Implement workplace safety laws: AWP

LAHORE:

Awami Workers’ Party (AWP) organised a demonstration on Friday in front of the Press Club to protest against the “exploitative and callous” attitude of factory proprietors that resulted in the deaths of scores of workers in the Sundar Industrial Estate and Burki Hudiara area.     

Several members of the Pakistan Trade Unions Federation, the National Trade Unions Federation, the Democratic Students Alliance and the National Students Federation joined the party to express solidarity with workers.

AWP leaders said the protest was part of a sustained effort to raise awareness regarding the plight of workers in the city. They said the Sundar and Burki tragedies were rooted in the government’s anti-labour policies.

AWP Lahore president Zahid Pervaiz said what had taken place was a consequence of concerted efforts carried out since the 1980s to breakdown and demonise working class organisations. He said the AWP demands strict implementation of workplace safety regulations, accountability of owners and companies that employ underage workers and flout minimum-wage laws. He said contract-labour had provided an unaccountable method of supplying workers without providing social security or basic rights such as overtime compensation.

Pervaiz said the AWP would commence outreach campaigns to mobilise resistance against the state’s draconian policies. He said whether it was minimum-wage, contract labour or paucity of health facilities, the solution lay in promoting greater worker representation.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 14^th, 2015.