA) and the Bhatta Mazdoor Union were also present on the occasion.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 12^th, 2015.